Howdy folks, it’s been a while since we updated this blog and I thought I should fill you in on all the recent excitement of OggCamp. The event actually happened just a few days ago on Sunday October 25th, but it’s taken me this long just to catch my breath, I’m still recovering but it was worth every second. There was obviously a lot going on over the weekend with LRL 2009 and other things happening, I honestly couldn’t fit all that into this post. Instead I thought I’d give you my personal account of OggCamp and share some stories. It was an amazing experience and seemed to go really well, we’ve had some lovely feedback so far and I’m really glad people enjoyed themselves.
It all began at some stupid hour on Sunday morning as I dragged myself out of bed at about 8am. “That’s not early!” I hear you cry, but it is when you went to bed at 4am after too much drinking and partying. I was head of the crew for OggCamp and I’d set the call for 9am in a fit of optimism weeks earlier. I had a quick shower and hauled myself down to the hotel lobby. It seemed there weren’t many of the crew around at that time, so either I was late or early. For once I think I was actually on time. Maybe that’s what threw people off, I’m usually late if anything. I took the opportunity to sneak into breakfast and down as many bacon sandwiches as I could manage (about 2 to be precise). There still weren’t many people around in the lobby when I emerged so I rang Tony, only to discover he was already on the top floor setting up the room with Laura, Ciemon and others. I led the assembled crew members to the car park where we loaded all the drinks, mugs and assorted stuff in from Popey’s car. I’d just like to take a minute to mention and thank our wonderful crew. Without them we couldn’t have done this and I was amazed by their constant willingness to help and go above and beyond the call of duty. Drum roll please, in no particular order, may I present the OggCamp 2009 crew:
- Andy & Jo from LivLUG
- Kevan Vautier
- Anna Bierzanska
- Alistair Kidd
- Will Noakes
- Nathan & Katie
- Robert McWilliam
- Jacob Hume
- Steve Bradshaw
- Matt Daubney
I have a horrible feeling I’ve missed someone off the list but it was hard to get everyone’s names while so busy. If I missed your name out let me know and I’ll add it ASAP. We appreciate you all. I know other people chipped in spontaneously on the day and we were grateful for that too. Anyway, back to the story.
The crew set about valiantly sorting out the break out rooms and putting up signs all around the hotel while Tony and I rigged the PA for the event. I’d borrowed a small rig from a friend of mine and it worked brilliantly. Tony brought the mixer and various other bits, so between us we had it well covered and a few people commented on how good the technical side was. Being an audio geek comes in handy sometimes. We were kindly loaned 12 walkie talkies by Gordon Pearce. So each of the crew could run around the hotel and stay in touch, that really helped. We weren’t sure how many people would actually turn up and there had been discussions between the group beforehand, some thinking lower numbers and others high. Personally, I thought about 100 people would turn up and in hindsight even that was conservative. I’ll never forget the white look on Tony’s face when he returned from a trip downstairs looking a bit spaced out. Naturally I asked “What’s up?”, he replied “There’s people queuing for 3 floors down the stairs!”. I don’t remember my response but it was probably something incisive and witty like “fu#k me!!!”. We had about 140 attendees in total and I was a little worried we wouldn’t fit everyone into the room. It was a great turn out which we were all totally over the moon with. We did our official welcome and got the event under way. Andy Stanford-Clark kicked us off with a great talk about his Twittering house. From there I was busy operating the PA, running around eating more sandwiches and other such important stuff. I didn’t get too see many of the talks which was a real shame, they looked amazing. I particularly wanted to catch Beccy Newborough’s pig drawing analysis session, but sadly couldn’t. The schedule filled up quickly, we had some great sessions and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I was really happy with that.
There was a moment of hilarity when I got stuck in the lift with 3 other people as we headed for the top floor. We arrived at the correct floor only to find that the lift doors didn’t open. So we waited a bit, then we waited a bit more, but they just weren’t opening. One of the others was about to push the emergency call button when I remembered I had a radio attached to my belt. I picked it up and announced “#buzz# erm… guys? We’re stuck in the lift and the doors won’t open. This isn’t a joke #buzz#”, we waited another minute and then I said ” #buzz# if we don’t get out of here I might have to do the show from the lift #buzz#”. Apparently this went down a storm in the main room where everyone heard it loudly over the radio, right in the middle of a talk. Some bright spark suggested we try going down a floor and sure enough the doors opened when we reached that stop. It was something of a relief but also incredibly funny.
Safely out of the lift I joined the others for the live show at 3pm. We drew the raffle first and gave away some great prizes donated by our lovely sponsors: Bitfolk, Canonical, Tinker.it, The Open Learning Centre, The Linux Emporium, Viglen, the ever present Pokebook and Linux Format magazine. The raffle proved so popular we used a whole ticket book up and someone had to dash out and buy another. I wasn’t expecting that. The live show itself went really well, we discussed some interesting topics and got some good laughs from the crowd which felt amazing. The crew and various other good folks helped us to get everything packed up at the end and striking the PA didn’t take as long as I thought at all. We were out in well under an hour. With my hotel room stuffed with PA gear again it was time for us to join the others in the hotel bar. There were about 30 people left hanging around and Aq suggested we organize somewhere to eat if we didn’t want to lose the group. Duly inspired, I had a chat with the rather charming young lady on reception and a Chinese banquet was arranged for everyone in town. We all enjoyed the food and then headed back to the hotel for more socializing in the bar.
Fab has done amazing job of cataloging all the pictures from the event at the OggCamp site. Check those out if you haven’t already!
That about covers it I think, I’m all out of stories for now. I’d like to say thanks to the sponsors, the crew, and most importantly everyone who came along and made this event such a success. We were humbled by the turnout and the general attitude of all involved. Let’s hope we can make it bigger and better next year if it happens. We’re certainly thinking about it, but there’s no commitment yet. You’ll be able to hear the full uncut version of the OggCamp live show in the next Linux Outlaws. Complete with swearing and explicit bits. There’s already a version out in the Ubuntu UK Podcast feed, which was skillfully edited by Tony. I should also say a big thanks to Tony, Laura, Popey, Ciemon and Daviey (who sadly couldn’t join us) for being such a great bunch of people. Organizing this event with you has been such fun, both Fab and I have enjoyed it immensely. To the rest of you, if you came along I hope you enjoyed yourself. If not, there may be another chance in future and we’d love to see you then. Take care everyone, I’ll catch you soon 
Edit: Our own, ultimate uncut version of the live show is now out!
Dan
The whole thing is preceded by Dan’s Rathole Roadshow gig on the evening of April 30 featuring himself, David Rovics, Attila The Stockbroker and many more live in concert. For OggCamp itself, we have a much bigger venue this year and we have a lot of plans how to use it to its full potential, so keep an eye on the OggCamp site as details emerge over the next few weeks and months. The event will of course feature a live recoding of a combined Linux Outlaws / Ubuntu UK Podcast show again and there is the possibility of the LugRadio crew getting involved as well.
