LocalGovCamp changed my life

As i mentioned in a previous post i attended LocalGovCamp and i believe it has changed my life, Why and how i hear you all cry?

Well here are my justifications for that statement.

Firstly – One of the first thing that Localgovcamp co-ordination man @Davebriggs said when it all kicked off was. People have arrived in Birmingham on a Saturday to talk about Local Government, we are all Sad Bast**ds. Well i had to agree with him, but was happy to be classified in that category as i actually wanted to be there and i really wanted to learn from others and share experiences.

What is bizarre about the whole thing (and it was much the same at the UKGovBarcamp in January) is that would you get the same level of commitment from a “traditional” conference set up. My experience is NO.

The general rule of thumb is “those who are there are the right people” and you have to accept that it could mean that you share more than you learn, but the more of these types of things you attend, it all balances out in the end.

I attended the UKGovBarcamp in January and didn’t feel like i contributed much, but felt i gained so much more. I felt this trend slightly reversed at LocalGovCamp and that made me feel better about the experience and more confident about the format.

Second – Now Why does this mean it changed my life. Well what it showed me and confirmed to me is that the more you participate the more you get back.  This i feel is the underlying theory of Social Networking and Social Media.

Third and final – It had a positive impact on me directly because of the session i gave on internal social networking and it made me realise that no matter where you work, there is likely to be something you are doing which others want to hear about regardless of how formal or informal it actually is. My advice to others is share your thoughts, ideas and failures so that we can all reach a better understanding quicker.

Ok, so it didn’t change my life as such, but it has changed my perspective on knowledge sharing and encouraging others to participate – either way – if you get a chance to attend a similar event DO.