Last evening I went along to a BarCamp in Bath. It is really interesting that this sort of event has found its way to Bath in the last year or so. It was a little different to Singapore as it is a lot newer and less mature here but the speakers were good and the format worked well. The big difference was the demographic which was a lot more (almost exclusively) male and older than in Singapore. Also it was pretty much exclusively developers and did not have the VCs etc that you have at other events I have been to.

I am starting to think the growth of this type of UnConference throughout the world is marking the beginning of a shift in the IT industry. Developers in particualar seem to be attending events as individuals who are interested in their personal development rather than being sent to events as part of their day job. I see this as another sign of a shift towards independence of individuals in the industry and decreasing reliance on the organisation as discussed in Charles Handy’s book The Elephant and the Flea.