The name BarCamp is very misleading. At first glance it looks as though it might rival CupcakeCamp – thoughts of free exotic alcoholic drinks for everyone enter my mind, except if that were the case, a completely darker scenario would most likely unfold as inebriated attendees start invading each others personal space with stories of near-misses, high school sports accomplishments, and the good old days when computers ran on 5¼ inch floppy drives, eventually leading to at least 3 fist fights and countless inappropriate advances on the opposite sex. Don’t get me wrong, I would still go if that were the case, but I would most likely leave the family behind. Nope, this BarCamp thing is nothing like that – well except maybe for pining about 5¼ inch floppies.

I couldn’t attend last year’s BarCamp in Charleston, so I don’t have first-hand experience with it. The video above is from last year’s event, and it was made by my buddy Geoff. It should give you a good feel for what to expect. It’s a user-driven conference that covers a broad range of tech-related topics. To pull some quotes directly from their website, “BarCamp Charleston provides local area techies, developers, designers, and entrepreneurs with an open environment for learning and sharing.” and the addendum to that statement, “BarCamp Charleston is typically geared towards technology topics, but considering all of the creative diversity in the Lowcountry, we want to broaden the scope and encourage all digital artists, writers, designers, non-profits, and more to participate.”

The session that I have proposed is “Developing Photos in a Digital Darkroom” and I plan to talk about my theories about post processing and I will share how to develop three different styles of images using Adobe Lightroom. The theories and techniques can be applied using any kind of photo editing software, so there is no need to dismiss this if you use something like Aperture or Elements. I think it will be an exciting session as I see a lot of amazing photogs out there that are reluctant to finish the job they started by developing their digital negatives, usually rationalizing that you should get it right in the camera. Of course you should get it right in the camera, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make it exactly like you saw the image in your mind! We’ll dive into that topic on Saturday.

For $10, you get admission to the conference, which is at the College of Charleston this year, along with breakfast, coffee, soda/water, lunch, a t-shirt, other goodies, and entrance to the after party, which might turn into the scenario I imagined above. How could you not want to do this? You’re getting more than your money’s worth in food and clothing alone!

Lets talk about the diversity of some of the other sessions that are proposed at this time.

For those that like trading stocks, there’s “High Frequency Trading In Today’s Market“, which could go hand-in-hand with “Salsa dancing for noobs” and “Homebrew 201 – Taking your brew to the next level“. See, clearly there are options for your non-techie friends! While they’re learning how to drink, dance, and make more money, you can be “Creating a web presence with Joomla” or designing “HTML Email Newsletters & Double Rainbows” Wait a sec? Did somebody say double rainbow?

Another photography related session is “Photoshop: fun tips and tricks“. I think a popular session will be “The Social Graph – Who knows who?” which might prove to be an interesting networking opportunity. I’m also interested in “Good Vibrations: Take the Anxiety out of Goal Setting“, but mainly because the presenter’s name is Shoshanna Szuch, and I have the urge to yell out, “Au revoir, Shoshanna!” at random times on a daily basis.

I hope you can make it on Saturday, you should buy your tickets soon before they sell out!