Getting to Barcamp Orlando

I was at Barcamp Orlando yesterday.  I got to the location at 7:48 AM.  There’s a story behind that one. I had set the alarm in my hotel for 8:00.  When it went off, I snoozed for a few minutes then hustled out the door to try to get there before 9:00.  I was standing in front of 37 North Orange when I realized that there was no one around.  It was a ghost town.   I looked at my phone.  It read 7:48.  Apparently, I had set the clock in the hotel an hour ahead.

Now to get coffee.  An older man with a huge green backpack appoached me asking if I knew where to get coffee.  I told him I wasn’t from there but I wanted coffee as well.  I told him we would find some together.  We walked up the street and then back, while he explained to me that he was homeless and come there from Fort Myers for his son’s wedding who he could not find.  I got to hear some of his life story.  When we found Starbucks, he immediately started recounting the same story to the girl behind the counter.  I bought him coffee.

I was wearing a barcamp Orlando shirt I had made and he asked me what that was.  I explained the concept.  He thought maybe he should come do a talk on how to be homeless.  I told him he was certainly welcome to do that.

When I got back to the location, Starbucks latte in hand, a few others had showed up.  Someone asked me what I would be talking about and I sai Webhooks.  The obvious next question was “what is that?”.  I gave the 1 minute version.

More people arrived.  I happened to be standing close to the signup desk when they opened registration.  At the end of the sign up table was the board.  I got one of the first slots.  I figured I would get my talk done and over with.  I had to haul ass back to my car to get my laptop.  A 17in laptop is nice but heavy so I had left it in the car until I needed it.  Add my camera bag to that and I was quite the pack mule.

I got to the Gibson showroom with a few minutes to spare.  I was worried that the turnout might be low because it was the first slot.  By the time I got going, it was full.  The talk went off well.

When I used the new webhooks tag line, “webhooks: it’s so simple you’ll think it is stupid” some one recognized it and gave me a cheer.