It’s been almost two years since that pivotal night when Aaron, Roby, Bill, Ryan and I were huddled around a table in Houston digging through a mound of chicken wings when we decided that we would stop bashing our local area for it’s lack of community. We threw caution to the wind, payed attention to the chip on our shoulders and dug our heels in.
Two months later we had native Houstonian Erica O’Grady come and speak to a surprising group of 35 or so folks at the very first RefreshBCS. Honestly, we figured we may be able to get a dozen folks to show up with half attending just to show support. But that was not the case. They showed up because they were genuinely interested in a creative/web community.
It became vital to promote our fledgling community and stick to it. Every month to be bigger than the previous with new faces. Each member of the community saw that if we all worked together and each did our part we could do something extraordinary.
As time went by, we had more and more folks show up and contribute. Some presented to the group, and other times put their feet to the ground and rallied those not aware.
By January 2008, nearly a year after the first RefreshBCS, we decided to call in all of our support from around the state and host BarCampTexas. Flyers, posters, emails, facebook notifications were sent out by the dozens hyping the event. We had well over two-hundred people attend from around the state and local area. We didn’t just represent BCS, we blew people away with the talent and conduct we showcased at our event. BarCampTexas was Bryan/College Stations big splash onto the Texas stage.
Over the past year, we have grown and sought after more community support. We’ve collectively grown as a community. This past weekend, the Bryan/College Station community hosted DesignCamp – the first Design-centric “BarCamp” in the world.
What was really surprising was that a majority of the attendees were not from out of town, but here locally. Seventy percent of the participants were from here in our local community – a vast difference from a year ago when it was inverted.
Stepping back and looking at what we have done over the past two years makes me, as a member of the greater whole, proud. To see everyone “get it” and take pride in what we do.
I wanted to say thank you to all of my friends for being there and contributing to making our lives better in lil ol’ Bryan/College Station. We have built a very strong and robust community of folks who continually show their support.
-Cody
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
VERY well put Cody. I’m extremely proud about our community as well.
It has been a great pleasure to meet all the creative individuals in the Bryan/College Station area. What an awesome group! Who knew?
Jessica Mullen and I visited BCS for this first time this weekend to attend DesignCamp.
The event, like these men and the community they are building, was exceptionally organized. I love that they are rallying around what they have in BCS, because it reminds me so much of my own college towns, Champaign-Urbana.
Jessica and I felt immediately at home and BCS, and can’t wait to go back.
Congrats, what you are doing is working!
Fibertown is happy to be part of the growing tech & creative community. We congratulate Roby and all the DesignCamp and BarCamp organizers, supporters and participants for helping to make B/CS a great place to create!
Design spin on barcamp was what scratched the itch of our community. Creative people are more open with one another and more apt to collaborate than traditional IT folks (programmers, sysadmins, etc). Of course, coming from a strong computer science/IT background I was wanting to hook up with designers, so I came and brought a couple of graphic artists too – and we were all very pleased by the camp.
Thanks for believing, vision casting, and enduring in the hope. Personally I think you’ve tapped into an aquifer of the divine will for B/CS. It will happen is people don’t give up and keep calling it forth.
I was a bit burnt at my previous attempt to develop community through the Brazos Valley Web Guild, and needed a… refresh – if you will :~)
See you in a little.
Monty