For Immediate Release
(New Orleans – LA) Matthew Tritico, a local software engineer, wasn’t quite sure what to expect when he began organizing a local tech conference called BarCampNOLA. However, last weekend, the event went off without a hitch and welcomed attendees from all over the southeast Louisiana region, Austin, and Houston.
BarCamp is a two-day ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for entrepreneurs and technology professionals to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense technology event with discussions, demos, and interaction from its attendees. All content comes from the attendees and each workshop or presentation is scheduled on the day of the event, differentiating it from “regular” conferences. BarCamp is a free “un-conference” where its attendees exchange information about what they are passionate about and share it with their peers.
This year’s BarCamp NOLA was held at the first co-working space in New Orleans, Launch Pad, which opened June 1st. Chris Schultz, one of the founders of Launch Pad was the host of the first BarCamp in New Orleans in February, 2008. “It is inspiring to see the growth of the community in New Orleans. The strength of the tech community is what makes a co-working space like Launch Pad possible. We’re here to serve the needs of the community.”
The entire second day of the conference is reserved for the development of a system for a local cause needing technology assistance. This year BarCampNOLA focused on building a website to assist the New Orleans area public schools. Tritico explained, “Our goal is to thank the past volunteers of the NOLA public schools, report the latest happenings of volunteer projects, and help mobilize new volunteers for the public school system.”
BarCamp attendees launched NOLAschoolvolunteers.org during the second day of the conference. Troy Peloquin, of the Recovery School District, said, “this website will make a major impact on assisting us in communicating with volunteers. It will also let volunteers from across the world know how appreciative we are of their efforts. I’m completely blown away at what these guys accomplished in one day!”
Since BarCampNOLA 2009 is a completely free event, the conference wishes to thank a few sponsors who made it all possible: Voodoo Ventures, Launch Pad, Humid Beings, Gatorworks, and Newstwit.com.
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About Voodoo Ventures
Voodoo Ventures is a startup consultancy based in New Orleans, Louisiana. We focus on product development and strategy for internet and media companies. We’ve incubated a number of ventures since 2002 including several that went from launch to acquisition.
About Launch Pad
Launch Pad is a community workspace in New Orleans. Startups, entrepreneurs, and freelancers all work together in an open environment. Launch Pad is the first co-working space in New Orleans, and frequently hosts events, educational seminars, and programming for its members.
About Gatorworks
Gatorworks is a web design firm based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Their creative team believes in an agile web development style in which all of their websites are built using hand-coded semantic markup. Gatorworks enjoys developing web applications for startups in and around the Greater New Orleans region.
About Newstwit.com
Newstwit.com is an experimental news aggregator built on top of twitter. The website allows you to follow news, in real time, across multiple content channels, and the Newstwit team hand selects twitter users to follow. Each channel runs 24/7, and it’s really a remarkable way to follow breaking news. The project was built by Liquid Ventures and Gatorworks out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Contact:
Launch Pad
Street:643 Magazine St. – Suite 102
City: New Orleans, Louisiana
Country:USA
Zip Code: 70130
Phone:504-267-9111
Web Site: http://www.launchpadnola.com
Email:[email protected]
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