BarcampICR taking place Saturday at Vault Coworking in Cedar Rapids

Entrepreneurs, creatives, makers and doers from the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids (ICR*) region are gathering on Saturday for BarcampICR #2, an unconference where the attendees are the featured speakers. The event will go from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Vault Coworking & Collaboration Space in downtown Cedar Rapids. Barcamp, a grassroots conference produced by local…

About the author: Amanda Styron is the co-founder of Seed Here, an organization focused on building a stronger community of entrepreneurs and creatives in the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids area and across the Silicon Prairie.


Entrepreneurs, creatives, makers and doers from the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids (ICR*) region are gathering on Saturday for BarcampICR #2, an unconference where the attendees are the featured speakers. The event will go from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Vault Coworking & Collaboration Space in downtown Cedar Rapids.

Barcamp, a grassroots conference produced by local groups in cities across the Silicon Prairie and around the world, invites its attendees to bring their own presentations and discussion topics to share in small groups. The volunteer presenters are provided a room, a projector, a friendly audience and 30 minutes to talk about whatever they like. At the second Iowa City/Cedar Rapids iteration, sessions are almost anything goes – the only rule is that presenters must talk about something they are passionate about, and not give a sales pitch.

Here’s the day’s agenda:

  • 9:00 a.m. – Doors open
  • 9:30 – Opening session and presentation sign-up
  • 10:30 – 12 p.m. – Presentations & Discussions (30-minute sessions with 15-minute breaks)
  • 12:00 – Lunch
  • 1:00-4:15 – Presentations & Discussions (30-minute sessions with 15-minute breaks)
  • 4:15 p.m. – Closing Session
  • 4:30 p.m. – Program end and happy hour at White Star Ale House

BarcampICR’s producers are members of the ICCReatives.us website who have formed a grassroots group to bring BarCamp to the region. Modeled closely on Barcamp Omaha and Barcamp Des Moines, the cost to attend the ICR version is $5 and includes a light breakfast, lunch and T-shirt. The low registration fee is designed to make the event easily accessible for all entrepreneurs and creatives and is only possible through the generous support of local sponsors dedicated to growing the creative community in eastern Iowa.

Conference organizers encourage participants from all walks of life to attend and present on Saturday. “We have all kinds of fascinating people coming to Barcamp on Saturday! We’ve got registrations from teachers, engineers, developers, designers, film makers, marketers and even an Abe Lincoln impersonator,” said conference organizer Michal Eynon-Lynch of ActiveGrade. “We want anyone and everyone to come share what they’re passionate about with each other, make connections with the diverse creative community we have here and get inspired.”

BarcampICR is open to the public and everyone who is passionate about something is encouraged to attend. Further information and online registration can be found at barcampicr.eventbrite.com.

*ICR is an acronym/endearing nickname for the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids area, a region so friendly the cities share the ‘C’.

 

Credits: Video from tack700 on YouTube. Photo of Barcamp IRC from barcampirc.com. Photo of Amanda Styron courtesy of Styron.

Disclosure: The author of this post, Amanda Styron, is a part of the Barcamp IRC planning team and is the community manager of Vault Coworking.


About the author: Amanda Styron is the co-founder of Seed Here, an organization focused on building a stronger community of entrepreneurs and creatives in the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids area and across the Silicon Prairie.

You can reach Amanda at amanda@seedhere.org or find her on Twitter, @mandastyron.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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