Introducing ProductCamp Toronto!

The Toronto Product Management Association has been great at organizing enlightening events around product management, and got some really interesting speakers on board over the past couple of seasons that I’ve attended.

However, I have to be honest that I’ve been really itching to see these discussions expand beyond these sessions on to blogs, and larger venues. That’s why I was excited when I stumbled upon Chris Herbert’s effort to bring the ProductCamp idea to Toronto.

What is a ProductCamp?

A ProductCamp is a conference, of sorts, focused on Product Marketing and Product Management topics, and is based on the concept of the BarCamp:

BarCamp is an ad-hoc unconference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees.

Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.

When you come, be prepared to share with barcampers.
When you leave, be prepared to share it with the world.

In Toronto, the number of these events–and those inspired by them–have really blossomed over the past while, and I’ve really enjoyed attending as many as I’ve deemed interesting. So, when the idea of a BarCamp focused on product management appeared, I had to jump on board to help make it happen.

Learning from the Pros

ProductCamp Austin recently held their first, day-long conference on June 14th (a Saturday) and had between 80-90 attendees. In my opinion, this is quite an accomplishment for a session held for the first time. (Congratulations, guys!) Organizer Paul Young summarized the experience over at ProductBeautiful.

Some of the TPMA sessions (particularly the free ones) that I have attended have been sizable, so I know that the interest definitely exists in Toronto!

What You Can Do to Help

The key is that the event is member supported, so we need volunteers to help make this happen.

To start the gears turning, we are planning on holding a PCT Pub Night on July 31st August 6th, at Fionn MacCool’s (at University & Adelaide). We’re finalizing the details and will announce event registration soon. (Update: Sign up for PCT Pub Night here.)

As for the conference itself, we’re tentatively thinking that it will take place during a Saturday in October… which should hopefully give us all time to organize and prepare.

Here’s how we can collaborate on this:

• The ProductCampToronto Wiki. Our home base on the web for the event is the PCT wiki. It will become a portal for everything related to the Event.
• Staying Updated. Over on Twitter, we’ll keep everybody posted frequent news updates, and upcoming events; think of this as the PCT blog, for now.
• Promotions. On Facebook, you can join our group. And if LinkedIn is more your speed, we have a group there too.
• Planning. We’ll be using Google Groups as an open discussion forum, for announcements, and to help plan these events.

But most of all…

Talk about Product Management!

If you’re thinking of coming to ProductCamp and have a blog, feel free to promote it on the the PCT wiki. You’ll also find badges there if you’d like to promote the event on your blog. (Please tag your posts with “ProductCampToronto”.) I’m personally curious to see who else is out there.

We’ve also created a PCT FriendFeed Room to aggregate discussions on blogs, and other assorted content about product management, and the event itself. Please feel free to share anything you find interesting.

Lastly, if you’ve done this sort of thing before, please join the discussion, or drop us a line. We could always use your help.

Here’s to making ProductCampToronto a success!