Believe it or not, we’ve just completed the first three months of the year. Given this startling turn of events, I thought it would be a good time to reflect back on my New Year’s resolutions, and make sure that they’re still resolutions worth keeping for the next three months.

First, let’s take a look back at January, February, and March of Twenty Ten.

Continue reading The Next Three Months (Spring 2010) »

Aaaaaand we’re back.

Let’s catch up, shall we?

In March I re-joined Blueprint. What that means is that I’m training, consulting, and talking about software requirements all over the flipping place.

In October we hosted another successful ProductCamp Toronto, which is now the event for product managers in the GTA.

And through it all, I must say that I’m still rather enjoying living in the city. Toronto has changed me, for the better. The city continues to open my eyes, and expose me to things I otherwise would not have experienced. But more importantly, it has prompted me to get involved, and hopefully change it for the better.

Which brings me to today.

Over the next year, I’m currently planning to kick things up a notch. The questions I’m currently trying to answer are: What things need to be kicked, and by how many notches?

And so it begins.

(Libin Pan, Greg Blackett, Maanav Mehta, and myself. Photo courtesy of Libin Pan.)

ProductCampToronto got underway officially last night with the first, and certainly not last, Pub Night, at Fionn MacCool’s. Personally, I had a great time and met a lot of interesting people. It also reaffirmed my belief that we’re going to have a popular event on our hands, once we find a home for the unconference.

Speaking of which, we’re still looking for a home for the unconference! If you have any contacts, ideas, or can offer up a space yourself, please take a peek at the discussion here.

Thank you all for coming out! We’ll keep you all posted as we plan more of these, with room for more!

To get things kicked off for planning ProductCampToronto, we’re holding the first ever ProductCampToronto Pub Night. Please use this link to register, as we’ve limited this to 20 30 seats:

http://pctpubnight.eventbrite.com/

When and Where?

Fionn MacCool’s (University & Adelaide) on Wednesday, August 6th @ 6:00pm.

Who Should Come?

Anybody who would like to help plan or volunteer to be a part of ProductCamp.

We are committed to ProductCamp being a success. It’s the first Canadian ProductCamp, and the third of its kind globally.

Look forward to seeing you there!

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!