Came across this blog post mourning The Death of the Unconference retweeted by the THATCamp Twitter account, and it was a great reminder for us to get another post up about what THATCamps are for. The tl;dr version worth highlighting here is that THATCamps thrive on the active participation of the people there. “Participants” are just that–they participate in the greatness of the event; they contribute to a productive outcome. The programming is not top-down, which means that you get out of it what you put into it.

As organizers, we want to provide the space, the technology needs (wifi, power outlets, projection capabilities), and sustenance (food and coffee). We encourage our participants to be open to new ideas, be flexible with their expectations, and to be vocal in the discussions.

We very much look forward to everyone being involved in the discussions!

As if you needed another reason to spend a weekend in downtown Iowa City, the Mission Creek music festival is the same weekend as us! So we can all have fabulous discussions during the day, then head out for some wonderful live shows in the evenings. They’re still announcing artist and ticket info, but so far we know that David Cross will be doing a show, and the Magnetic Fields and various other cool bands will be performing.

In a related note, our registration is currently open! We’re at about 30, and planning on capping at 75. So get your spot soon!

Stumbled upon this video and love the introduction in the first couple of minutes. From those who have come before, we present to you the 3 ground rules of THATCamps!

The rules are written out on Tom Scheinfeldt’s Found History blog.

THATCamp Iowa City will run Friday, March 30 – Sunday, April 1, 2012. We are still in the early stages of planning, so if you would like to help plan let us know!

Registration will begin the first week of January 2012.

Email: thatcampic@gmail.com

Twitter: thatcampic

Mailing list sign-up: http://ow.ly/7c1Vk