Welcome to the idea of BearhugCamp! 

It's just an idea, but with a bit of luck it might become more.

First a little background...

1. I asked Steve Gillmor if he thought it would be a good idea to have a face to face meeting of people who were thinking about all the new communication tools that are coming online. He said he thought it was a good idea.

2. I wrote a blog post. More people thought it was a good idea.

3. Steve wrote one. More people.

4. Steve wrote a piece about bearhugs.

5. We had our theme! :-)

Now let's see if we can make it actually happen!

Where and when? 

Where: Hillside Club, Berkeley CA.

When: One day in September 2008.

Details follow...

1. Cost. The total cost will be somewhere around $1000. We need to figure out how we're going to pay for it. I'm willing to put in my share.

2. Format. Discussion. Not open space, not BloggerCon-style, no singing of kumbaya. We start with a conversation, Steve talks then everyone else talks, in whatever order Steve thinks makes sense. Then we can go off in groups centered on people, or ideas, or we can all go to lunch or dinner, or we can all go home and sulk and write angry blog posts! :-)

2a. It will be totally webcast from every angle we can think of.

3. How much time should we reserve? I thought we should go from around 10:30AM to about 6PM, then have a party where lots more people can come who are less interested in the details and more interested in the schmooze, then we can go in groups out to eat at some of the fine and reasonably priced restaurants in the area.

4. I asked John Feld, the resident manager of the Hillside Club, for a few possible dates. Here's what he came up with.

Full days

Tuesday 16 All day

Wednesday 17 All day

Saturday 20 All day

Tuesday 23 All day

Wednesday 24 All day

Saturday 27 (Football game day so parking is almost impossible but the game doesn't start till 3 p.m. Tailgate parties seem to start around midday)

Tuesday 30 All day.

Partial days

Thursday 18 until 6 pm

Friday 19 (till 4 pm)

Sunday 21 Until 4:30 pm

Thursday 25 Until 6 p.m.

Monday 29 Until 6:30 pm

There you have it 

That's the thinking so far.

Your comments and suggestions are, of course, welcome. Use the form below.

If you're going to come, you could post a comment saying so!

PS: If this goes well we could do it again!!