Blogging from Sun's Startup Camp

I'll be speaking on a panel at Sun Microsystems' Startup Camp 5 at Moscone South today. They're expecting 500-600 attendees to this free event. I'll be updating this post throughout the day, so check back throughout the day.

We follow up Sun CEO, and blogger, Jonathan Schwartz. The panel is titled "Notes From Mission Control: Rules For A Successful Media Launch" and my fellow panelists are S. Neil Vineberg, Jyri Engestrom (co-founder of Jaiku), Christina (CK) Kerley and Adam Metz (theMIX). It's going to be a great time. Stay tuned.

There is a great vibe here and sense of community.

Keynote: Jonathan Schwartz (Sun's CEO):
I was really impressed with how casual Jonathan was and how passionately he talked about Sun's involvement in the startup community. After his initial remarks he was joined on stage by Om Malik of GigaOm. Om pressed Jonathan on a number of issues, none more inappropriate than his question about how Schwartz felt about having to lay off 2,500 people recently. Schwartz handled himself very well, spoke directly to the question and came across as somebody who really cares about his people.

My Panel:
I won't say a whole lot about the panel. Mashable had a really good recap thanks to Kristen Nicole. I was pretty mad that I missed Kristen and Pete after the panel as I had to duck below the event for an interview. I'll catch them on my next swing through the Bay area.

The Unconference:
This was my first true unconference and I liked what I saw. If you aren't familiar with it either, a portion of the event is planned on the spot by the attendees. People post sessions they want to host and then people show up. I sat in on a great discussion on Twitter and information overload (that's a subject for a future post).

I spent a little time with serial entrepreneur and overall great guy Yobie Benjamin. He's working on a world-changing startup right now and I was really amazed by his passion and energy around it. If you're a super developer and looking for a challenge you should reach out to him ASAP.

I was also able to spend a lot of quality time with CK and Neil Vineberg who, I must say, are two of the most kind, hard working, organized and brilliant people I know. Neil invited me to this event and took the time to show me some of the magnificent sights of SF. CK, as you probably know, is such a giving, helping jewel of a person. She made sure Neil showed me the right things and helped me to refine the points I made on the panel. It was a great experience because of them.

Technorati Tags:
branding, Matt Dickman, PR, Startup Camp, Sun Microsystems, Techno//Marketer, Jaiku

Comments

[Neil Vineberg]

Matt, you rocked on the panel. Thanks for participating and let it be the first of many panels we do together.