BarCampLA-5 Takes Over AOL's Beverly Hills HQ

Attentive BarCampers at Dan Kaminsky's Ask a Hacker session. Attendees range in age from 18 months (her 2nd BarCamp) to so old we're afraid to ask | photo by pinguino

The twice-yearly, geek-tastic unconference for technologists, gamers, industry-folk, and Internet lovers of all stripes is again upon us. BarCampLA is in its fifth iteration and thanks to a collaborative effort fronted by Jason Cosper and Crystal Williams (and dozens of sponsors), it's shaping up to be the best BarCamp evar.

As LA's new media/tech scene has burgeoned, so has interest and attendance at BarCampLA (as well as a sudden smorgasbord of weekly and monthly events such events as G33k Dinner LA, Digital LA, and NetSquared to name a few). AOL graciously opened up the third floor of it's Beverly Hills HQ to BarCampers for two full days of ad hoc discussions, how-tos, how-not-tos, ninja/pirate battles and more. Throw in food, drink, and hundreds of happy people networking, brainstorming, ninja-raving, and swapping nuggets of knowledge, and you can't go wrong. More than 300 BarCampers (nearly triple the attendance at the inaugural BCLA) agree.

Jay Bushman discusses the Loose Fish Project, a unique storytelling method using Twitter.