Last Friday I spent the day in Old Broadcasting House, Leeds with a group of like-minded people interested in starting, or already on their freelance journey.
The event, organised by Stephanie Booth was originally intended to be a larger conference but due to disappointing numbers it was cancelled. The attendees were instead invited to a smaller, less formal gathering called SoloCamp.
The twenty-or-so of us who attended spent the day talking about a variety of issues: Finance, Confidence, Growth and Clients. The full overview of the day can be found on the SoloCamp wiki.
This was my first “BarCamp” style event, and I took the opportunity to get some presentational confidence by moderating the Growth session. I had a bit of a stumble with the session as my ad-hoc material quickly ran out, but thankfully the session turned into a rather interesting discussion about Hype Cycles towards the end (thanks to Dennis!).
All in all, a very interesting and educational experience. It gave me renewed enthusiasm about getting my company up and properly running. It also had me thinking about charging policies, marketing and finance, all of which are very important to a vulnerable technology start-up. More generally, it has been a great pleasure meeting a variety of individuals, from various backgrounds who I hope to keep in touch with.