What is a govcamp? How does it work? Ask a police officer!

There is an excellent post on the UKGovCamp blog, on pitching and running a session at #UKgcX (in London on 21 January), and which gives an introduction to what a govcamp is, and how it works. On the basis that a picture is worth a thousand words (and that a video is thousands of pictures displayed quickly, one after the other, with an audio commentary) I've linked below to a couple of recordings of the Introductions and Session Pitches at one of the first unconferences/govcamps that I attended – BlueLightCamp 2012: #blcamp (this was a govcamp organised by some police officers and staff, for their colleagues in the police, other blue light services, and those who work with them). The videos cover the same ground as the UKGovCamp post, but in video form.

(I've not sought permission of any of the people involved in #blcamp to share this, but I am hoping they won't mind - if there are objections, please leave a comment below, and I will take this post down, if necessary, while I work out what to do!)

I am no web designer (as all the other posts here will prove!), so apologies for the clumsy formatting of this post – but I heartily recommend watching at least a few of the clips below if you have never attended a govcamp before! It is likely that the equivalent intros and pitches at #UkgcX will be even shorter, and more intense!!

The first 28 minutes of the intro session of #blcamp is here – https://bambuser.com/v/2556394 (and embedded just below).
For shorter individual clips, forming part of the embedded video below, see links below (if you play a clip below, the video will just run on into the next clip at the end of each):

Introduction – Paul Coxon (3m long)
Message from sponsor – British ACPO (4m long)
What an unconference/govcamp is – Andy Mabbett (6m long)
“Name, organisation (if any) and 3 words” – everyone, about 60 people (13m long – at least one of Dan Slee's words was “cake”; there are other well-known faces!!)
Pitching and Sessions - what they are and how they work – Andy Mabbett (2m long)
Then, the pitches start …. from anyone willing (about 2m long)

Then the stream was restarted, so there is a new URL here  - https://bambuser.com/v/2556451 (and embedded just below) - about 10 minutes long.
Again, for shorter individual clips, forming part of the embedded video below, see links below (if you play a clip below, the video will just run on into the next clip at the end of each):

The pitches continue (8m long– still some great ideas!)
The grid – how it works (also, livestreaming – why there are only 3 audio livestreams and 1 video livestream, despite there being 8 rooms (2m long) 

Live streaming at #blcamp, way back in 2012, was done by the excellent John Popham, of Huddersfield. I understand he can provide this service for any event, for a very modest fee (I am not on commission, and I have not asked his permission to make this comment!). Using just my phone and a tripod, I could also provide this service (not to as high a standard as John, but good enough for most things), if I could ever afford to travel from Orkney to anything, and if I could get the annual leave to do so! And you could, too, if you wanted to, with the right app and a bit of trial and error! Now that Facebook Live and Periscope exist, it is even easier than before. There are also (slightly less convenient) apps which can stream to a closed group of people (who have to authenticate to get access) - if an event requires this to be streamed, it can be done, relatively straightforwardly.

Any event can be livestreamed, as long as the person booking the room has thought to provide 4G or wifi, as well as the lunch and the projector! It is not appropriate to livestream everything (at #blcamp they indicated which rooms would be subject to livestreamins – 2 rooms out of 8 – and advised those not wishing to take part in that way to avoid those rooms (a form of the rule of 2 feet?), or to sit at one side (so as not be on camera), or otherwise to be respectfully catered for. The bottom line for me is that if #blcamp (and a couple of other events around that time) had not been livestreamed, I would not have realised how important govcamps can be, and would not be attending or helping out at this one. And there are surely categories of people other than awkward Scottish islanders to whom that still applies, 5 years later! (I've blogged on this before, and I may come back and add some links to others' thoughts on this too, if I have time before I leave for London later in the week).

I said that I attended this govcamp – I did, but only by watching the livestreamed sessions from my home in Kirkwall, and by asking my questions via twitter and Bambuser comments. I could not possibly have attended in person from Orkney, only a couple of weeks before an event here I was organising myself!! The livestreamed content I watched (and re-watched!) gave me the confidence I needed to facilitate IslandGovCamp 2012: #IsleGC2012, in Orkney the following month.

There are some livestream recordings of #IsleGC12 too – I can provide links to them, if there is interest, including a session via video conference led by Sue Wells, then Chair of the Christchurch (NZ) planning authority (whom I met online via another online friend), responsible for rebuilding the city after the earthquakes of 2011.