There’s a decided resurgence of all things tech in Memphis and part of that revival is Tech Camp, a one-day event held annually in October that offers educational and networking opportunities for technology users at all levels. With sessions led by area experts on content creation and design, online marketing, and development, the event has grown to over 100 participants within the past four years and is on a trajectory to grow even more.
“It’s been an interesting evolution,” says Eric Terpstra, a software developer for Methodist Lebonheur Hospital and one of the two primary organizers of the event. “It started out as Bar Camp, which was a small ad hoc conference where people would show up and write their talk themes on a chalk board and [the participants] would vote at the time for what talks they wanted to hear. It became Tech Camp when we started planning things ahead of time and recruiting speakers. It’s just grown from there.”
The volunteer-run conference includes IT professionals, web designers, marketing professionals, tech enthusiasts and students. Originally created by the late Dave Barger, founder of LunaWeb, the event is now co-run by Eric and Sandy Schaeffer III, an instructor and Academic Technologist with the University of Memphis.
“It is a wide variety,” says Eric. “There have been anywhere from high school students to retirees to seasoned professionals to people who are new to a tech career. So it’s a very mixed bag of attendees, which is kind of what we want because one of the main goals of the conference is to bring the community together and promote networking and socializing within the community. The more the merrier – the more diverse the crowd, the better the connections that are formed.”
The speakers chosen to present at the event are all local practitioners or scholars in the tech field. “We want to be pretty accommodating for both new speakers interesting in getting started in conference speaking, but also people for people with experience, as well, because we want to make it a quality conference,” says Eric. “We try to strike a balance but since it’s community run and about the Memphis community, we like to have local speakers and recognizable names – if not the individuals, then at least the companies they work for. We invite solo practitioners to speak, as well, and they tend to resonate more with the audience, especially those just getting started in the tech field.”
Historically, Tech Camp has brought in speakers to present on different tracks in the tech industry, such as development, design, marketing and entrepreneurship. In the future, they hope to add a new track that focuses specifically on coding. Eric refers to plans initiated by a local nonprofit tech accelerator, Start Co., to open a code school some time in 2016, and hopes to set up an introductory session to coding at this year’s Tech Camp to recruit students for the school.
