By now, many of you have been to ProductCamps in or around your city. The ProductCamp brand has exploded – there have now been ProductCamps in well over a dozen U.S. cities, at least 3 countries, and 2 continents! ProductCamp is an exciting, fun event that everyone should participate in, at least once. As great as ProductCamp is, we have found some needs in the market that ProductCamp can’t meet effectively.
ProductCamp is a fairly large endeavour. Participants give up a Saturday to learn from each other, to teach, and to network. It’s a big investment. We’ve settled on a twice per year schedule for ProductCamp Austin, and that seems to fit our community. Austin is unique in that unlike the Bay Area, we do not have a strong Product Management and Marketing group to facilitate other face to face meetings. ProductCamp is filling that need.
The first way is with ProductPotluck, which we introduced a little over a month ago. ProductPotluck is a mini version of ProductCamp. It is held on an evening, has only one session slot with two sessions to choose from, and is paired with a happy hour for networking. It’s a low time commitment way to get the community together.
The second way we’re filling the need is with ProductParty. ProductParty is a networking and fun event from the ProductCamp planning team, just focused on networking. We’re going to get together at the AT&T center and have a few drinks, and some fun activities that will make you laugh, prime your creative juices, and help us get to know each other. Get ready…for the Product Manager SMACKDOWN.
For the Product Manager Smackdown, we will get four teams of product managers and present them with a “mystery product.” The PM’s will have 10 minutes to evaluate this “product” and then 5 minutes to deliver their best product pitch to the judges. It will be funny, creative, and irreverent.
ProductParty will be held on Wed Dec 2, 2009 from 6-9PM, at Gabriel’s Bar at the AT&T Center next to the UT campus.
We hope that we’ll see you tomorrow night! For all of the details, hit the ProductParty Austin page.
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