Camps and unconferences are some of the funnest events to attend in Toronto, they’re free to attend and they are always filled with great crowds, great speaker, and good conversations all around.  And it seems that in Toronto there are almost more unconferences than one can keep up with. But I was looking through the BarCamp wiki and I noticed the hugh difference between the number of unconferences being held between Canada and the United States.

If I may…

Canada

1. Feb 6th, 2009 – CSSSCampSaskatoon – by BarCampSaskatoon, Saskatoon, SK
2. Feb 11th, 2009 – CloudCamp – Toronto

Canada has 2 events listed… And the United States?

52 Events!

The list for Canada’s events is clearly incomplete as it even leaves out PodCamp Toronto which is maybe Canada’s largest unconference.

Take a look at the list of all the unconferences happening in the States. This list should really encourage you to start an unconference if nothing else.  Here’s a breakdown of the topics of the events being put together in the US:

• Health
• UX
• Bands
• Linux Dev
• Ruby
• Freelancing
• Photography
• Green
• eDemocracy
• Government 2.0
• Banking
• Presenting
• Cloud Computing
• News Innovation
• Homelessness
• Design
• Skepticism
• Accessibility
• Product Marketing and Management
• Finance
• Social anything (including Social Media)
• Tech & Programming
• Media Communications
• Higher Education

There’s a ton of opportunity to put on new unconferences in Canada!  We just can’t rely on the same people to put together all the events, we need new people to step forward and take the initiative to organize them.

Do you know of any resources that can help first timers organize an unconference?
What unconferences do you think Toronto needs the most but is missing?

Update: I forgot Toronto’s events were listed at http://barcamp.org/TorCamp

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