Social media to solar power: RomagnaCamp offered it all

Fresh back from this weekend’s RomagnaCamp, I’m taking a brief break from a “posting hiatus” to report on the event.

After a quick touristic visit to Ravenna on Friday, I caught the bus for Marina Romea. This turned out to be auspicious as I was able to met Giuseppe Lamuraglia of e-net, a company which distributes small solar energy power supplies. Italy has a strong history of renewable energy generation; it was the first to generate electricity from geothermal energy in 1904.

Friday afternoon was dedicated to informal discussions (including wind power with Marco Fabbri) just meters from the beach – a nice transition from the summer holidays. The weather was appropriately windy; despite the sun, most of us were under-dressed.

Notable presentations on Saturday included Nicola Mattina on defining social media, a fairly balanced look at Marketing in Second Life and Lawyer Antonino Attanasio on Informatica e diritto: casi e questioni. Livia Iacolare was probably the best speaker, presenting the soon to open Italian edition of Intruders.tv.

Compared to previous Italian BarCamps, the focus at RomagnaCamp was as much on informal discussions as on presentations. Discussions were much facilitated by the abundance of tables and the laid-back nature of the Marina Romea venue. While I’m sure some will criticize this, how often do you get to mingle with over a hundred bright people who spent their own money (and time) to meet up?

The Romagnoli have a reputation for warmth which is well deserved; numerous conversations were started due to their great ice breaking ability! Giacomo Benelli and I discussed using the web as a marketing tool to better promote his nature and bird watching guide services to a foreign audience. Create a good web site, add a dose of search engine optimization, and presto, his local business gains international visibility.

Excite’s Amanda Lorenzani deserves a good sport award for keeping her spirits up despite inadvertently joining us late Friday at the pub instead of getting back to the hotel.

Last, but not least, a tip of the hat to the organizers Luca, Elena, Giovanni, Francesca and Giovanni; if you’ve never organized an event, you might not appreciate all of the work done behind the scenes to insure a smooth running BarCamp.

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Registration is now open for the next SEO Course (March 22 and 23) and Google Analytics Course (March 14 and 15) in Milan. Don’t miss the opportunity!