"Because You Haven't Done It Yet"
Alex Hillman
In the first few years of Indy Hall, one of my favorite experiences was when I could travel to another city and find “sister communities” to Indy Hall. Clusters of creative professionals who cared about their city just like we cared about Philly.
Within a few years, we had connections like this around the world, and it became increasingly common for members to visit another city and we’d be able to connect them with that likeminded community for a soft landing.
One time in 2008, a member named JP went to Orlando, Florida and returned with wide eyes of excitement.
JP had just attended Barcamp Orlando, a DIY unconference hosted by some folks who, just like us, were working hard to grow and support their local creative and entrepreneurial community.
Wait, what the heck is Barcamp?
- First and foremost, it has nothing to do with drinking or alcohol, and doesn’t (usually) take place in bars.
- Second, it has nothing to do with camping, tents, or going into the woods. Confusing, I know.
BarCamp was an emerging event series that had spread around the world in similar ways to coworking, through online spaces and open source communities that valued learning and sharing.
The name itself does have some interesting lore that I’ll save for another day, because the real magic of Barcamp is in the community-powered conference format.
The format for Barcamp was so simple anyone could organize it: pick a time and a place, and everyone who shows up in the morning gets to help build the schedule on an open grid of 1 hour slots.
It was so simple, but so powerful.
In fact, Indy Hall’s name – formally Independents Hall - had been born from one of these Barcamp-inspired events the year before, thanks to now-longtime-member Lauren Galanter who suggested it! But I digress.
JP pops the question
JP comes back from Barcamp Orlando, which at the time had the reputation for being one of the biggest and best Barcamps in the world, and JP says to me: “Why don’t we have something like this in Philly?”
Without skipping a beat or even thinking too much about it, I responded:
“Because you haven’t done it yet.”
JP looked back at me like I’d caught him in a trap of his own making, but knew what he had to do.
Within weeks he’d teamed up with a few other Indy Hall members including Roz Duffy and Dana Vachon to borrow the best ideas from Barcamp Orlando and make it happen in Philadelphia.
And a tradition was born.
BarCamp Philly was such a big success that they brought it back the following year. And the year after that.
Including an experimental online-only Barcamp Philly during the pandemic, we’ve had 16 Barcamps since 2008. I’ve attended most of them!
But it all started with that small question:
“Why doesn’t this exist yet?” and a small group of people coming together to try and make our own version happen.
Indy Hall is a platform for JFDI
Often, people think of Indy Hall as a place. And on the surface, they’re not wrong.
Personally, I think of Indy Hall as the people, the community itself.
But Indy Hall is also a third thing, and that’s a platform for this kind of “let’s try and see what happens” energy.
A platform for opening doors, for sharing ideas, for finding connections, for sparking joy.
That thing that doesn’t exist? It’s only because you haven’t done it yet.
Onward!
Don't miss our next post
Stories, insights, and community updates delivered to your inbox weekly.