Marketing Director

Barcamp Vancouver #bcv09 Session Two

Raul presents his discussion topic in the morning to the entire 250 attendees of Barcamp Vancouver 2009. (Photo: Tyler Ingram)

Raul asks the group, "Has anyone been asked to do something for free?"
(Photo: John Bolwitt, Source)

Almost the entire room in my second barcamp session, "Freelancing i$n't Free" led by Raul Pacecho raised their hands when asked that quesiton. It was a great session with many great points raised.
It was just over have way through this session when I realized my services, as a new media consultant, were very different from the rest of rooms' services. Most of the room was speaking as photographers, coders or designers. All of these jobs requires a larger outlay of labour for any kind of job. Whereas my consultation services are usually free for the first 20-30 minutes. When the question was brought up, by Paul Lambert (Photo: Tyler Ingram), of whether or not to do work for free when starting out I was quick to jump in (Photo: Tyler Ingram) and recommended that it can't hurt for your first few jobs but I was speaking as consultant and not a photographer, designer or coder. Check out this freaky photo of me at the session.

Mark Busse (Photo: Tyler Ingram) who I spoke of in my first post had a passionate position that you shouldn't do work for free. His argument was well supported with evidence to support his position. He spoke from a position of great experience in his business when it comes to doing work for free.

In response to my statement Steve Tannock (Photo: Peter Andersen) another awesome person I met for the first time at Barcamp retorted my idea of doing a few initial jobs for free with his model, which personally I love. What he does is bill the charities and non-profits he does work for, but he doesn't expect money in return just a charitable receipt for his donation of time, translated into dollars. This led me to think about the various ways we can repay small favours. Tweet mentions, blog posts, referrals, charitable receipt, recognition, promotion, LinkedIn recommendations the list is endless. In this new economy (the digital one, not that 'Great Recession' thing) social capital is becoming increasingly more important and measurable.

In the end of Barcamp Vancouver 2009 the one session I really missed out on was The Fresh Media & W2 sessions. Check out Fresh Media it's going to be at W2, wOOt! See you there. I will be there and having an amazing time learning. from noon to six on a Saturday. Great deal. Good Times. See you there.


Fresh Media Forum Vancouver October 24th

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