Cedar Valley BarCamp

Conferences are not an unusual occurrence on the University of Northern Iowa campus. However, workshops like "The Booty Dance of Social Media," hosted by self-described "accidental entrepreneur" Tiffany Lampe, are perhaps more out of the ordinary.

Lampe was one of many small business owners, social media gurus, bloggers and developers who attended the Cedar Valley BarCamp, an "unconference" where the attendants decided the schedule. Anyone was free to pick a timeslot and host a discussion or presentation, and the morning filled up quickly.

BarCamp is a movement that began in 2005 in Palo Alto, Calif. and quickly expanded on to the national and international networking scene. The conference encourages on-the-fly decision making, organic conversation and the open sharing of ideas. The Cedar Valley meeting is one of many that took place this year across America and the entire world, with one in Myanmar hosting 4,700 registered attendants last February.

People began filing into the Business and Communication Center around 9 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4. The event cost $5, and the first 100 people to sign up got a t-shirt with the price of admission. Once everyone had signed in and gotten a nametag, the event was split into three categories: creative, tech and entrepreneurship. The first talks held in those sections ranged from "Video Game Renaissance" to "Your Favorite Book" and encouraged audience participation and individual learning.

Lampe, a mother of four, runs a social media brand called "Dizzybusy Mamas" that is geared toward inspiring and motivating dreamers, thinkers, and small business owners. Lampe created a Facebook page for the group one night last April and had 150 "likes" within an hour.

The next day, she was recognized by a group of people at a social media conference, and now has close to 4,100 dedicated "mamas" and "papas" who frequently use her website, encouraging one another in their pursuits.

The second talk in the "creative" room was on the technical aspect of Internet writing, and was hosted by Scott Kubie, a freelance writer and speaker who works out of Des Moines. Kubie's talk was about a program called "Markdown," which was developed by John Gruber in 2004. The computer program allows for easy conversion of plain text into web languages like HTML. Kubie demonstrated the user-friendly program and his personal experiences with it while writing for sites like Tumblr, Squarespace and Reddit. The program is open-source and available on Windows, Apple and iOS platforms.

At 11 a.m., Ladene Bowan, the senior project manager for the University of Northern Iowa Institute for Decision Making, spoke on young professionals' role in and impact on the community. Although the talk was held in the "tech" room, it encompassed ideas from each of the sections. Bowen is concerned about the direction the Cedar Valley is heading, citing information from an article she co-wrote titled "Unleashing Fundamental Change" on the Blue Zone competition that is currently taking place in Iowa.

"It is very, very challenging for people to embrace the unknown," said Bowen, stating her worry that we are "basing our future on our past." Bowen called out the young professionals in the room, challenging them to get involved, because she said the future of the younger generation is being planned without their input.