Last night I joined in the weekly TwitCon on Health Care Social Media. To try to keep track of the discussion I posted a CoverItLive session on my blog that followed the hashtag for the weekly Sunday 9pm session: #hcsm
It was a very lively session with two renowned health care lawyers on Twitter: @danielg280 and my fellow HealthCampBoston organizer David Harlow aka @healthblawg.
There were a number of people contributing to the session (@edbennet, @meredithgould and @shrinkraproy) who are also planning to attend HealthCampMd that happens this Friday June 19th in Owings Mills, MD. Tickets are still available for the event, so if you want to continue the conversation that took place on #hcsm you can do it in person at HealthCampMd.
HealthCampMd is all set to be an exciting event. It takes place on the same day as HealhCampUK, which is being supported by the UK's National Health Service. We are hoping to provide a link up to the camp in the UK. It also marks the anniversary of the HealthCamp movement that started at HealthCampMd in 2008.
You can follow the emerging conversation around HealthCampMd by checking out the #hcmd09 hashtag on search.twitter.com.
People ask me what is on the agenda for HealthCampMd. The answer is that I don't really know. I do know that Claudio Luis Vera (aka @modulist) is coming in from Miami and wants to present on Open Source. He may also be persuaded to talk about the importance of design. The rest of the un-conference topics are going to be suggested and presented by the participants themselves. That is what makes these camps such high energy events. You don't have to be an expert to lead a session. Some of the best HealthCamp sessions I have been involved in are those where someone who did not consider themselves an expert led a session and asked questions of the participants.
A number of suggestions have been posted on the event's workspace using Google Moderator. You can check out and vote on the suggestions. You can even add topics of your own for others to vote on. check out the suggestions here: http://www.socialtext.net/md09/index.cgi?topics_for_discussion_at_healthcampmd
A great suggestion was put forward by David Hale at NIH (aka @lostonroute66). He suggested we schedule some lightning talks. These are 3 minute talks (without powerpoint slides) on a topic you are passionate about. To see some of the subjects people want to present on check out the lightning talk page. If you don't feel you have a topic you want to put forward for a full session at HealthCampMd why don't you "test the water" with a quick 3 minute talk. These have been a very informative and fun part of a number of events I have attended.
If you are thinking about HealthCampMd - don't just think about it - Join in! Tickets are still available. The un-conference takes place at the Rockland Center on the Owings Mills Campus of Stevenson University. The campus is just minutes from Junction 4 of I-795 which is off the western side of the Baltimore I-695 Beltway. You can also get to Owings Mills by Metro from Baltimore. The event kicks off at 8:30am on Friday June 19th and the ticket covers the cost of food and drinks for the day.
What do you need to bring? Yourself! The rest is really optional: your laptop (if you want to present or take notes), A camera, A power strip might come in handy too. Mac users should bring their connector (DVI-VGA, Mini-Displayport-VGA etc.) to be able to hook up to the VGA connector on the projectors. We will have free wifi available.
The organizing team is looking forward to meeting you at the event.
