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Spotlight on: Rolling along a Riga river

Riga, Latvia, 10 February
Jamaican flags seem fitting in a joint called the Sunset Café, draping over the top shelf of the bar as easily as the Reggae music flows from the DJ booth.

But since the saloon overlooks the River Daugava rather than the Caribbean, though, it turns out that the florescent lights of the bar radiate more warmth than the sunsets. But on the chilly evening of 8 February, most of Café Sunset’s patrons are more accustomed to the artificial glow of the computer screen than the warmth of the Greater Antilles anyhow.

Just as the meet-and-greet gets going this evening, alternative media playboy Arturs Mednis (editor and publisher of Jaffa Magazine) takes a moment to officially open BarCamp Baltics 2008 with a welcoming speech – in Russian – while about 75 bloggers from around the world sample flutes of complimentary champagne.

The only other interruption of the evening comes halfway through the evening, when a group of cheerful Azerbaijanis take the mic and raffle off homemade pastries to anyone who could answer trivia (again, in Russian) about their South Caucasus country.

The distinctly multi-cultural evening seems the ideal way to ring in the first edition of BarCamp Baltics, a three-day unconference boasting about 500 participants from more than 35 countries.


“For many of our participants attending BarCamp Baltics was the first time they ever saw what young people from other ex-Soviet countries look like,” writes organizer Evgeny Morozov, a Belarusian who studies the social implications of new media. “Think Ukrainians meeting Latvians, or the Kazakhs meeting Lithuanians, or the Azeris meeting Belarusians — it is thanks to BarCamps that many of them finally heard about the problems of each other for the first time.”

The foremost goal of the unconference – a term coined in the mid-90s, and, according to Wikipedia, “primarily used in the geek community” – was, indeed, networking. The entire unconference was loosely organized, so as to facilitate as many connections as possible: Friday was a laid-back “Day Zero”, full of optional, guided, museum trips and the opening party. Saturday’s schedule saw a slew of 20-minute presentations. That evening provided discounted bar-hopping for all Barcamp participants. Sunday’s activities – before rides and flights home – included an innovation incubator and a big-group session of lightning-round presentations called Pecha Kucha – a term of Japanese origin indicating five-minute professional presentations (roughly, 20 slides, .20 seconds for each).
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Events Calendar

Name Location Date Type
Media 360 London, The United Kingdom… 14/05 - 16/05/08 Media Event
Cannes Film Festival Cannes, France 14/05 - 25/05/08 Media Event
European Parliament Prize for Journalism… Online, Online 15/05/08 Application
Mobile Internet World Europe 2008… Munich, Germany 19/05/08 Media Event
Digital Trend Day Amsterdam, Netherlands 20/05/08 Media Event
The Wireless Event 2008 London, The United Kingdom… 21/05 - 22/05/08 Media Event
India Radio Forum 2008 Mumbai, India 30/05/08 Media Event
6th ASEF Journalists’ Colloquium… Amsterdam, The Netherlands… 01/06 - 02/06/08 Annual Meeting
61st World Newspaper Congress and… Göteborg, Sweden 01/06 - 04/06/08 Media Event
The 5th Annual European Semantic… Tenerife, Spain 01/06 - 05/06/08 Academic Media event
Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum… Bonn, Germany 02/06 - 04/06/08 Media Event
4th ASEM Interfaith Dialogue Amsterdam, The Netherlands… 03/06 - 05/06/08 Annual Meeting
Name Location Date Type
IFRA Italia 2008 Sirmione, Italy 18/06 - 19/06/08 Media Event
The Future of Broadcasting London, UK 25/06 - 26/06/08 Media Event
EUROPRIX Multimedia Awards 2008… Graz, Austria 30/06/08 Application
Name Location Date Type
Media 360 London, The United Kingdom… 14/05 - 16/05/08 Media Event
Cannes Film Festival Cannes, France 14/05 - 25/05/08 Media Event
European Parliament Prize for Journalism… Online, Online 15/05/08 Application
Mobile Internet World Europe 2008… Munich, Germany 19/05/08 Media Event
Digital Trend Day Amsterdam, Netherlands 20/05/08 Media Event
The Wireless Event 2008 London, The United Kingdom… 21/05 - 22/05/08 Media Event
India Radio Forum 2008 Mumbai, India 30/05/08 Media Event
6th ASEF Journalists’ Colloquium… Amsterdam, The Netherlands… 01/06 - 02/06/08 Annual Meeting
61st World Newspaper Congress and… Göteborg, Sweden 01/06 - 04/06/08 Media Event
The 5th Annual European Semantic… Tenerife, Spain 01/06 - 05/06/08 Academic Media event
Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum… Bonn, Germany 02/06 - 04/06/08 Media Event
4th ASEM Interfaith Dialogue Amsterdam, The Netherlands… 03/06 - 05/06/08 Annual Meeting
IFRA Italia 2008 Sirmione, Italy 18/06 - 19/06/08 Media Event
The Future of Broadcasting London, UK 25/06 - 26/06/08 Media Event
EUROPRIX Multimedia Awards 2008… Graz, Austria 30/06/08 Application
IPTV World Forum North America… Chicago, US 22/07 - 23/07/08 Media Event
The 2008 World Young Reader Prizes… Paris, France 31/07/08 Application
Global Investigative Journalism… Lillehammer, Norway 11/09 - 14/09/08 Media event & Award
Global Investigative Journalism… Lillehammer, Norway 11/09 - 14/09/08 Application
Blog World Expo Las Vegas, United States of… 20/09 - 21/09/08 Media Event
IfraExpo 2008 Amsterdam, Netherlands 27/09 - 30/10/08 Media Event
3rd World Digital Publishing Conference… Amsterdam, the Netherlands… 15/10 - 16/10/08 Media Event
11th Readership Conference &… Amsterdam, the Netherlands… 16/10 - 17/10/08 Media Event
IPTV World Forum Eastern Europe… Budapest, Hungary 20/10 - 21/10/08 Media Event
NAB European Conference 2008 London, UK 26/10 - 29/10/08 Media Event
IPTV World Forum Middle East &… Dubai, UAE 03/11 - 04/11/08 Media Event
VVOJ European Investigative Journalism… Brussels, Belgium 21/11 - 22/11/08 Media Event
ICT 2008 (Commission DG for Information… Lyon, France 25/11 - 27/11/08 Media Event
ICT 2008 Lyon, France 25/11 - 27/11/08 Media Event
IPTV World Forum Asia 2008 Suntec, Singapore 04/12 - 05/12/08 Media Event
IPTV World Forum Latin America… Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 27/01 - 28/01/09 Media Event
37th FIPP World Magazine Congress… London, The United Kingdom… 04/05 - 06/05/09 Media Event