BarCampESM... the start of something interesting?

A couple of us from ControlTier are headed to Austin for BarCampESM. It promises to be an interesting gathering of scrappy open source and big closed source ("but oh we so badly want to be viewed as 'open'") vendors all focused on the systems management space. The idea from this gathering came from the Open Management Consortium and is being organized by folks from BMC, Zenoss, and Zabovo (including the tasty sounding free food). This is the first BarCamp of this type so where this all leads is anyone's guess.

For those unfamiliar with the BarCamp concept, it can best be described as a self-forming "unconference". The idea is to encourage as much brainstorming and networking as possible. While sessions are proposed on a wiki ahead of time, much of the actual structure forms at the start of the conference and while it progresses. Oh and they are free and open to all.

A fun side observation:
Check out the these videos of past general technology BarCamps in San Francisco and Austin. I guess stereotypes about cities exist for a reason!