They say you come to Vietnam and you understand a lot in a few minutes. But the rest has got to be lived.

This event brings together local technology and design enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and people working on interesting projects for a day of intense discussions.

A call for presentations ideas and discussion topics. You put up your idea on the topic board. If the participants like it then they vote for it. Once you have accumulated enough votes, your topic goes into the time table projected on the screen.

Then we make our own timetable, we figure out what room we want to at what time.

We ran out of coffee soon. Why? see the next photo.

Many people were up the previous night looking at the lunar eclipse. Here our friend Hoa shows the photos she took of the moon. She is from the Vietnamese Amateur Astronomy group.

Once the presentations start, we are not sleepy any more. This year we saw even more local presenters taking on topics of local interest. Here is a discussion on raising funds for local ventures.

RMIT, the venue sponsor had their students do a mini-trade fair. They had a room with projects that their students had built. Here is a Zigbee (a wireless protocol that enabled inter-device communication) based car parking aid. I enjoyed talking to the students, they were confident and knew how to answer even the non-technical questions.

Don’t you love when school are proactive in hosting un-conferences and giving their students the opportunity to interact with people outside academia. This is the fifth Barcamp that RMIT is hosting in Saigon.

A discussion on connectivity around the world.

I also got to play with the Kindle Fire at a booth that one of the sponsor Tiki.vn had set up. Tiki sells books online, they also import Kindles for local customers.

A discussion on improving photography skills. Our friend Thuy talking about Vietnamese online forums where they discuss photography. My own session discussed making engaging presentations. Another session that I did urged the Vietnamese to come to BarCamps in South East Asia specifically the ones in Cambodia. We also talked about running more BarCamps in other Vietnamese cities. I truly believe that such ground up events can help us connect the wider region and also help people within a city learn from each other.

The awesome volunteers. I must say that this year’s t-shirt design was distinct and fresh.

Yet another memorable events. The highlight this year was 1.seeing more Vietnamese leading sessions, both in English and in Vietnamese language, 2.the participants moving away from presentations to running discussions and 3.meeting such active participants. The Saigon barcamp is a good venue to get the pulse of VN technology and popular culture scene. Thanks to the #barcampsaigon organizing team and volunteers. I am eagerly waiting for the next one.

Just a reminder that Barcamp Yangon will be happening on February 12 and 13. We will be putting up travel and accommodation information soon on the http://www.barcampsingapore.com/upcoming site.