Find out more at the web site for the Kauffman Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Congrats to the folks over @ Rent-a-Coder for their second listing in Inc. Magazine’s Top 5000 Fastest Growing Companies.

One of the biggest complaints (or excuses) I hear from would-be startup founders is the lack of access to development talent. While I am the first to discourage people from building a prototype or version 1.0 product using remote resources, sometimes local talent just isn’t available.

Remember, if you are relying on outside development, a good product requirements plan and complete product spec are doubly important.

Congrats to Josh for his write up on Mashable. Josh did a rant on Twitter use and tracking at the recently completed and highly successful Tampa BarCamp. He made a great case for how better metrics can transform this emerging Web thingee into a usable community building communications platform.

This is nice recognition for this Tampa startup and the great tool Tweeple Twak for tracking metrics in your Twitter community.

Tampa hosted it first BarCamp and by all measures, it was a great success. The lobby at USF’s SoB Conference Center filled up early Saturday morning and the big Post-It Note schedules for three rooms was booked up 9:30-5:00 in short order. Sunday’s attendance was a little bit lower, but the schedule was just as packed with great topics and speakers.

I met a lot of campers and had some great discussions both in the sessions as well as sidebar chats in the hall. We appreciate the support from all of the out of town campers from Orlando and elsewhere. Thanks to everyone who signed-up to lead discussions, without you BC would be just another boring conference filled with suites and service providers.

If you attended, please take a moment to complete our quick feedback survey so our next event can be even better.
2008 Camper Survey

BarCamp is all about fostering discussions within the grass roots tech community and maintaining a positive buzz among the innovators and geek elite in the central Florida area. With this great event behind us, we can look ahead to other opportunities to highlight technology, innovation and entrepreneurial education in the Tampa area.

Thanks to all our great sponsors, especially Adobe, Dex Imaging and D+S Media Labs for stepping up to sponsor the speaking rooms. Keep watching StartupMonkey, The Weekly Tech Rant MeetUp and the BarCampTampaBay site for future event info.

We are nearing capacity for this event, so please register ASAP. The first 150 people in the door get T-Shirts, attendee #151+ gets to envy the people with the shirts the rest of the day - Don’t be that guy!

Show up early and sign up to speak - This is your chance to rant about all things Geeky to people that will actually listen.

Here’s the Map, so there is no excuse for getting lost:

The 2008/2009 Emerging Company Series of startup workshops kicks off next week in downtown Tampa. See the Workshop page for full details.

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1^st Session – Wednesday October 8^th 5:45PM – 8:00PM (see event detail)

October Topic - Business Plans vs. Business Planning

“Why am I writing a business plan … when I should be running my business?”

Agenda:

If you’re a small business or startup, you no doubt have been told “you must have a business plan!” There is no lack of resources to help you with the creation of this golden idol of all business documents. There are low and no cost programs offered by local gov’t, schools and others (S.C.O.R.E., USF SBDC, St. Pete College, on-line courses, etc.) plus countless business consultants and service providers who will gladly churn out documents by the pound for $20,000 to $50,000 of your precious startup capital. This session will deal with the hotly debated topic of what you need and when you need it for business documents and IF you should even bother writing a business plan. The focus will be on understanding and creating practical business models for explaining your business and/or product and services ideas.

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Event Details:

This is an invitation only event, space is limited. The workshop series is free to any startup or small business owner. Please, no service providers, consultants or recruiters. If you have any questions or would like an invite, feel free to email me or register at MeetUp.com. Look for Tampa’s Tech Rant Group and you will be allowed to RSVP for the Oct. 8^th Workshop.

Watch the Events page for updates and info on upcoming events to help foster emerging companies in Tampa Bay.

USF St. Pete Small Business Networking Breakfast – Wednesday Sep. 17th

BarCamp Tampa Bay – Saturday Oct. 11th & Sunday Oct. 12th

Entrepreneurship Week – November 17^th – 22nd

BarCamp is an event organized in real time by attendees, for attendees.

Get your Geek on and come to share, learn or rant about your favorite technology, tool or technique.