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Seated for Nate Bargatze “Big Dumb Eyes” World Tour at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth. Looking forward to seeing him for the first time.

Packed arena crowd seated around a purple-lit center stage with large hanging speaker arrays and a screen showing a cartoon portrait overhead.
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Duluth / Stairs.

Black metal fire escapes zigzagging across the facades of two brick apartment buildings in Duluth
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End of day #TeamSPS photo at MnTech Tech Connect 2025. Sitting in the chair was by popular demand. 😬😊

Group of about 14 colleagues posing together indoors at a conference, some standing, some kneeling, one seated in a chair at center front.
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Was fun to share the stage with Melissa Flicek and Jenn Zmuda at the final session of MnTech Tech Connect 2025 during the CIO & CTO Panel. Many topics around AI adoption and leading digital transformations.

Four panelists seated in leather chairs on a conference stage beneath a lit MnTech sign, mid-discussion at a technology event.
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Learned a lot at “Economic Update - Tariffs & General Economic Trends” with Matt Haggerty of RSM at MnTech Tech Connect 2025.

55% chance of recession — Economist speak for “very high”. Predicted April will be the last month of positive job growth. Many false signals due to tariff “pull-ins”.

Presenter stands at front of conference room showing a slide titled Tariff-induced recession odds are rising to a seated audience of about 40 attendees.
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Wonderful #TeamSPS group photo at MnTech Tech Connect 2025. Was very sad that I missed the photo — I got talking to people after the morning keynote and completely missed it!

Group of roughly 20 professionals posing together in front of an mntech branded backdrop at a tech conference event.
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Fun to see Sam Pierson, TeamSPS alumni, at MnTech Tech Connect 2025. Was cool to hear what their team at Qlik is creating.

Two men smiling together at a conference banquet hall, one in a blue blazer and one wearing a Qlik polo shirt with a name badge.
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Great exploration of Spatial Computing at MnTech Tech Connect 2025 with Amir Berenjian of REM5 Studios. Pragmatic view highlighting where these solutions are solving big problems.

Two presenters on stage at MnTech Tech Connect 2025, one wearing a VR headset during a spatial computing demonstration, with a large screen behind them.
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Great start to MnTech Tech Connect 2025 this morning with Joel Crandell starting things off and then John Sweeney leading a wonderful keynote on having an innovative mindset and being comfortable being uncomfortable. 👏

Attendees seated at round tables in a ballroom at MnTech Tech Connect 2025, with a lit stage and large screens displaying the event branding.Bald man in a light teal blazer speaking on stage at MnTech Tech Connect 2025 on May 7 2025Man in black shirt and pants speaking on stage at MnTech Tech Connect conference, holding a clicker, large logo backdrop behind him.

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What does Minnebar mean?

I was having a conversation last week about Minnebar and there was a question about the name. What does it mean? Why Minnebar? It has nothing to do with being a bar with drinks. And it isn’t mini!

A super abbreviated history to get to the name.

It starts with Tim O’Reilly and O’Reilly Media. At one point O’Reilly hosted these “Friends of O’Reilly” events which as an acronym is FOO. It was Friends of O’Reilly, or Foo Camp. These were special events with an open agenda. Think wiki meets conference — or unconference.

The community decided there should be more of these to encourage sharing ideas in an unstructured way. In 2005 the first BarCamp was hosted to do that. In programming the most common variable reference is foobar, which isn’t the military fubar. So, not FooCamp but BarCamp.

There were BarCamps all over the place. It was a big trend. So when Ben, Luke, and a handful of folks decided we should have one in Minneapolis. But instead of it being BarCamp Minneapolis, let’s brand it a bit. Minnebar!

That is how you get there. So Minnebar is the largest unconference in North America, and I’m nearly positive it is also the longest running.