Some of my fellow followers on Twitter a few days back were requesting people contribute with any tips or helpful hints to get the most out of BarCampMiami and FOWA next week. I managed to get a few tips together (mostly reminders). If you want to add any, please leave a comment. Thanks!

1. Social Events - Get the most out of the experience by attending these (some require tickets to be purchased ASAP):

UPDATE: Unofficial FOWA Beer Lovers Meetup

Geek Dinner - Sunday, February 22, 2009 from 7:00 PM - 9:30 PM (ET)

Social Media Club South Florida Meetup - Feb. 23rd 6:30pm to 9pm

FOWA After Party - Feb. 24th at Nikki Beach Club

2. Bring lots of business cards. Exchange of cards seems to be still a time honored part of a meet/greet.

3. At FOWA, there are going to be FREE uni sessions - mini conferences in “break out rooms”. 50 spaces per session, first come first served. Facebook, Sun, etc.

4. Obvious, but if you don’t have extra iphone, laptop, or batteries start ordering them (or actually buying them locally) now. Don’t count on outlets although FOWA says there will be placed to “plug in your laptop”.

5. At FOWA, according to sources, wireless internet will be in the lobby ONLY. Should be able to get a 3G signal inside though. At BarCamp, there is Wifi in the restaurant but when I spoke to @alexdc, he was thinking it might be limited to due demand.

6. UPDATE: Follow the FriendFeed Room FOWA Miami & WordCamp/BarCamp/NewsInnovation. It monitors tweets and flickr feeds in one easy place. There’s also a RSS feed of the room in case you can’t follow FriendFeed directly.

Those who use Mint or Google Analytics might want to watch this video on Woopra. The concept was impressive (imagine looking at these stats if you were ever Digged). Not saying this thing is rates a 10 on the “awesome” meter, but it is something to keep an eye open for.

HandBrake 0.9.2 is a new version and includes support for the AppleTV Take 2 and the latest iPhone/iPod Touch firmware. Not sure that I like that the mac version is only compatible with Mac OS X Leopard, 10.5. There’s a Windows download too.

Drop what you’re doing and get (in either pdf, wallpaper, or the actual poster form) Web Trend Map 2008. Here’s the online version.

If you ever need some good quality printing and reasonable prices (I sound like a cheesy tv ad, but whatever) you may want to check out Micro Printing. Just a warning: yes, I do host them and they are friends but I would be saying this regardless. Alex runs the production department and he’s just a great guy. Postcard, flyers, posters, presentation material, and of course business cards… I would recommend them.

And from Microsoft? Bookmarked this to share with readers and friends… cool concept, except possibly the targeted ad idea. Here’s the BloggingStocks article - “Microsoft looks to revolutionize your grocery shopping”:

The first of these mediacarts will be in ShopRite supermarkets on the East Coast later this year. For shoppers that have a ShopRite loyalty card, they will be able to get online at home and enter their shopping lists. Once they hit the stores, they will then be able to swipe their cards into the MediaCart, and their list will magically appear.

The carts will be able to keep track of items as they are gathered and will even keep track of the consumer’s running bill as well as give them the option to pay for their merchandise without having to wait in the checkout line. I’m not really sure how this would work with weighed items such as produce, but I’m sure Microsoft has thought of this as well.

This seems pretty restrictive for professional DV and tech nerds… TechThoughts talks about the FAA rules on laptop (and similar) battries. If you’re going to be carrying your own batteries on a flight in 2008 and have more than 25 grams of lithium - you can get your battery confiscated.