Calling all geeks; this camp's for you

What: The inaugural Seattle Mind Camp, scheduled to run Saturday-Sunday

Who: Andru Edwards, founder

An all-nighter: Mind Camp is a free conference for techies and entrepreneurs that runs for 24 hours straight. The event is full at 150 attendees, though Edwards might increase the limit for last-minute registrations. Expected are musicians, local bloggers, employees from Boeing and Amazon.com and a small army of Microsofties.

Why: Edwards moved from Olympia in August and noticed local techies aren't up to date on what everyone else here is doing. He set out to plan an event that would mainly get everyone talking to each other. "I feel Seattle is the technology center of the U.S.," he said. "There's a lot of things going on here that no one knows about."

Blogging full time: Edwards, 24, used to work in human resources while blogging on the side. He wasn't all that happy in his job, so he quit in February and started blogging full time. "All of a sudden it just took off and I was making more money than I ever had just by blogging from home," he said. Now, he runs the Gear Live network of five blogs and says his annual income is approaching six figures, almost all from advertising sales on his blog sites.

A little exposure: Edwards said he isn't making money from the event, though he's found enough corporate sponsorships that he won't be losing much either. He's hoping mainly to get his name and his company's name out there more. The event is being held in donated office space at Riverfront Technical Park, near Boeing Field.

First of many? Edwards' plan is to host a camp every six months or so. The next one might be limited to daytime hours and have more of a conference-style format. Future camps might be more focused.

Quote: "It's a geek event," Edwards said. "But we envision geek to mean someone that's passionate about what they're doing, not someone that's passionate about computers."

— Kim Peterson

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said the event would run Friday and Saturday. It actually will run on Saturday and Sunday.