Next Drupalcamp Ireland

A Drupalcamp Ireland thread started by some new-ish people!

At the last Drupalcamp in Belfast, two separate people said they might take it on.
So hopefully they can jump in here and make it happen.

We're getting the format nearly right.
Pure barcamp style isn't really working, I believe.
I think many people are extremely skilled and can give a great presentation, but just need a little nudge to stand up and do something.
So the organisers might need to do a bit of work to draft up a schedule, and get people to take on the topics. And that needs to be done in advance, so then people who are thinking of coming know what the line up will be.

A bit of room for flexibilty doesn't hurt either.

Good to have you in Galway, Linclark.
Since Scor has departed, I haven't tried to organise a local meetup, and I have too much on my plate.

I'm not in a position to organise the next Drupalcamp, though happy to present, but surely people are sick of hearing me talk at this stage!

Alan

Hi to all interested in the next Drupal Ireland Camp,

After making further inquiries as to the suitability of The Media Cube at IADT (That's the digital / media incubation centre at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin) for the next Drupal Camp, it's still possible but as previously stated there would be a charge for the facilities and it seems they're thinking of around the €1,000.00 mark but that's negotiable and covers someone from The Media Cube to be there for the two days as well as the facilities which are second to none. I suggested we would run it from 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. Saturday but as they were a bit iffy about Sunday I figured we could be out by 3.30 p.m. on the Sunday and they seemed happy enough with that. I said I could look after catering and they said they could set up a table or tables in the foyer for lunch and tea breaks although a small canteen exists on the second floor and the college canteen may be open on the Saturday. If the cost isn't prohibitive here, it's just possible numbers may make it so. The Media Cube's main meeting room can seat 70 comfortably, 100 at a squeeze and the rest would have to peer through the windows, (the main meeting room is on the ground floor with floor to ceiling windows on two sides)! LOL. Weather permitting there is a roof top open space which could also be used for a general meeting place.

I mentioned we would need a couple of breakout rooms and up to three could be provided including the bosses office for the weekend if it were needed. It goes without saying that WiFi access would be available and he said we could either use the in-situ laptops or use our own. Laptops of course can be linked up to one large drop-down screen or several television screens for presentations.

So I guess raising a bit of finance is the main hurdle unless others feel a limit of 70 to 100 attendees is also an issue.

By the way, thanks to 'garyh' past president of IADT Student's Union for offer of help. If everyone else thinks it's worth pursuing further then I'll be grateful for any help of course especially those who can raise some sponsorship.

David

P.S. When do people think we should have it? I would imagine March / April or easter weekend whenever that is?

I just arrived at DERI, I could ask whether any space here would be available again. Some of the DERI people are starting their own Drupal sites, so I'm sure there would be interest from newer users here.

I can also ask DIT again if people want to do a Dublin based one. It'd be nice if it were somewhere new though. Sounds like thing to find out in a poll!

If Galway is considered, there is a place which might give for free. I still have to ask a few people, no guarantees, but just wanted to know whether Galway an option.

How many people (ROUGHLY) are we talking about ?

Launched a new drupal site with over 100 pages... still needs a bunch of tweaks, but most of the work is there:
http://foundation-nepal.org/

All the best.

Shay.

Hey Irish Drupalers, moved over to Drupal about 18 months ago and think it's the bees knees! Long overdue a trip to Galway so think it'd be a great choice! =-)

i posted this on the poll, but repasting here.

what about sligo as a location? what if i could get a better venue than the one described below?

would people be interested in coming to the northwest? we might be able to swing it at a nice hotel (free venue), they could give us a free venue if we can guarantee room bookings.

what do people think?

i know for drupal camp belfast many people stayed in the same hotel, is that right? i wonder how many rooms were booked overall?

-h

Sligo as an option

heather - Sun, 2009-12-06 23:31
I know no one voted for it (including me). But I want to offer it as an option. I'd be glad to help organise this on the ground.

A good time might be May, because it will be after the DrupalCon so we can do a report post-con. So we'd likely want to start planning something by January.

There is a possibility that we could have the event at the Innovation Centre at IT Sligo. I've been told it's open for evening/weekend events, and they want to invite more people to meet there. So this would be a free venue.

We just had an event there: http://www.northwestconnects.ie/ Judging from the surveys, the event went well. Mainly comments about the venue were about the size of the small rooms.

What was the total attendance of the Belfast event?

Pros:
- free venue, free parking on a saturday.
- All flat rooms. 3 total, capacity: 100, 50 and 20- theatre style seating.
- Dates flexible, rarely any events on weekends there.
Big screens.

Cons:
- No free wireless, we'd have to get a sponsor for that, and it would be an external service.
- Small spaces, only 3 rooms available, no room for sprint/chat.
- You can't plug in your laptop... this is the biggest bummer :( You can bring in a USB key, so in theory you could run your sites/presentations off of that. But it's inconvenient... Actually it's nearly impossible to imagine a DrupalCamp where presenters can't use their own environment.
- Locked into relatively pricey (approx €10/per) catering (sandwiches/tea). they have an exclusive contract there. It ended up being the most expensive part of our budget. That included morning/Avo tea + sambos.

Bummer... I'm finding more negatives there than positives.

I'll look into other possible venues.

I think there are other options I can explore... I went to a BarCamp at Magee University in Derry, and that was excellent. Great space. I could see if that is a possibility.

Is the northwest simply too far for people?

Hello All, here's another option to put into the pot:

DrupalCamp Clare

The Burren College of Art have very kindly offered their unique space in Ballyvaughan in North Clare free of charge. The provisional date being offered would still need to be confirmed, but looks to be 15th & 16th of May. The seeds of the idea for a location like this were sown in Belfast with Stella and Alan, that smaller settings may be more sociable.

The Pros include:
- A large gallery space, a lecture theatre, additional seminar/break out rooms and a cafeteria.
- An absolutely stunning location in the Burren.
- Wi-Fi.
- Several Hotels, B&Bs and self catering cottages nearby.
- Great pubs and restaurants in the area too.
- As Heather pointed out, it'll be post DrupalCon San Francisco.

The Con:
- Stella may not be able to make the weekend that the venue is being made available :-(

A lot of help will be needed (and appreciated) such as offering to give a presentation, deciding on the final schedule for the weekend, checking the Wi-fi is okay, getting sponsorship to cover catering and probably loads of things yet to be anticipated... The bar has been set pretty high by the previous Drupal Camps. But if everyone was into this, it could maybe just maybe be the best little Drupal Camp in the world!!!

Both Clare and Sligo could be great so I'm looking forward to the next Drupal Camp wherever it'll be. It's really up to you the Drupal community to decide :-)

Here's the college's website
http://www.burrencollege.ie/

And you can see the location on Google Maps.
http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=53.103449,-9.168997&spn=0.002828,...

There is a Bus Eireann service from Galway and according to one route planner, the driving times to Ballyvaughan from these locations are as follows:
Galway 0:54, Ennis 0:59, Shannon Airport 1:24, Limerick 1:34, Athlone 1:53, Tralee 2:34, Sligo 2:36, Cork 3:05, Dublin 3:06, Waterford 3:35, Derry 4:51 and Belfast 5:01.
NB since the opening of the Ballinasloe bypass on the Dublin Galway route, some of the actual travel times might be less than what has been calculated.

Conor

Hi Gary,

The impression I was getting (but if anyone could correct me that would be great) when we were considering Ballyvaughan, was to find a venue that could accommodate even 75 people, ideally with another room to fit maybe 30. Another smaller office again could accommodate the documentation or the surgery. Of course if the camp proves much more popular than the previous ones, the figures will need to be increased. Or if more the two streams of presentations were planned to run concurrently, then more rooms would be required either.

After the physical space, Wi-fi seems to be the next most important element. And then provision of tea/coffee during the course of the day and also lunch. Having access to the building all day for both days looks to be essential, and further access before and after to set up and tidy away would help too. I don't have access to a projector myself, but from talking to others, it didn't seem to be an insurmountable issue if the venue couldn't supply them.

I would have anticipated the location (or at least convenient access to it) might have been an issue, but by the looks of things, timing is turning out to be more of a consideration. Out of curiosity, I'd love to know if the middle of May suits anyone, as the Burren College ticks all the boxes for me and some...

Stumbled across these links, don't know how much they would apply to a DrupalCamp, let me know
http://barcamp.org/BarCampHostingPoints
http://www.capulet.com/weblog/darren/how-to-run-a-great-barcamp
http://groups.drupal.org/node/10437
http://www.cleverclevergirl.com/?p=10

PS enjoy the drinks on Wednesday, must catch you at one of the other meet-ups.

Conor

I say go with the Burren this time too. Are the dates set in stone yet?

I am currently working out a deal with the Royal Marine hotel and will try and secure sponsorship of the costs. I'm guessing sometime in October for the second one? Will let you know how I get on.

We've just double checked the dates to see was there any way to accommodate Stella and Gary but unfortunately all the other weekends are out due to one thing or another - the college has a lot on during the year and also Summer courses so we're lucky they're able to facilitiate us this particular weekend.

The definite dates for which the Burren College of Art is available for a Drupal Camp Clare is the weekend of Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th May 2010.

If people are happy to go with this, then we'll get cracking on the organisation.

Yay! I'm so very excited.

I haven't been to the Burren in 15 years!

This is a super reason to go as well.

See you all then, then!

~ h

good idea :-)

http://groups.drupal.org/node/48164