DrupalCampLA 2008?

Maybe early August? No thoughts on an earlier month?

RMI is down to make a sponsorship. We can discuss deals off-thread.

I'm also able to present as well. Dreamweaver Themer's Kit for Drupal, and maybe something else if we need another session slot filled. I can also help in other another duty.

Speaking of shirts, I was planning on asking LA Drupal members if they were interested in seeing some Drupal shirts made that we can arrange for people to pre-order and even buy some at our user group meetings.

I feel pre-Drupalcon is good. jredding said they are trying to lock down the date for the next drupalcon within the next two weeks.

pre-ordering shirts is good idea too...

I'll volunteer to help with some stuff. might even be willing to give a talk... depends on a lot between now & then, tho

A post-session event party is key to networking and building community... I'd like to see two, but a good venue for one night would be plenty, also.

I'm not so worried about conflicts with too many other conventions/events - more concerned with planning vacations - as there is no way I'll miss this after attending last years DrupalCamp - which was AMAZING!

I think 1-2 days is prime in my opinion. If people are going to fly in, 2 days max is good for them not to be out of the office too much.

I've done some work over the past two weeks to see what would be needed to host the event at UC Irvine. I know that this venue may be a bit 'out of the way' to some people in LA, but we could use this location to attract many more from San Diego, also John Wayne Airport is 2 miles from campus. The Free and Open Source Software club is up for sponsoring the event, meaning we will have a third party to collect any donations, as well as the ability to reserve any lecture hall on campus as needed.

Shirts could be done for as little as $6/shirt cost, I've worked with a few vendors over the past few years for my on campus club and we've been able to get some good rates on shirts for groups as low as 70 people.

Regardless of whether we want to use UCI as a venue, I plan to be involved in the planning of the event, but I think we should look to close in on a venue by the middle of April.

I'm pretty committed to buying shirts that people will actually wear, so the ones I'm basing that cost off are American Apparel or Bella, in a good color, 2 color front, 1 color back for sponsor logos. And also getting women's shirts (well cut women's tshirts) so the ladies can actually wear them. Yes, we can do a little better on cost for those, possibly, just throwing out a budget estimate for planning purposes.

I forgot to mention also that Cary Gordon had talked about possibly getting LMU as a venue. This may also work if we're looking to keep it in LA. I think going the route of using a University could help save some cash (unless we get a gracious venue sponsor like AOL last time).

I like the ideas. I'd be game to help record some sessions & help out wherever else is needed.

Crystal's right about the "wearable" shirts. I wore my BarcampLA shirt and folks were diggin' the logo & I liked the quality of the shirt. :)

I would be happy to look into LMU as a possible venue, if that is of interest. They should have available facilities in August, but I am pretty sure that there will be cost involved.

I will help in any way I can, in any role, and I would be willing do a presentation, as well.

I prefer early August as a date range.

It's hard to know what exactly makes a good venue, and we don't want anyone to go through a bunch of work to secure a place that doesn't meet our needs, so here's a list:

• Needs to be free. Pretty much any venue that charges, charges a lot. I don't think we should put ourselves in the position of having to raise $10k for this.
• Needs one large space, preferably with seating or where we can set out chairs, to hold full group Opening/Closing talks, any potential keynotes, and meals. Should hold up to 200 people.
• Need 3-4 "Track Rooms". Should be capable of holding 30-50 people each, be at least somewhat sound-isolated from the other tracks and from the main area, and have ample power outlets. Projectors, Screens, and any other A/V equipment is a bonus.
• 2+ "breakout areas", smaller spaces for people to hold quick talks or hole up and work on projects.
• Access to restrooms, should be multiple
• Access to kitchen

• Parking

• Lastly, ideally we'd be in an area near some other things - food, coffee, grocery stores... People like being able to wander "off-campus" a bit for conversations and that's cool.

Related to this, there are larger questions that we've learned we need to ask after doing BarCamps for so long. If DrupalCampLA, which was only planned in about a month, and not that heavily promoted, brought in just over 100 people, a better known (cause we've done it once), longer promoted, and larger staffed event encompassing both LA and San Diego could be expected to draw over 200.

If we are doing food and t-shirts, we have to have a pretty solid idea, about two weeks before, of what our attendance rate is.

For free conferences, there is a massive "flake" rate, because there is no penalty for signing up and not attending, no matter how much you tell people that they are keeping someone else from being able to attend by doing that, etc. At the same time, you have a large number of people who try to jump in at the last minute. (I have people emailing me at 11am the first day of DrupalCampLA last year, asking if they could still get int).

This can be accounted for on a pretty loose basis as long as we don't have a venue that requires an attendee list, but it's a much bigger pain if we do. Just something to keep in mind.

Many people have suggested doing something like taking in a $10 or $20 deposit upon registration and then refunding that to people who show up, but a) we would lost 3-5% on fees for that, and b) it would be a lot of work to keep up with. Thoughts welcome.

Lastly, please no early August - I'm committed already to being out of town for BlackHat/Defcon from around August 3- August 12.

Do we have a wiki page for the collected info? Are we using the same wiki URL from last year?

DrupalCon Szeged has been announced for August 27-30. It would be great if we could give it some room to allow for travel. I still think that August 16-17 is a good date.