I know we got such a great raise of hands fighting to build the site. To avoid anyone having it forced upon then, I am will to build it. I do feel I should clarify a few things and offer three opportunities to help without having to build the site. Opportunity 1) I am not a designer, if any one would be willing to mock up the site I will put it together.
I've only really used drupal for about a year but am pretty comfortable with at least getting it to work. I figured I would take our SLC DUG presenter from tonight up on his offer to share some of the SanCamp site configuration as a starting point. It should also help with configuring some of the modules I'm less familiar with.
Opportunity 2) Any one want to donate the hosting of the site? and Opportunity 3) Any one want to donate the registration of the site name (we might need to first determine what that will be)?
1 option that takes some time and two that are only the money/space. I'm will to sacrifice myself to the actual build. Any helpers?
And yes, I can probably be forced into organizing the event, but once again only if I can get help because I really only have a vague idea of what I'm doing. I really should have not added "get more involved in drupal community" to my performance evaluation goals.
Comments
Conference Organizing Distro
In case it hasn't been suggested: There's a new Conference Organizing Distribution (COD) that's being used by a lot of the recent DrupalCamps: http://usecod.com/
We should definitely use
We should definitely use this. It will make our lives much easier. It will also provide a familiar set of features for those who have attended DrupalCon and DrupalCamp events that use this distribution.
I'm cool with that
I can definitely use that and any other tools that will help. Anything to make this easier; I up for suggestions.
Tyler Smith
Developer
I can take care of hosting
I have a reseller account at hostgator, I'd be more than willing to set up a pro bono hosting account for you to use. It's on their shared servers, but I don't anticipate that being a problem.
Thanks
That sounds great. If you would set that up and then just pass the information along to me I would appreciate it. I don't think we will exhaust anything significant as far as bandwidth or disk space. We are only expecting some 60 people. I don't think anyone else will care about our little group for this first year.
Tyler Smith
Developer
Pantheon
I've heard that Pantheon is offering free COD hosting, but I'm not aware of the specifics. badcamp.net is on Pantheon and Zack and Josh and Matt have been super responsive
Free Amazon EC2
Amazon EC2 has micro-instance hosting for free for the next 12 months.
Camp is on!
If you guys are working on the site then I guess the camp is going to happen :)
Great to hear!
@tjsmith - Let me know what advice I can provide. I'm in irc as greggles or available via e-mail.
knaddison blog | Morris Animal Foundation
I'm donating the names
I'm donating the names drupalcamputah.org and .com with a cPanel hosting account (unless you guys want to use the Amazon EC2). Just let me know what you want to do but I'll just plan on put it on my host for now.
hosting
Sounds like it's already taken care of, but we're happy to offer a VPS container on our colo. It's our dev machine but has plenty of disk and RAM. Uptime is not an issue. We run DNS as well if you need it.
For other planning aspects, we're happy to help just let us know.
Praise and Options
Sounds like there are a lot of options (thanks all for rising to the occasion! you all did awesome in rising to my call).
@jeremyr - thanks for donating the domain names.
I don't care where we host it. Are they any strong opinions? The options that I know about are:
-Pantheon
-Amazon EC2
-VPS on dharmatechs colo
-vectorfrog's reseller hosting
-david's reseller hosting (direct email I received)
If there aren't any strong opinions I'm fine to just use the cPanel hosting account that jeremyr has already associated with the domain names. That would mean the site will be at drupalcamputah.org/.com. I don't know what type of traffic we will get on the site but I doubt it would require anything more than any of these options offer. If I haven't heard anything conclusive in the next day or two I will go with jeremyr's setup.
Tyler Smith
Developer
Hosting
Yep, any of these should work. Some other things to consider:
* We'll want automated backups especially if we're charging a registration fee.
* Setting up a payment processor and SSL cert if we're charging a registration fee.
True Enough
Though I'm hesitant to see what it does to attendance I think a minor registration fee would be a good idea. Even if can get everything sponsored just to make sure people aren't reserving seats that they are not filling.
I had a crazy day at work today, and didn't get the opportunity to ask all the questions that I need to but we will want the registration number to closely match actual attendance. Especially if we do it at a venue where there could be a size imposed cap.
I would hate to turn anyone away but I would hate it even more if we did so and then ended up having empty rooms. Also if we did need a larger space the money can help offset any expenses that brings. If everything runs smoothly we do something fun with the money that gives back to the community or encourages good presenters to return in the future.
I cringe at the idea of setting up the payment processor and such. I think there is something along those line with the COD system but I will have to look at that more closely.
Any other ideas with registrations (I'm thinking like $10, not anything significant) or setting up a payment processing system easily? I'm okay being over ruled on either point. Until I start building it, I'm even okay with a elastic spec for the site.
Get your opinions in now.
Tyler Smith
Developer
registration fee
It might be tough to require a registration fee, even $10. Free event equals more people. Paid event will act as a filter and keep the total number of attendees down. My gut instinct is we'll have a hard enough time getting a good turnout, so we should keep it free. If it's free, we may even attract non-Drupal folks coming out just because it's something to do.
We also need to think about how to get the word out. Lanyrd is a great resource of upcoming events/conferences around the world. Suggestions include other local users group (PHPUG, UTOS, SLLUG) mailing lists, tweets, blogs, etc. Also encouraging past/current clients to attend. Which leads into the tracks/sessions being offered. Who's the audience? What do they want to get out of it?
Getting a better feel for costs involved and the tracks/sessions might dictate whether the event is free or not.
Free is good
I would certainly pay for an event like this however I'm inclined to agree that keeping it free will work out best for the first event. We have a few good potential venues, we have people willing to speak and a support coming from businesses. The sponsors will most likely be able to cover all the expenses. Plus we have no way to collect money as a group or any sort of non-profit tax status.
What DO we need that will cost money? And what businesses/people could we ask to help us with those things?
Also, the UTOS guys probably are a great resource, I don't actually know any of them though.
PS In case you didn't see this: http://groups.drupal.org/node/139189
The Problem With Free
My experience with free events is people will register and not show up.
Something comes up, plans change, the weather isn't perfect, all result in "oh well, I'll go next time." Easy to do with no "skin" in the game.
The problem with people signing up and not showing up is those planning food and meeting room space can get blindsided.
After learning that lesson, I started charging for "free" training, even if it meant standing at the door handing out money to reimburse the registration fee.
any numbers?
@greggmarshall, do you have any hard numbers to show the percentage of no-shows for paid vs. non-paid events? Either way, it sounds like you've got more event management experience than any of us. Care to volunteer your expertise and help us make Drupal Camp UT a success?
No Hard Numbers
Actually if I had hard numbers, I could have used them to predict the no-show rate for my free events. It really varied, as I mentioned, even depending on that day's weather.
I would love to volunteer, but between when this conversation started a couple of months ago and now I've just started an extended contract in Washington DC so I won't even be able to come over with the other Colorado contingent. :-(
Of course I'm happy to help any way I can from a now greater distance. Another great resource is greggles who has been the primary organizer of the Colorado DrupalCamps, which in my mind are hugely successful.
Free no-show rates
NYC camps are often free as well as the Bay-Area Drupal camp and they experience about 25% no-show rates (NYC experiences 25% no-show even if they charge $10, so don't consider this a hard rule). DrupalCamp CO and other camps that charge around $20-$40 experience a 10% no-show. Since it's your first camp it may be good to have a free one, but yes you'll have to balance that with the expected no-shows and how to handle that with logistics and goods.
My company
My company www.observepoint.com my be willing to co-sponsor the event. Let me check with my marketing director and I'll post back as soon as I hear back.
Definite Opinions
Thanks all for sharing your insights and opinions. I'm still trying to get an idea about the max number of people we can host here are WGU (or that they will let us host). That could impose a cap on numbers and a decision on how many we let register with a pretty good idea that not all will attend? I hope to have that number soon. Being our first we are welcome to have a large learning curve but I don't want it to inhibit the value of the camp and the response for next year.
Setting up the site without a registration fee is, of course, easier. I would hate for food sponsor's to over spend because the numbers weren't as good as anticipated in the registration. I guess we can encourage them to order a little less but have the option of getting more if numbers are looking a lot better.
As for business: I'm going to start building the site on jeremyr's space this weekend. We still don't have anyone willing to step up with a design. I'd be good it someone even just came up with a logo for us. Any takers?
Once the site is up I will need some help spreading the word and getting sponsors. I will put in a more formal call for that help once the site it up, but please be thinking about it now. Thanks.
Tyler Smith
Developer
kudos
@tjsmith Thanks for your hard work in herding the cats. :)
Cat herding
I had a very busy week with the launch of a new website for my company. It was exiting but slowed down my completion of the site. I did get a few hours to poke around and get used to the site but not much to build it.
I will be much more focused this week (as I have some 4 days until things get crazy again at home). I notice that no one wanted to step up with some visual design elements of graphics so I went to talk to a buddy of mine who does visual design work. The trick is that he is not part of the community and so we would need to pay him for his work. I will be meeting with him tomorrow at lunch to discuss it more completely but he said it would probably only be a couple hundred to give me a homepage design and color scheme. If any one knows someone willing to sponsor the cost it would be appreciated, especially with there being no registration fee for the camp. I haven't spoken with him about creating a logo but will tomorrow.
When the site goes live in a few days we will add the sponsors in a much more systematic method. Thanks.
Tyler Smith
Developer
Design
Sorry, I'm late to the game here, but I wouldn't mind volunteering my efforts for the theme/logo and other design work. I can't guarantee anything cutting edge, but I'd be free.
Cutting Edge, for a DrupalCamp
Cutting edge in design is probably not the norm for drupal camps. Some are better than others but the standard seems to be pretty low. As long as you're willing to do something repetitively quickly then I would love to have your work. I hate to rush design but we want to have something up before the end of the week and I will need some time to make a theme once we have a design (unless you want to create the theme, but I'm not forcing that on you).
If you want to bounce ideas off of me or get some ideas and thoughts from me just send me an email (using my drupal contact form, it should be enabled). I'll likely check in with you in a day or two to see how it is going. Thanks.
Tyler Smith
Developer
Event Signups
So the site is there but I'm having some issues getting the signup to work correctly. Also do we need to have training sessions available before we start the signups?
Tyler Smith
Developer
If you want any help
If you want any help troubleshooting that, let me know.
Help would be appreciated
I would love some help. I have never dealt with the COD distribution (I realize the double name in that sentence) or ubercart and so I'm having some issues with how signups work with it.
I would just remove the signups but I do want to get a rouch (even if very rough) number of people planning on coming for planning reasons. I don't know if we need to deal with gathering money for trainings but we can always add something once that is in place, right? I just want to get it out there so we can announce that it is happening and work on sponsors and sessions and the more fun parts.
Tyler Smith
Developer
Maybe we just need to create
Maybe we just need to create a simplified version of the COD... Originally I was thinking just using Calendar with the Signup module. Although this would depend on if we ever decided to collect money or not.
I like the "license plate" theme... can we have the conference in Moab instead? Nevermind... forget I asked.
Not a bad idea
I really don't mind that idea, I'm still none the more familiar with either module. We don't plan to collect money, I don't know how that might change if we get some training sessions lined up.
Tyler Smith
Developer
Try #drupal-cod on irc or the
Try #drupal-cod on irc or the cod group.
Asking questions in either place should get you along.
knaddison blog | Morris Animal Foundation
As a side note, I'd love to
As a side note, I'd love to incorporate this very "unofficial" Drupal Utah users group icon that I made using the Drupal drop. It really was only seen once in a presentation, but hasn't been used since. It'd be great it we could use it and also get it onto the group page somewhere. Let me know if you need graphic/theme support.
Here's the link to the icon: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/705223/drupal-utah.png
Andrew (amariotti)