Posted by cweagans on February 7, 2012 at 7:49pm
I was thinking about putting together an event for Drupal users that live in the Rocky Mountains.
I've looked at a couple of different venues: Boise Center on the Grove and the Boise State SUB.
What do you guys think about trying to put together an event like this? I'd love for the first one to be in Boise!
Comments
SOOO Down.
Thank you for taking initiative on this. I'd love to be more active in the Boise Drupal scene, but I live in Mackay (3 hours away) so getting out there, even on a monthly basis, is tough for me. However, a yearly regional DrupalCamp would be something I would support, attend, and offer to do a session. If you would like some help with a site, let me know.
Plus 1 for you sir; I look forward to seeing more!
Jake Roufa
Boise Drupal Camp
Have you considered tying in this activity with Boise Code Camp on March 24. www (dot) boisecodecamp (dot) com? Or would you preferring to make this a seperate event later in the year.
I thought about it, but Boise
I thought about it, but Boise Code Camp is mainly focused on those goofy Microsoft technologies that we all love SO much. I'd rather have a separate event focused on just Drupal.
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Cameron Eagans
http://cweagans.net
Drupal Camp In Boise
2 years ago, we did a full day Drupal track with 6 sessions and we had presenters from Idaho Falls as well as Boise. And yes, while the Boise Code Camp is driven by the Microsoft community, the door has always been open to other code platforms including Drupal and Linux tools. I have given presentations on Mono, PHP, Slampp, and Drupal over the years I have participated. BTW, the folks in Denver that hold their own Drupal Camp may take issue with calling ours the Rocky Mountain Drupal Code Camp. One suggestion is the Intermountain Drupal Code Camp. Advantage to tying in with the Boise Code Camp is that the venue is in place and there is no cost to participating or attending.
Drupal camp in Boise
Agree that naming it for a region we're not in would be problematic. Only a bit of eastern Idaho touches the Rocky Mountains so we should look at things that fit.
It would be great to have this as a discussion topic at a meetup as the folks at the meet ups are the ones who are most likely to have ideas. Building on the success of Code Camp and expanding opportunities for the local area when we have the power to bring in a much bigger audience than otherwise is a great suggestion.
It would be worth looking at and considering where a possible audience for such an event might come from. Generally in most places I've been to camps few people come from more than a short plane flight away. This puts some limits on places Phoenix, LA, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake etc. As many of these places have smaller or larger events already it would be good for us to consider what the particular draw would be.
One final thought is that if the goal is economic we should look at ways to increase the adoption of Drupal throughout the community. More than a weekend of a handful of people at a hotel and paying for meeting space bringing more open source and Drupal to the community can drive that vitality.
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Blog: Joshua Brauer dot com
Yes! I'm glad that you're
Yes! I'm glad that you're proposing this, Cameron. I've been wanting to have local camp for several years now. Let me do a quick brain dump of some thoughts I've had. This last year I went to a bunch of camps and can at least can share some of seemed to work for me at least.
Anyway, these are just some thoughts and a few things I might be able to contribute. If folks want to take advantage of the odd moment to bounce ideas around, my Skype handle is 'stompeers'. I'm not on IRC a lot these days, and Skype will keep a record of conversations for folks that weren't there for them.
Chris Shattuck
Learn Drupal with over 1700 Drupal video tutorials
Heya Chris! Re #1: Yay!
Heya Chris!
Re #1: Yay! Sponsorships!
Re #2: I think a Drupal-focused event will be more appealing to people that could potentially come in from out of town, as well. One of my goals is to bring people into Idaho and help to stimulate the local economy a bit.
Re #3: I think > 1 day is good. I was thinking maybe even a three day event, where day 1 = trainings, day 2 and 3 = sessions.
Re #4: After hours parties are the best, and I think somewhere in downtown Boise would be a GREAT place to have those.
Re #5: No issue with that - I think it'd help bring people in.
Re #6: Like I said, I go to BSU now, so I should be able to talk to somebody that could help get the SUB booked for this event. Else, I have a contact at Boise Center on the Grove that might be able to hook us up with some space for relatively low cost.
I'll write up an event proposal based on some research I'm doing over the next couple days regarding costs and logistics, and report back here.
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Cameron Eagans
http://cweagans.net
Sounds great, man, keep me
Sounds great, man, keep me posted!
Chris Shattuck
Learn Drupal with over 1700 Drupal video tutorials
Boise Drupal Camp
I just spent about 10 miniutes here to write a comment here, only to click on Save and have it dissappear into the Ether never to be seen again. Maybe we can discuss this at our Boise meeting next week.
Clint
Okay, so I have pricing
Okay, so I have pricing information for the BSU SUB, as well as Boise Center on the Grove. The Sub is definitely cheaper, but I think BCotG is a LOT nicer. I think choosing the venue really comes down to how many people we expect to have: we can accomodate a lot more people at BCotG.
Logistics-wise, there is a free shuttle that runs between the airport and a few downtown hotels (notably, Hotel 43). There's also the free Campus shuttle that operates in a large loop around campus. It's about a 25 minutes walk from Hotel 43 to the Sub, or you can hop on a bus and get to the sub in a few minutes.
I've also contacted the Drupal Association about their Fiscal Sponsorship program, which gives us the following:
1) We get to operate under the umbrella of the non-profit corporation, DrupalCon Inc, which makes our sponsors' donations tax deductable.
2) They give us a bank account to work with.
3) They give us access to a payment processor (in the US, it's a choice between Paypal and Authorize.net - I prefer the latter)
4) They give us a credit card with which to purchase things for the conference.
Details about the Fiscal Sponsorship program can be found here: [REDACTED per DA's request]
I propose the name "DrupalCamp Idaho". There were a few others that came up when I mentioned the idea on IRC, such as "SpudCamp" or "DrupalCamp Potatoland".
I'd like to plan a meeting where people interested in helping with event planning can get together for an hour or two to chat about it. What works for you guys?
Alternatively, we could have an IRC meeting or a multi-user Skype call - doesn't matter to me.
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Cameron Eagans
http://cweagans.net
Sounds great so far! Some
Sounds great so far! Some comments:
Chris Shattuck
Learn Drupal with over 1700 Drupal video tutorials
There's no IRC discussion - I
There's no IRC discussion - I was suggesting that we should have a meeting. I also mentioned the idea of DrupalCamp Idaho in #drupal-colorado when I was talking to the DCCO folks about their planning process.
The Student Union Building is at the corner of University and Lincoln. The Sub pricing is here: http://conferenceservices.boisestate.edu/content/meeting_rooms.php?type=... There's no public pricing data for Boise Center on the Grove, and I suspect that it's negotiable (we should be able to negotiate a lower rate because we're a non-profit).
I don't think we really need to worry too much about BCotG though - it's WAY too big for what we need, and I think the SUB should be more than adequate.
The other option was http://www.broncosports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9900&ATCLID=3691904, which could be a really cool venue.
There is a policy on the BSU campus that all catering must go through the BSU Culinary department, so if we get to the point where we need to cater the event, it'll have to go through BSU. Pricing is here: http://www.campusdish.com/NR/rdonlyres/F0C2C2A0-2AF9-4359-ABB3-27C38447D...
And finally, if we need equipment rentals, that can also be provided by BSU: http://conferenceservices.boisestate.edu/content/index.php?pid=82
My thoughts are that the keynote can be in the Special Events center (a large auditorium), and the rest of the sessions and whatnot can take place on the second floor of the sub. There are four small rooms that would be ideal for BOFs, there are a lot of rooms for sessions, and adequate hallway space for booths, networking, and places to sit during lunch.
I have a feeling that getting this event going is going to involve a lot of time on the phone with coordinators at the Drupal Association, and at the venue we choose, so I think having a dedicated event planning person that can act as a point-of-contact for sponsors, the venue, and the Drupal Association. My mother is interested in doing some of that work, but we need to meet up and talk about what we want to do, eg: how many people to expect, how much to charge for a ticket, etc.
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Cameron Eagans
http://cweagans.net
I like it
I like the idea of having a DrupalCamp closer to home. I see that there are quite a few DrupalCamps held in the US, but most of us can't just jump in an airplane and attend to many of them and the idea of having a local event is great.
DrupalCamp Idaho sounds good.
Antonio
If anyone is interested, I'll
If anyone is interested, I'll be talking to Kris Klinkhammer from the Drupal Association tomorrow at 3pm MST about getting the Fiscal Sponsorship program set up via Skype. If anyone wants to join in, please do the following:
1) Add me on Skype (My username is 'cweagans')
2) Send me an email so I know you'll be coming (don't want to start without ya). My email address is cweagans -at- gmail.com
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Cameron Eagans
http://cweagans.net