Posted by leehunter on July 23, 2012 at 12:37pm
Start:
2012-08-14 18:00 - 20:00 America/Montreal Organizers:
Event type:
User group meeting
[edited to change date to Aug 14]
Looks like there is enough interest in starting an Ottawa DrupalCamp this year. But if it's going to happen, we'll have to start getting things organized. The proposed agenda for this meeting includes:
- Venue
- Date
- Keynote speaker
- Format (i.e. unconference or structured?)
- Theme(s) and streams
- Budget
Last week I sat in on a planning meeting for the Montreal DrupalCamp, which was very helpful, and I'll be able to report on how they're handling things this year.
Comments
VACATIONS
Hi Lee,
We'd like to join... but we are all away next week on vacation (shop is closed down). I know Mike Gifford is also away until the 8th of Aug.
Any other options? Given our role at GTEC and with CosCoe, might be worth having us involved on the first meeting?
Cheers,
Thanks
Robin Galipeau - Managing Partner
http://www.openplus.ca
Yes. Let's change the date!
Yes, absolutely. That was my 'straw man' date to see if it worked for other people. How about August 14?
Either date works for me. Do
Either date works for me.
Do we want to define an agenda before the meeting so we can do research ahead of time? Does anyone have an agenda from the dcmontreal meetings we can base ourselves off of?
--
Mathew Winstone
CEO/Co-Founder - Coldfront Labs Inc.
http://coldfrontlabs.ca
@mathewwinstone
Agenda
I've suggested an agenda in the event post (the first post in this thread).
I think one of the biggest things is just getting our heads around the venue/date issue.
Of course the big dependency for the venue is simply the number of attendees. For myself, I really don't have a clear idea of how many people to expect but if I had to guess it would be somewhere between 50 and 125. With all the government buzz recently perhaps there could be a lot more. For example, a larger department doing a major implementation would probably have at least 4 to 6 people who should be going. Training budgets for most departments totally suck right now, so this will be an incredibly cost effective to get training and to learn from their peers.
It might also depend on whether it's a weekday or weekend and what else is going on at the time. However, one thing that was clear from the Montreal meeting is that it's better to have a venue that's a bit too crammed than one that feels too big and too empty. It's a lot more dynamic and interesting if people are packed into smaller, more intimate spaces than if they wandering alone through a big empty hall. But you still need to make sure there's enough space.
The venue needs one larger room for everyone to gather (especially if there's going to be a keynote) and a number of smaller spaces (maybe 3 or 4 depending on the number of tracks).
And good wifi. :)
Drupalcamps also usually provide food and coffee so that will have to be arranged either with the venue or with an outside service.
my 2 cents... Venue needs to
my 2 cents...
Venue needs to be dynamic (a meeting space which can scale-up as interest/registrations grows - we have a few suggestions we can discuss at meeting)
As for dates/time, I really think this needs to be workday (several of our clients have requested day-time training). It's really hard with families given busy evening/week-end schedules.
either way, we will participate...
THANKS,
r
Robin Galipeau - Managing Partner
http://www.openplus.ca
Yeah I saw that as I hit
Yeah I saw that as I hit save. Sorry :-S
--
Mathew Winstone
CEO/Co-Founder - Coldfront Labs Inc.
http://coldfrontlabs.ca
@mathewwinstone
Works for us.
If you change it to that date, we'll register from here.
THANKS,
r
Robin Galipeau - Managing Partner
http://www.openplus.ca
Venue - uOttawa
I've booked rooms at uOttawa several times in the past and know quite a few people there. I can see how much it would be to get a pair of rooms with projectors and such.
Internet there works pretty well too. It's roughly 100$ per day to activate the guest wifi access in the area required. Room costs vary from free to a few hundred dollars (depending on the size of the room and the utilities available). For example, if you book a room without a projector you need to pay 500$ to rent one and have a tech there for 30$/hour to operate it. So clearly getting a room with a projector pre-installed is preferred (considering we could buy a project for the cost of renting one for a day).
Desmarais has a pair of rooms on the third floor which are medium in size (roughly 100 people each) which could work. I can ask to see how much those would cost. I know the regular meeting rooms nearby are free to book as well.
I can contact Conventions and Reservations and see what they say if you like.
Let me know.
--
Mathew Winstone
CEO/Co-Founder - Coldfront Labs Inc.
http://coldfrontlabs.ca
@mathewwinstone
U of Ottawa would be an
U of Ottawa would be an excellent location in a lot of ways but I do think we need at least two to four small spaces + the big room. Having several smaller spaces is important so that we can break things out into multiple tracks or BoFs.
However the ideal configuration is really fuzzy for me at the moment. I suspect it will be a little clearer when we sit down and talk it out (although ultimately we won't know for sure until we see how many people show up and what they want to cover).
Next Week's Meeting
Really looking forward to this meeting. From organizing http://www.a11yyow.ca last year, I've got some ideas/contacts that might be useful for the venue.
Hopefully there will be a bit more work on COD so we can more easily roll up a camp site too - http://drupal.org/node/1110138#comment-6270674
I do think that there are a number of organizations who will be eager to send folks to this event.
Not that we'll likely be looking at organizing this in October, but good to avoid this weekend - http://www.makerfaireottawa.com
--
OpenConcept | Twitter @mgifford | Drupal Security Guide
I'll join the planning
I'll join the planning session as well. I have been heavily involved in organizing IEEE Conferences in the past, which might help.
Potential Venue = CarletonU?
I have contacts at Carleton U and depending on our dates we might be able to book rooms and auditoriums for free or at a heavily discounted price through IEEE Carleton.
CISV Case Study
We might also be interested (time permitting) in presenting a Case Study of a medium to large Drupal deployment we are doing for CISV USA (a non-profit). Sneak peek here - http://cisv4.grype.ca/
See you tomorrow.
Farhad Khan, Systems Engineer
Grype / web, mobile & social media
Cell 1-613-301-8161 | Work 1-888-384-8950 x 101 | www.grype.ca
2525 Carling Avenue, Suite 23, Ottawa, ON K2B7Z2, Canada
Quick Meeting Summary
Want to just say that the meeting last night went very well. Was very inspiring to see all the people who showed up and were eager to commit their time to making this happen.
Looks like Drupal Camp Ottawa will take place in early 2013 and keep an eye out here for announcements about the site, dates and how to get involved.
There are now a few Google Docs & a Google Group that you can sign up to if you missed the organizing meeting - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/drupal-camp-ottawa-org
Stay tuned for more.
--
OpenConcept | Twitter @mgifford | Drupal Security Guide