Here are the notes from our DrupalCamp Toronto (DCTO) discusssions on Monday night. I've also condensed and included some of the information from our initial meetings in 2009 and Kevin Walsh's previously mentioned spreadsheet. The 2009 notes are worth mentioning because they capture elements of the 2008 DCTO as well as some ideas we had that might be worth repeating.
If I've missed anything or you would like to add your thoughts, please do so. :)
CHECKLIST
A condensed list of checklist items we need to consider for DCTO include:
- organizing committee
- date
- attendance projections and fees
- venue
- sponsorships
- budget
- program
- media
- merchandise
- food
- audio/video
- legal
- party
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
This is the current list of people who have officially noted they would like to join the organizing committee. If I've missed anyone or you would like to officially add your name to the list, please let us know.
- Kevin Walsh
- Cleaver Barnes
- Chris Luckhardt
- Grad Murray
- Greg Mount
- Miriam Verburg
- Darko Antic
- James Walker
- Andre Molnar
DATE
The consensus was to aim for October 1st and 2nd.
ATTENDANCE PROJECTIONS AND FEES
We're aiming for an attendance figure between 300-500. The 2008 DCTO had 159 people in attendance. There was no admission fee, just a suggested donation. Other DrupalCamps have charged an admission fee. Registrations will need to ask about dietary restrictions and shirt sizes.
VENUE
Several venues were mentioned, but no consensus was reached. MARS was heavily discussed as an option. The BarCamp website was noted during last year's meetings for having a list of venues we could consider. The venue must be accessible. There was also strong support in 2009 to continue having a social space or lounge area.
SPONSORSHIPS
A full list of 2008 DCTO sponsors can be see in this photo. Getting sponsors includes sending a formal request and following up on the request. Among the usual sponsors, Microsoft was mentioned as a possible sponsor, due to their push in the OSS community and the "Make Web Not War" conference coming up in Montreal. Kevin has a detailed list of sponsorship information in his spreadsheet.
BUDGET
The 2008 DCTO budget was largely covered by sponsors. Excess cash was donated to the Drupal association. Scaling attendance up will directly affect the size of the budget. Kevin has breakdown of budget considerations in his spreadsheet.
PROGRAM
We're considering multiple streams, similar to how the Mesh Conference works. They have design, development and management streams. We could tailor that idea to suit DCTO (theming, developers, introductory, etc...). We'll need to determine a process for session submissions and keynotes.
MEDIA
We have a website and a social media presence on Facebook and Twitter. The website will need to be updated. Facebook and Twitter are already being regularly updated. There was talk of creating a Toronto specific logo last year, since the current logo was based on the logo for DrupalCamp Montreal. There was also some discussion about connecting with traditional media.
MERCHANDISE
Shirts have been the standard swag item at past DCTOs, but other options (stickers, etc) might be worth investigating. Getting logos for swag has been an issue in the past.
FOOD
Catering for the 2008 DCTO was handled by Vert and the Afghan Women's Cooperative. Organizing two different catering services proved to be complicated.
A/V
There was discussion about the logistics of recording each session. WordCamp and DrupalCon are some leading examples of how this was done. Chris has several connections in the photography and videography communities he can contact. Greg Mount had some good ideas in this area.
LEGAL
There was a discussion in 2009 about hiring a lawyer to handle money. Is this something to consider?
PARTY
The Drake and Gladstone were proposed in 2009 for the after-party.
Comments
additional organizer
I recently heard from Grad Murray. He's interested in joining the organizing committee and planning the after-party. I've added Grad to the organizer list above. If anyone else is interested, send me an email or add your comments to this thread. :)
Good to see more people
Good to see more people coming on board.
I've been accumulating some thoughts for consideration by the team. Once I get a bit organized, I can dump them here, or maybe I should save that for when we develop an agenda for the next meeting?
http://cleaver.ca
I'd say add your ideas here
I'd say add your ideas here so we can read them over and form some thoughts before the next meeting. Maybe we can form an agenda around them or the headings I listed above?
I was sure I had come across
I was sure I had come across some good material around organizing the Florida Drupalcamp, but I can't seem to find it.
A couple of things I do recall were that they had a beginner's track at the camp and a community event. The beginner's track started participants off with a hands-on installing Drupal on their notebooks and took them through the basic steps of setting up a site. I'd like to see something along these lines to help build up the community. The community event was a site building exercise for a local charity. This would be a nice option, or perhaps we could look at something like the Habitat for Humanity volunteer effort that was planned for the Do It With Drupal conference.
Here's a couple of links from my bookmarks, in case any of you haven't seen them. Seems like we might be a bit ahead, having already hosted a Toronto event...
Building the website: http://drupal.org/node/519100
Organizing guide on g.d.o: http://groups.drupal.org/node/10437
http://cleaver.ca
Thanks cleaver, I would
Thanks cleaver,
I would highly recommend reading the two links provided especially for the ones who are new to organizing a drupal camp. It's a great 'crash course' into the planning structure of a DrupalCamp.
--
Lyemium
let's get an email list
let's get an email list going, either by reviving the email list used for 2008 or by creating a google group. I'd like to continue use the google doc spreadsheet you mentioned and sync the permissions to that with an email list that people can auto-join.
kev
/user/666
unlockedmedia.net
Sounds good
Sounds like a good plan. I've sent an email to you, Cleaver and Grad with info about the DCTAdmin list.
One more for the organizing committee
Please sign me up to help out with this. It looks like we've got excellent interest in making this happen. I mentioned the posibility of DCTO 2010 at the last UT DUG meetup and there were a number of people interested in helping out. To that end, I've asked Kevin to talk on this at the May UT DUG meetup, which will hopefully drum up new volunteer and sponsorship opportunities.
I've added you to the list.
I've added you to the list. I assumed as much, but wanted to wait for your official word. ;) Great that Kevin is going to the meeting to drum up interest!
I've added Miriam, Darko,
I've added Miriam, Darko, James and Andre to the organizing committee list.
I wish I could attend
I wish I could attend tonight's organizing meeting at CSI ...
I do However have some files that I think Andrew Mallis put together from Drupalcamp 2008
I've zipped together a folder which you can pick up here: http://tristen.ca/drupalcamp_toronto.zip
in it contains: Food costs, graphics, sponsorship and attendee numbers and contact.
Hope this is of some use :)