PRELIMINARY INFO: Western NY State Drupal MINI-CAMP, 4/2013. . . .

Posted by jpw1116 on February 21, 2013 at 12:00am

The Western New York State Drupal User Group knows about your bogged down winter and soon to be dreary spring. . . .

How about a change of scenery?

Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 27, 2013 . . . our first MINI-CAMP.

Picture it being a little warmer, still pre-DrupalCon, and a prime time to get some Drupal people together in a casual setting.

Sign-up and details will appear here in the following weeks. Here is the plan so far:

We received a great off-season rate on a conference facility, just built and complete with A/V and Wi-Fi, in the resort town of Ellicottville, NY. Restaurants and bars in the adjacent village make it easy to split off and continue conversations through the evening.

For now the attendance limit is 45. Outside the regional scope of our G.d.o group, this event will mix in attendees from neighboring Drupal groups around the Great Lakes circuit. Cleveland is exactly three hours away; Toronto, just under three; Rochester, two. The Inn at Holiday Valley has offered us a deal on single/double occupancy rooms.

In advance of the final schedule, please take the accompanying poll.

Questions? Pose them in the comments.

And last, we still need some volunteers, pronto. Nominate yourself for any task you know you can handle.

Remember, April 27, and thanks for being involved in this!

Comments

Great idea

Posted by User Advocate on February 21, 2013 at 12:28am

This is a nice way to usher out a long winter. Great Idea John.

If anyone in the GTA is planning to drive down for this and has room in their car, please let me know :)

Michael

Michael Keara
User Interface Systems Architect,
The User Advocate Group

Coming from Toronto

Posted by colan on March 18, 2013 at 3:12pm

I'm also interested (and willing to share fuel charges) if someone's willing to drive from Toronto.

looking forward to this

Posted by fndtn357 on February 21, 2013 at 10:07pm

thanks for putting this together - looks like a great location and time.

I'd be up to come again this

Posted by cleaver on February 22, 2013 at 2:05am

I'd be up to come again this year. I can present again as well.

http://cleaver.ca

Thanks for the early feedback. . . .

Posted by jpw1116 on February 22, 2013 at 5:15am

Who has keynote suggestions?

volunteer

Posted by GreenSkunk on February 22, 2013 at 1:12pm

i live 4 minutes from there. i would love to help.

It is a damn poor day when you don't learn something.

Awesome

Posted by jeffschuler on February 22, 2013 at 2:23pm

Hope to be able to make it, and to bring some Northeast Ohioans along!

Count me in

Posted by darlai on February 22, 2013 at 3:17pm

Let me know what you need help with.

Nice!

Posted by snggle1975 on February 22, 2013 at 3:49pm

I live close to Ellicottville, I will be there and can help in any way you might need.

This is moving along smartly. . . .

Posted by jpw1116 on February 22, 2013 at 4:48pm

Great, it seems we have a critical mass of helpers forming. Let's shoot for a Goog+ Hangout or at least an online conversation within the next couple of weeks. Volunteer roles up for grabs: food/beverage planning, day-of-event setup and knockdown, and publicity / program wrangler. Reminder, this isn't a full-blown camp. (Yet!)

By the end of the first week of April, Holiday Valley will need to settle on all the details. We already have some nice lunch options from them and really the present task is predicting the attendance count. I'm hoping to get the poll back up and active by early next week to help determine that, then we would simply post the miniCamp as an event to the WNY group and allow signups. Forget the overhead of a dedicated COD-based camp website, unless someone has time to tinker.

As for cost, between lunch and facility fee it should be reasonable. Even with minimal attendance we're probably looking in the 25 dollar range per person, but with some sponsors and extra attendees, of course that stands to drop. We already have tentative interest from one large Drupal company, and another business is planning to donate some supplies.

Meantime, thanks everyone and keep posting ideas—remember, this is whatever we want to make it into. The result will be great no matter what, having a chance to meet in an informal setting, without all the commotion of most other bigger events.

w00t!

Posted by Lauren Kelly on February 22, 2013 at 8:14pm

I'm really hoping to be there and able to present.
I'll confirm with you asap :D

The POLL is up for two weeks. . . .

Posted by jpw1116 on February 27, 2013 at 7:41pm

Please take it at http://groups.drupal.org/node/284053

More info on the event proper soon. We are discussing it at this evening's meetup.

Please attend the Goog+ virtual meetup on Wednesday 3/13. . . .

Posted by jpw1116 on March 7, 2013 at 8:22pm

Find out more here: http://groups.drupal.org/node/287008

We will start assigning tasks and go over the basics of what to expect at the event on April 27.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

BTW, please keep spreading the poll URL above; it is supposed to be wrapping up this coming Tuesday, 3/12.

The poll is closing. . . .

Posted by jpw1116 on March 12, 2013 at 12:57am

In case you haven't yet voted on attendance, get to it fast: http://groups.drupal.org/node/284053

UPDATE on 4/27 miniCamp planning. . . .

Posted by jpw1116 on March 14, 2013 at 4:12am

Our initial planning session went well. Thanks to all of our new volunteers. Expect to get another update on event details in the coming weeks.

Meantime, check out the new post from Nick: http://groups.drupal.org/node/288213

In lieu of voting on a dedicated miniCamp site, just post your proposed sessions/BoFs there, and we will all "plus up" those we'd like to see.

Simple!

Toward a mini-camp head count. . . .

Posted by jpw1116 on March 15, 2013 at 5:40pm

Thanks for taking the attendance poll that closed this week.

NEW LINKS:

To target the number having lunch (of course we hope you'll stick around for that!): http://groups.drupal.org/node/288473
To comment on what you plan to present: http://groups.drupal.org/node/288213
To sign up for our WNYDUG mailing list to get future updates: http://eepurl.com/qCl_X

Final event sign-up and details are slated to be posted soon!

Keep visiting this WNY mini-camp thread. . . .

Posted by jpw1116 on March 20, 2013 at 2:43am

Please check out the three links above, if you haven't yet.

Some people are asking if they can also post BoF ideas on the page in 2.) above.

AFFIRMATIVE!

Watch as confusion begins

Posted by GreenSkunk on March 16, 2013 at 2:31am

Videographer confused during filming on what he was filming

See the video of the Birdie room and some other conference spaces at Holiday Valley Resort at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPhM3xTW_Lk

It is a damn poor day when you don't learn something.

Stay tuned for a WNYDUG mini-camp update. . . .

Posted by jpw1116 on March 25, 2013 at 3:46pm

We are getting info together, and will be working on the next publicity at our local brick-and-mortar meetup this Wed. in Batavia: http://groups.drupal.org/node/289953

Meantime, be sure you have checked in here: http://groups.drupal.org/node/288473

Event signup is live. . . .

Posted by jpw1116 on March 29, 2013 at 5:10pm

From now on, please visit this thread:

http://groups.drupal.org/node/291138