Posted by crimsondryad on November 22, 2010 at 10:31pm
I was looking through the events for Drupalcamps coming up over the next 6 months and there are very few posted right now. Then I started thinking (not for the first time), that it would be really cool if we had a Drupal Camp in Columbus.
Has this group considered that before? How did it go?
Would anyone be interested in doing this? And if so, how do we get there (seems like a big project?)
Categories: camp, columbus, Drupal, Ohio, training, columbus ohio, drupal camp
Comments
there's been a fledgling interest in the past
We have teased the idea in the past, especially last winter when we were having larger attendance. One reason for the lack of camps in the mid west may be the fact that Drupalcon is in Chicago in 5 months.
As for logistics it's a little bit of work, which largely depends on how big you want it to be. We would need a space, most camps have a beginner and advanced track so being able to divide a space into rooms would be a good thing (or simply have two rooms). We would need to be able to feed people, we may be able to get food donated if someone wants to make calls :). Need to provide things like Coffee and Tea. It would be nice to have it somewhere with bars/restaurants nearby for after hours hanging out.
Then we get into speakers, I have been to 2 camps and 2 Drupalcons, the later has speakers coming out of their ears. The former seem to rely on a combination of attendees proposing sessions and recruiting big name devs to come. If we recruit people I'm guessing we would have to pay airfare and put them up (most people in the Drupal community woud be okay with sleeping in a guest room or on a couch vs us renting the a hotel room).
We can probably get sponsors to kick in some start up $,ドル ie local firms can hit up clients and partners. Local firms can kick in some $$ (yes Rooty Hollow throw in $$). We could ask anyone to be honest but technology firms around the area make the best targets, I have also seen Microsoft, Adobe and Oracle sponsor these kinds of things, but wouldn't know who to contact.
Thinking it through...
I am crappy about attending, but good at making calls. :P I'd be willing to call around if someone can point me in the right direction. And hell, I'll BUY tea and coffee if I have to.
Microsoft is in town (they have a building up at Polaris). I'd be willing to call them up and espouse the benefits of Drupal for Microsoft (specifically PDO so people can use SQL Server with D7).
You are right about DrupalCon being soon. But we might do ok...not everyone can afford 350ドル plus hotel / food / flight. If ours is cheaper, we might still get some people interested.
Maybe we can bribe Doug Vann with beer? :P
Drupal at Ohio Linuxfest
I've been working with the Ohio Linuxfest people. Linuxfest is about Open Source, not just Linux, and they are very interested in Drupal, but it's hard to pick a speaker with enough general interest to fill one of the big halls. I think we'll do better in one of the more moderate sized rooms.
They have offered us a room with no charge that we can fill with a day of Drupal programming, somewhat like the Zenoss Community Day they had last year. Sponsors to get speakers would be good, but we shouldn't need a lot of other funding. I'm not sure if we should call it DrupalCamp or not.
I need to talk with their Programming committee arrange get details. Anyone that has suggestions is welcome to email me at ranvaig@columbus.rr.com.
Sharon
Sharon Palmer
Maybe Linuxfest too?
I was sort of hoping that we'd have a DrupalCamp that wasn't riding the coat tails of LinuxFest. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great idea to have a table / room there, but there are soooo many great topics that getting them all is already a struggle.
Considering that some of us drove to Indy for the DrupalCamp there, we could probably generate enough interest to get people here. Getting the space and food seem like the hardest part. We have like 6 colleges in town though...we might be able to get one to donate space for the day.
Yea I'm in
Sharon said something about this after the last meetup. Sounds like a good marriage of ideas and resources to me.
How many sessions do we need to fill?
As many as we want to, I
As many as we want to, I think. Will depend on how many speakers we can bring in. I haven't talked details, but it sounded like we can have a room all day, if we can use it.
I hoped for a mix of beginner and more advanced classes, as well as a hands on class, like we talked about last year.
Sharon
Sharon Palmer
Yea the more I think about it
Yea the more I think about it I think doing something independent of LinuxFest is a better idea. As much as Linux Fest is all about open source it's not really a good recruiter for bringing new people to Drupal, coming to LinuxFest to learn about Drupal seems like a barrier for non-technical crowd.
Further I'm pretty sure we could fill a track at Linux Fest with locals and nearby people and do a Drupal Camp separate from Linux Fest later in the fall. How many session are in a track 5 or 6, here's last year's schedule http://ohiolinux.org/sat10-schedule.html.
Totally DrupalCamp at Ohio LinuxFest!
++1 for DrupalCamp at OLF
After I spoke at last year's Ohio Linux Fest in September 2009, I was asked to come to the June 2010 SouthEast LinuxFest and put on a DrupalCamp there. The S.E.L.F. team had the a/v and rooms and chairs all ready for me. All I had to do was get the talent to come. That wasn't hard at all. We filled up two tracks and still had to turn people away who wanted to present. The whole camp went off perfectly and we really added a lot of value to the LinuxFest experience. :-)
I'm doing this again here for the Indiana LinuxFest in late March. [Yah... Dangerously close to DrupalCon!]
I've helped organize over half a dozen camps including the 1st camp I ever attended - Chicago, Oct 2008.
I routinely share my sponsorship contacts which includes the MicroSoft OpenSource Evangilsm Team, Tech book publishers, and all the Drupal shops and hosting providers that routinely sponsor DrupalCamps.
Right now I'm heading out to Columbus to deliver Drupal Training to some of the OSU IT staff.
If any one wants to hook up for dinner or drinks, I'd love to share the experience & information I have! :-)
Of course... If the OLF gang isn't keen on a DrupalCamp on top of their gig, then it's not hard to throw one apart from it...
- Doug Vann- Doug@DougVann.com
- Schedule a Meeting : Meet.DougVann.com
- 765-5-DRUPAL (765-537-8725) GoogleVoice
- Skype: douglas.h.vann
- My Blog - Twitter Me - FaceBook - LinkedIn
Aim for Fall 2011
My suggestion would be to plan for a DrupalCamp Ohio sometime in the late summer/ fall of 2011. There isn't any good reason to fight with DrupalCon for participation..especially with it being in Chicago this year. If it turns to an annual event, Fall is a better time, since it would always be against the international DrupalCon.
We would also be able to market the Camp at DrupalCon Chicago if it's in the fall. 6 months isn't to long for a well planned event. Could we hold it on the OSU campus before classes start in the Fall?
I'd also suggest that we keep the camp as an "Ohio" camp and be sure to seek support state wide...
Willing to help out and attend!
Gregg Short
GShort.com, LLC Web Marketing and Design
gregg -at- gshort.com
Burbank, OH
Agree
I agree. OSU probably has the best facilities although another college would work too. That is if we don't want to have a smaller, more open camp at Linuxfest.
The OSU Drupal User's Group would be the ideal people to help spearhead getting access to somewhere on campus for a specific time.
Linuxfest would be fun as always.
Columbus State is good too
Their downtown campus is larger than a lot of people realize. They also opened a new rather large campus in Delaware.
Though OSU may be more willing since they are using Drupal for a lot of their sites now.
Would love to see a
Would love to see a DrupalCamp or some kind of training event in Columbus area. Any updates on this?