BoF at Drupalcamp Gothenburg
Around 12 people gathered for 30 min chat about the situation we have in Nordics where each country has one or more Drupalcamps yearly. And this camps are competing about the planning and organizer resources, speakers, attractive dates, attendees and sponsors. And often the Camps are held in English or at least there is some English track, so each country ́s camp could target the other countries.
The idea that is raised by Lauri (Finland) is that we should have a Drupalcamp for Nordics for all countries and have it rotate between the countries.
Here is some of the discussion that was brought up.
* Should we have several okay Drupal camps or one superb
* What is the efficiency of the volunteer resource for Drupal
* What is more cost efficient
* A small camp can only cover a small topic. A big event can be more diverse
* Smaller camps has problem of attracting speakers
* Going to camps abroad costs. Traveling is not cheap.
* How is responsible for a loss, for example if a sponsor pull out.
* Should there be some "Customer" track. Like End-user training.
We have three problem.
* Where
* How
* When
What we also needs to do is proposals and practical suggestions instead of just blue-skying.
Suggestion for next step:
* Have the first test run camp in Helsinki around June 2015
* Create a group on groups.drupal.org
* Contact people
* Try the BAD camp approach we free entrance and search sponsors
* And also look into scholarship for attendees to apply to for travel costs.
Comments
Good idea
I personally think this a very good idea. It is not that expensive to go to any of the other Nordic capital cities and there are really cheap places to stay for those that want. Finding good locations is also easier for larger events - at least in Stockholm.
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Thanks Kristoffer for posting
Thanks Kristoffer for posting this and taking notes! I think it covers all the discussions we had there and that we even though you haven't been there, you should be on the same page with others.
This week was really horrible to me and I was too busy and tired to do anything so I'm going to contact different camps in northern Europe next week. Ideally we could get this co-operation working including people in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Russia.
My idea for the involving people to the process would creating a budget for each of the countries. We take sponsors from all of the countries and then we try to spend money for the scholarships to pay people come to the camp. I'm going to open this idea a bit more later and we can discuss whether everyone likes it or not.
I attended the BoF and think
I attended the BoF and think this is a wonderful initiative, and I totally back it up. Even if I'm on my way to end my involvement in DrupalCamp Gothenburg, I will try to help out in any way I can (that's within my reach).
I just would like to state that I don't like the idea of these camps being arranged in just the capitals of the different countries. Naturally I would like to see one of these in Gothenburg some time in the future, not only Stockholm. I have personal reasons for that, but I also know that in Norway, the local Drupal group in Bergen is (or at least was last year) more active and stronger than the group in Oslo. And sure, capitals are nice and all, but we shouldn't contain Drupal Nordics/Drupal North just to capitals.
I also would like to point out that arranging Drupal Nordics/Drupal North in the fall might be futile since we already have DrupalCon in the fall. I recommend focusing on one greater event per year, placing that during the spring not at the same time as DrupalCon in USA.
Just my five cents, not stating that I won't visit a Drupal Nordics/Drupal North if it's arranged in Stockholm. I'm not that narrowminded. ;)
// Adam
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Adam Evertsson - Came for the code, stayed for the community!
I think this is a good
I think this is a good idea.
I am against abandoning the national camps, though. If there had not been a Norwegian DrupalCamp the last two years, I would not have been able to go to any Drupal events (because of residency-related travel difficulties).
Of course, maybe that is an edge case and not something we should think about, but it is my opinion.
That said...should we arrange a meeting? The leader of the Norwegian Drupal Association is hansfn.
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