At the end of the camp, we had a wrap up session with about 20-30 people. Here are my notes. Feel free to comment with your personal thoughts (I'll post a few of my own later) or edit the original post.

What worked?

  • Session content was great
  • Wifi
  • Eventbrite
  • Power outlets everywhere
  • Venue
  • Registration was close in location to keynote
  • Coffee, fruit, breads in the morning were great
  • Going where you want to go for lunch (choices)
  • Parties were amazing due to sponsorships
  • Students' free tickets
  • T-Shirts were great

What didn't work?

  • Several sessions were crowded
  • Construction detours
  • Public transit to Boulder more difficult from distance
  • Website was late, final dates announced too late
  • Sessions selected far too close to the event
  • Attendance lower than hoped, but most agreed this was largely due to the fact that the website wasn't launched
  • Conflicts with other events (Austin, D4D, DevDays, DrupalCon)
  • No international attendees (that we know of) and what seemed like fewer out of state
  • Little emphasis on "Commerce Camp" this year as compared to previous
  • Second Keynote speaker backed out
  • No sessions categorized as "Advanced"
  • Parties on Pearl St required transportation
  • Ran out of mens T-Shirts

Quick Poll
Majority in wrap up session would have it in Boulder again, but we do need to reconsider the time of year due to conflicts with other Camps.

Ideas for further consideration

  • Organize group travel (rent a bus/van) with set times from Denver->Boulder and back ("Boulder startup week" has done this)
  • Possibly hold a Regional Event - "Rockies Area Drupal Camp - RAD Camp"
  • Need a Project Manager that hasn't volunteered for anything but simply makes sure people are on task
    • Must be an agreement amongst volunteers
    • Matthew Saunders has volunteered.
  • Is $10 too low of a price? While some argued that the cheap prices have a perceived low value, I don't believe we have any evidence for this.
  • Single person to handle volunteer coordinator
    • Jamie Morris has volunteered

Why did we have some problems this year?

  • In the past, we've had a larger safety net of volunteers who were dedicated
  • Possibly some burnout from DrupalCon Denver
  • Internal team communication

Comments

protitude’s picture

protitude commented

Website
As everyone has agreed, the Camp website was probably the biggest issue. I think we could get around a lot of this by starting on the website now. I realize we probably wouldn't put it up for another 6 months or so until things are solidified: dates, location, etc. But we don't need those things to put together a site that's ready to go. I would assume we could just pick up where we left off on our current 2013 site (the last site install) and continue to fix whatever bugs and add any features we'd like or even start a new site that strips out COD. This does lead to the discussion of whether or not to fix COD or if we'd like to just use eventbrite again, which seemed like a really decent solution.

We could always use node.js/jeckyll and scrap drupal like the Drupal Camp Austin guys did. ;) https://github.com/fourkitchens/dca2013

Recordings
We also skipped video recordings this time around. Instead of making volunteers go in every room and setup recording equipment we could just teach all of the presenters to use google hangouts. That way they could do a hangout on air and it'll automatically get placed on youtube during and after their session. This also opens up the ability for people to watch sessions from home if they can't make it. Just a thought for next time around.

Mentors
I really like jcrespo's idea for having 'mini-mentors' around the camp that help others get started. I think we tried implementing a booth where people could ask questions in a previous camp, but if volunteers willing to help just had a different shirt on and were willing to help whomever needs it, that could be very useful and encouraging to the newcomers.

Overall, I think the camp was really good. There are a lot of logistics to work out for next year but I look forward to another great camp!

ultimateboy’s picture

ultimateboy commented
Version: » 7.x-1.x-dev

Setting version.

cyberswat’s picture

cyberswat commented
Issue summary: View changes
Status: Active » Reviewed & tested by the community

This has been open for a bit ... setting to rtbc unless any others have notes to add.

cyberswat’s picture

cyberswat commented
Status: Reviewed & tested by the community » Closed (fixed)