List of "Things" to do for 2017 [#2845633]

General Timing of Tasks and some notes.

Timing	Task	Notes
9-10 months in advance	Determine Camp Location	I think we'll probably use the King Center again. We'll ask Justin to start work on the .
9-10 months in advance	Define and Assign Roles	Some roles might include: Project Management Venue Sponsorship Coordination Track Chairs Session Selection Keynotes Catering / Coffee manager Program and Badges Stickers T-shirts Signage Finances Registration Booth Design / Branding Web site development Parties Powerstrip and extension cord provider Set up / break down (power strips, tables, signage, etc.) Social Media Marketing Customer relations Trainings Volunteer Wrangling
9-10 months in advance	Determine camp dates	Once you know where you want to have your camp, and you know who will do what, you should identify the dates you want your camp to fall on. Looking at what other events are going to compete is critical. We should be doing this now.
8 months in advance	Determine website platform	I think general, for a Drupalcamp, this will be Drupal. But will you build from scratch, will you use COD, will you use Cream? There are two proposals on the table right now. Redo the site using Cream or reuse the site we have.
8 months in advance	Get on BAM's Drupal Camp Calendar	As soon as you have a date, you should get your dates on the global calendar. This will help others NOT compete with your event.
8 months in advance	Identify a Camp Theme	Once you know when and where, it is good to know what you think your camp should focus on. Are you looking at development, front end, Large Scale projects, Non profits, mobile, something else?
7 months in advance	Develop Brand and Website Design	Design is important. This is the first place people will connect with your camp. Spend some time making sure your artifacts can be used in different ways - print, shirts, stickers and so forth.
7 months in advance	Contract with your event center	While engaging in the first tasks, you'll need to ink a contract with your event center. Make sure everything that you need and want are described clearly in the contract. Don't assume that a verbal commitment will or can be honoured.
7 months in advance	Session Selection Committee	Who will choose who will speak? How are they going to make those decisions? Who will communicate with speakers?
7 months in advance	Pricing Structure	How much will you charge for the camp? Do you have a budget in place? Will your revenues cover your costs? Should your event be free with sponsors? Should there be a tiered cost structure?
6 months in advance	Potential Keynote Speakers	Based on your theme, you should start sorting out Keynote speakers as early as possible. Create a short list of folks that might be a good match.
6 months in advance	Decide on a Track List	What will your tracks comprise? Backend, Devops, Frontend, Business, Project Management, other tracks?
6 months in advance	Charitible Donations	Drupalcamp Colorado decided in 2014 to be revenue neutral and that any revenues over and above our costs would be donated. Is this something your camp might want to do? Decide this relatively early.
6 months in advance	Keynote travel stipends	There was lots of discussion around whether the camp should provide keynote speakers with stipends. In the end, it was decided that attracting keynotes that we really wanted could be influenced by, at least, reimbursing expenses. In the end, there was an analysis of average cost to travel and to stay. That became an incentive for kenotes to help the camp out.
6 months in advance	Record Sessions	This was left to individuals to do on their own computers. This year, it was decided that there were more important things to tackle.
6 months in advance	Venue reservation and room allocation	Many event venues won't provide you with room allocations until a short time before the event. The moment you have a real map of the the event location with your allocations, it would be worth having your project manager, a member of your selection committee, and the sponsor lead walk through to think through how best to use the space.
5 months in advance	Demographics	What do you want to know about your registrants? If you want to report on gender or shoe size, you need to ask that up front.
5 months in advance	Financial Processor for the Camp	The Drupal Association will operate as your fiscal sponsor if you want. A fiscal sponsor allows you to operate under the umbrella of a non-profit for the purpose of producing your event and collecting money.
5 months in advance	Determine Session Formats	Do you want to make short form, lightening talks, long form, panels, un-conference style sessions? What others might you include?
5 months in advance	Finalize sponsor benefits	Sponsors need tables, rooms named after them, tickets, t-shirts, and other benefits.
5 months in advance	Track and Session Levels	Front end, Back end, Business, Devops, and others. Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced.
5 months in advance	Identify Trainings	If you want to have trainings at the camp, it is good if you can identify your trainers as early as possible.
5 months in advance	Build 2014 Camp Website	This presence is critical. The earlier it can get done the better. If you can manage to use a distribution, do so. Drupalcamp Colorado used significant chunks of Cream this past year.
4 months in advance	Theme DCCO 2014 Website	Building and theming go hand in hand.
4 months in advance	SSL Certs	If you need a new cert.
4 months in advance	Adopt a code of conduct	We based the Camp Code of Conduct on the Drupal.org code. It can be found here: https://www.drupal.org/dcoc It was added to the Website and we identified people willing to act as points of contact for any issues that might arise.
4 months in advance	Copywriting for Static Pages and Blocks	There is no reason to not start working your copy before the site is ready to go. Drupalcamp Colorado did a vast majority of this copy writing in Google Docs, allowing for collaboration in editing.
3 months in advance	Advertise that you are accepting sessions.
3 months in advance	Marketing	Facebook, Twitter, G+, printed flyers for schools, stickers, earned media, the list goes on and on.
3 months in advance	Promote Training Sessions (Web Site and beyond)
2 months in advance	Select sessions early as "Early Sessions"	If you desire to have early sessions to promote attendance
3 months in advance	Draft Event Schedule	Determine how you will use your space and schedule in what you know at this point.
3 - 1 month in advance	Sponsorships	Solicit and sign up sponsors!
2 months in advance	Design Badge	You don't want to print them yet though - that should happen a few days before the event so you get as many attendees on the badges as possible UNLESS, you go the sharpie route.
2 months in advance	Determine Party Locations
1 months in advance	Rename Rooms for Sponsors
1 month in advance	Session Selections Need to be Scheduled
2 weeks in advance	Volunteer Identification	Drupalcamp Colorado did a different coloured shirt for volunteers.
2 weeks in advance	Create T-shirt design and get them ordered
2 weeks in advance	Stickers
1 week in advance	Create Signage
2 days in advance	Create Camp Badges	Time to get names printed on the badges. Make sure you have your printer lined up!
The night before	Create a Check In Spreadsheet for T-Shirt Distribution and Sign In for Badges
The day of the event	Setup and Breakdown
The day of the event	Training Day
The day of the event	Opening and Closing Sessions
The day of the event	Powerstrips and Extension Cords
The day of the event	Monitor Adapters/Dongles
The day of the event	Group Photo

Comments

Comment #1

21 January 2017 at 22:35

MatthewS created an issue. See original summary.

Comment #2

MatthewS CreditAttribution: MatthewS as a volunteer and at Pfizer, Inc. commented 21 January 2017 at 22:52

We're probably 5 months out right now. So the things we need to sort our are the following.

* Ensure that the venue is locked down to determine our Camp dates.
* Make sure we have people in critical roles - I think we need a meeting for that.
* Update the 2017 site ( @neardark I'm in favour of your comps and think we should just go with them)
* Assuming we have our camp dates locked down, get on the BAM calendar
* Assume we have our camp dates locked down start a social media campaign
* Identify a camp theme (I think we should skip this one, although given our current political climate, perhaps a theme of social justice/software as a mechanism for democracy could be interesting)
* Create a session selection committee
* Solidify our pricing structure - ensure that we like the current model still (I do)
* Confirm JAM for keynote and discuss a second Keynote. (I'll confirm JAM as soon as I know the dates)
* Solidify our Track list - do we want to keep the same one as last year? Probably, though we had a very light DevOps year. Decide on Track levels.
* Decide on our Charities
* Decide if we still like the Keynote Travel Stipend amounts
* Develop a better plan around recording sessions
* Decide on our Financial Processor (I think we should leave that alone and have DOM again)
* Finalise Sponsor Bennies - I think we need to re-think tables.

Comment #3

MatthewS CreditAttribution: MatthewS as a volunteer and at Pfizer, Inc. commented 21 January 2017 at 22:54

We need a new Financial Manager to take over for Rick. :( I have acted as the secondary decision maker in the past to provide comfort that we are spending money correctly. I'll continue in that role.