Barcamp Venue Ideas

[Tim Bertram]

Hello everyone,

BarCamp Milwaukee and Madison planning is well under way, it time to start talking about BarCamp Fox Valley!  One of the major steps is finding a venue for our BarCamp goodness!  So lets step up the search, share some ideas and use our contacts in the area to secure a location.

I'm going to toss out a few ideas.

1) Hotels - Hotels have conference rooms that might work.  Does anybody have any connections at any hotels to be able to work out any special deals?

2) Businesses - Are there any businesses that have a few conference rooms that we could use?  (One suggestion was Time Warner Cable might have a bunch of conference rooms) 

3) Camps - There are real campgrounds that might have useful facilities.  Barcamp doesn't have to be a 100% indoor experience, it can be whatever we make it!

So there are a few ideas, please add your own, even if you don't have a the connections to make your idea happen, somebody else might so please share.  

-Tim Bertram  

[Bob Waldron]

My suggestion for the best barcamp location in the Fox Valley is the Girl Scout HQ on Lynndale in Appleton.

Bob

[Gabriel D. W. Wollenburg]

Next step: somebody call and see if there amenable to us.  
Sent from my iPod

On Jun 25, 2011, at 9:34 AM, Bob Waldron <bwal...@gmail.com> wrote:

My suggestion for the best barcamp location in the Fox Valley is the Girl Scout HQ on Lynndale in Appleton.

Bob

[Bob Waldron]

I just took a before-Next-Step and sent an email to Barb Wilkinson at Fox Valley Tech, who is involved with FVTC's Girl Tech, http://www.fvtc.edu/public/content.aspx?id=1923&pid=1.

[Carrie Keenan]

I can try talking to some people at some hotel venues. Do we have any suggested dates or estimated number of people? Those will both be asked

On Sat, Jun 25, 2011 at 9:29 AM, Tim Bertram <bert...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Bob Waldron]

Five things to consider when finding a barcamp venue are:

1. The 'camp' aspect of barcamps.  FOOcamp, the original barcamp and Milwaukee barcamp all provided the overnight 'camping' option of having a space where barcamp participants can set up a tent, or at least put a sleeping bag. If BarCampFoxValley has no intention of having overnight participants, that would not need to be a consideration, but if organizers of BCFV want to have a social gathering on a Friday night before an all-day Saturday barcamp or want to have a two-day Saturday/Sunday barcamp like BCMke, it will be beneficial to secure a venue with the 'camping' option.

2. Food.  Because barcamps/unconferences are participant-driven and have free or very low cost registration fees, it's highly desirable to be able to bring food into the event venue. Many hotel or other commercial event venues will require purchase of food from the venue or their identified food vendors -- very expensive.

3. Room layout.  Potential venues for barcamps should have room layouts that are conducive to the main activities at a barcamp. This means a large room where all participants can gather for a kickoff meeting and for meals/social gatherings, medium size rooms for sessions with internet connections and wall space for LCD projectors, and small rooms or gathering locations for impromptu sessions or BOF sessions.

4. Wifi.  A huge need for barcamps is to have a strong, reliable wifi system, not an easy thing to provide for 100+ tech enthusiasts and 'net users. In some cases a formal/commercial venue such as a hotel, might have a more robust, reliable wifi system than what an informal non-commercial facility might. But if the formal/commercial venue internet access system doesn't meet the needs of the barcampers, there is a very low probability of barcampers being allowed to hack the system to improve it or to enhance it with additional bandwidth, especially on short notice or at a reasonable cost.

5. Ambiance/Atmosphere/Culture.  Depending on the type of ambiance or culture an organizing group wants to create for a barcamp, the venue can be a great help or deterrent. BarCampMilwaukee, with the Bucketworks venue has been able to create and maintain a fantastic informal, flexible, participant-driven culture. MinneBar, the Minneapolis barcamp, has chosen to go with the more formal atmosphere of holding the event at the Best Buy corporate HQ and have a more formalized presentation/session schedule determined in advance of the event. Both types of events can be considered successful, depending on the goals of event organizers and participants, and an informal, flexible, participant-driven atmosphere can be obtained in less-than optimal venues, as BarCampMadison has done in a hotel on the Square and in an unfinished office building.

Bob

[Tim Bertram]

I don't know how many people, to even guess, but my hope would be 40-60 for the first year, but that is really a wild guess.  

The more meeting rooms the better but 3 might be a starting point with at least one area to fit everybody.

At this point the barcamp could be as small or as large as we want to make it. 

See Bob's email for more venue information about barcamps in general.

-Tim

On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 9:02 AM, Carrie Keenan <carrie...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Pete Prodoehl]

Bob nailed a lot of things I was going to say... :)

But as far as numbers, I think you'd maybe see 100, just due to the fact that people from Milwaukee or Madison who really like BarCamps would make the drive. (It's not even that much of a drive really.)

If you need to, you can limit the number of people who can sign up. I've seen this done elsewhere. Limit it, and you'll get an idea of the demand. You'll know for next time.

Pete

[Bob Waldron]

As +Pete said, it would be *fantastic* if experienced barcampers from Mke and MadCity (and from between the two...) came to a BCFoxValley to give it the 'right' tone (overnight 'camping,' using Open Space technology to generate and organize the sessions, emphasizing participation instead of 'attendance' etc) and to help launch the new tradition. Thanks Pete!