Bootstrapd 2013?

[Drew McLellan]

Hi all

I know the list has been quiet, but I think that's probably because we're all busy bootstrapping rather than talking about bootstrapping. :)

Matt, has there been any thought to running another conference day this year? It would be great to catch up with folk a year on, meet some new faces, and spend a day sharing and soaking it up. (I don't just mean the beer.)

What do you all think?

There were a good number of us from down south, if we fancied a change of location Rachel and I would be up for helping sort out logistics for a day in the Reading area.

Drew.

[Matt Wynne]

Hi Drew,

I have given it some thought, and basically although I enjoyed the day it was personally too much of a time-suck for me to want to organise another one myself. That said, if someone else wants to take the reigns, I'm more than happy to:

1) share the keys to the website / twitter account etc

2) come along and facilitate the open space on the day

3) try to offer advice / mentoring to this year's organisers based on what I learned last year

One thought was to run it in Manchester, as they seem to have a pretty active bootstrapping scene.

cheers,

Matt

--
http://mattwynne.net || https://twitter.com/mattwynne || http://the-cucumber-book.com || http://bddkickstart.com || http://www.relishapp.com

[Rachel Willmer]

I wasn't able to be at the last one, but was disappointed I couldn't make it. I'd be very keen for it to happen again.

I'd be happy to pitch with organising. I'd have thought we could get space from Appleton Towers/TechCube/the Business School at no cost.

Matt, what were the parts of the organisation which took up most time? How could we do it differently?

Rachel

[Matt Wynne]

Hi Rachel,

On 26 Mar 2013, at 11:05, Rachel Willmer <rac...@willmer.org> wrote:

I wasn't able to be at the last one, but was disappointed I couldn't make it. I'd be very keen for it to happen again.

I'd be happy to pitch with organising. I'd have thought we could get space from Appleton Towers/TechCube/the Business School at no cost.

That's great! However I think we should offer the opportunity to run it in another part of the country this time, if anyone wants to volunteer.

Matt, what were the parts of the organisation which took up most time? How could we do it differently?

Pffff. Let me think.

I think organising the venue was hard. We wanted to get a special space, not some stuffy hotel conference facility. So we did quite a bit of work to research the venue, going to look at a few and generally fretting about the decision. Also, there came a point when we had to commit to paying the venue quite a bit of money, yet we hadn't sold any tickets yet. This meant we had to take a risk, when I equally had the firmly-held principle that I wanted the event to be not-for-profit. So that was quite stressful.

The other pain was marketing it. We worked really hard behind the scenes emailing / tweeting people who we thought would like to come, or would add something to the event. Most of those people didn't come, but obviously enough enthusiasm trickled through that we ended up with a great gathering with a great crowd. I remember the first ticket we sold that wasn't to someone who I'd personally pitched bootstrapd too, face-to-face. That was quite a moment.

So venue and marketing, that's the hard bits.

I guess we could mitigate those by getting this community to market it together, and to start selling tickets really early so we can basically make everyone partners in the conference, and it's in everyone's interests to market it. That's really how I wanted it to work last time, but I think I didn't put enough energy into spreading that message.

So I think we need to do a couple of things immediately:

- get volunteers for an organising committee (I'll be on it), and one person or a pair of people (not me) who is prepared to be in charge of organisation this time.

- pick a regular time of the week for a skype call / google hangout

- get started (pick a date / location, start looking for a venue, get the website back up, get an eventbrite page up, start marketing it)

Who's up for it?

[Rachel Willmer]

Matt Wynne wrote:

> Who's up for it?

Yes, if its in Edinburgh.

If elsewhere, it would depend on where; I'm already committed to
travelling to 3 conferences over the next 6 months, so my budget is a
bit overspent, both in terms of time and money. Not saying I *wouldn't*
be interested, just that I'd probably have to figure out how to tie it
together with something else to make the trip viable.

So if someone from elsewhere was keen, raise your hand now :)

Rachel

[Graham Ashton]

On 28 Mar 2013, at 09:50, Matt Wynne <ma...@mattwynne.net> wrote:

> That's great! However I think we should offer the opportunity to run it in another part of the country this time, if anyone wants to volunteer.

Don't consider this to be volunteering, but I thought it would be interesting to see whether Manchester's TechHub would be a suitable venue. I love Edinburgh, but it's a hell of a way from southern England.

> I think organising the venue was hard. We wanted to get a special space, not some stuffy hotel conference facility.

I've been chatting briefly with TechHub on Twitter. They're open to us holding it in their space. The summary of what I've found out so far is:

- They're limited to seating 70-80 people in one room (didn't we have just 40 last year?)

- They could provide separate areas for an "open space" style event.

- There's no cost for using the space, but they ask organisers of such events to stump up for the beer and pizza bill. We may decide we don't want to eat beer and pizza, in which case I'm sure other forms of sustenance fit the criteria.

I've been into their offices quite a lot over the last few months, but I'm not sure which smaller rooms they've got in mind for break off groups, and they've suggested I go and have a look. I'd be happy to do that if we were to decide to do another one in Manchester.

> So we did quite a bit of work to research the venue, going to look at a few and generally fretting about the decision.

It was a great venue last year, no doubt about it. TechHub would be a bit different.

There are a few pictures on their site. I think we'd probably get to use the big room at the top (with the beams), and a couple of others.

http://manchester.techhub.com/gallery/

From a travel perspective, you fall off the train in Picadilly and walk for 5 minutes to their front door.

> Also, there came a point when we had to commit to paying the venue quite a bit of money, yet we hadn't sold any tickets yet. This meant we had to take a risk, when I equally had the firmly-held principle that I wanted the event to be not-for-profit. So that was quite stressful.

So if all that was removed, the big problem would be marketing it. Perhaps we need to find out about numbers of people who'd commit to making the journey (to anywhere in the UK with good transport, irrespective of where we host it) before going to far with it?

> The other pain was marketing it. We worked really hard behind the scenes emailing / tweeting people who we thought would like to come, or would add something to the event. Most of those people didn't come, but obviously enough enthusiasm trickled through that we ended up with a great gathering with a great crowd.

I'm quite on meeting people who are actually *doing* things at an event like this, so for me it isn't just about getting enough people, but the right mix of people.

> I guess we could mitigate those by getting this community to market it together, and to start selling tickets really early so we can basically make everyone partners in the conference, and it's in everyone's interests to market it. That's really how I wanted it to work last time, but I think I didn't put enough energy into spreading that message.

If the ticket price was low I'm sure we'd have no problem selling 40 (or 60) tickets.

But, I'd like those tickets to go (largely) to people with some direct experience of bootstrapping, otherwise it'll be less worth making the trip for those travelling a long way to exchange ideas with them.

Is that a good idea? And if so, how would we do that?

> So I think we need to do a couple of things immediately:
>
> - get volunteers for an organising committee (I'll be on it), and one person or a pair of people (not me) who is prepared to be in charge of organisation this time.

I'm happy to be involved in chats about marketing/website, feedback, etc. And to liaise with TechHub, should we want to use TechHub. I don't think I should lead it though - I'm pulled in three different directions already at the moment.

> - get started (pick a date / location, start looking for a venue, get the website back up, get an eventbrite page up, start marketing it)

Ah yes, the website. How's your Japanese? http://bootstrapd.com/

--
Graham Ashton
Founder, Agile Planner
https://www.agileplannerapp.com | @agileplanner | @grahamashton

[Rachel Willmer]

Manchester would work for me.

But we'd need someone local to lead it IMHO. Local support is useful but not enough.

I totally agree with the idea that this should be for folk actually bootstrapping something; I'd rather hang out in a cafe/pub with 5 people actually *doing* something than spend a day with 50 who are there to learn but can't share any actual experience...

Rachel

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[Matt Wynne]

On 28 Mar 2013, at 17:02, Graham Ashton <gra...@effectif.com> wrote:

On 28 Mar 2013, at 09:50, Matt Wynne <ma...@mattwynne.net> wrote:

That's great! However I think we should offer the opportunity to run it in another part of the country this time, if anyone wants to volunteer.

Don't consider this to be volunteering, but I thought it would be interesting to see whether Manchester's TechHub would be a suitable venue. I love Edinburgh, but it's a hell of a way from southern England.

I think organising the venue was hard. We wanted to get a special space, not some stuffy hotel conference facility.

I've been chatting briefly with TechHub on Twitter. They're open to us holding it in their space. The summary of what I've found out so far is:

- They're limited to seating 70-80 people in one room (didn't we have just 40 last year?)

- They could provide separate areas for an "open space" style event.

- There's no cost for using the space, but they ask organisers of such events to stump up for the beer and pizza bill. We may decide we don't want to eat beer and pizza, in which case I'm sure other forms of sustenance fit the criteria.

I've been into their offices quite a lot over the last few months, but I'm not sure which smaller rooms they've got in mind for break off groups, and they've suggested I go and have a look. I'd be happy to do that if we were to decide to do another one in Manchester.

So we did quite a bit of work to research the venue, going to look at a few and generally fretting about the decision.

It was a great venue last year, no doubt about it. TechHub would be a bit different.

There are a few pictures on their site. I think we'd probably get to use the big room at the top (with the beams), and a couple of others.

http://manchester.techhub.com/gallery/

From a travel perspective, you fall off the train in Picadilly and walk for 5 minutes to their front door.

I think Techhub looks fine, as long as those break-out spaces are OK.

Also, there came a point when we had to commit to paying the venue quite a bit of money, yet we hadn't sold any tickets yet. This meant we had to take a risk, when I equally had the firmly-held principle that I wanted the event to be not-for-profit. So that was quite stressful.

So if all that was removed, the big problem would be marketing it. Perhaps we need to find out about numbers of people who'd commit to making the journey (to anywhere in the UK with good transport, irrespective of where we host it) before going to far with it?

This sounds good to me.

So maybe we should sell founder tickets, and those people get to help with the decision about where to run it?

The other pain was marketing it. We worked really hard behind the scenes emailing / tweeting people who we thought would like to come, or would add something to the event. Most of those people didn't come, but obviously enough enthusiasm trickled through that we ended up with a great gathering with a great crowd.

I'm quite on meeting people who are actually *doing* things at an event like this, so for me it isn't just about getting enough people, but the right mix of people.

Absolutely.

I guess we could mitigate those by getting this community to market it together, and to start selling tickets really early so we can basically make everyone partners in the conference, and it's in everyone's interests to market it. That's really how I wanted it to work last time, but I think I didn't put enough energy into spreading that message.

If the ticket price was low I'm sure we'd have no problem selling 40 (or 60) tickets.

But, I'd like those tickets to go (largely) to people with some direct experience of bootstrapping, otherwise it'll be less worth making the trip for those travelling a long way to exchange ideas with them.

Is that a good idea? And if so, how would we do that?

Agreed. I think to some extent we can trust that this will happen naturally - as long as we host it somewhere fairly easy to get to, and we're clear about what an open-space is, those who have most to share at the conference will self-select. We considered ideas like making it invite-only last time, but in the end we weren't confident enough that we'd sell the tickets if we didn't just make it open.

We could issue, say, 5 invites to everyone who came last year, and try to keep it invite-only?

So I think we need to do a couple of things immediately:

- get volunteers for an organising committee (I'll be on it), and one person or a pair of people (not me) who is prepared to be in charge of organisation this time.

I'm happy to be involved in chats about marketing/website, feedback, etc. And to liaise with TechHub, should we want to use TechHub. I don't think I should lead it though - I'm pulled in three different directions already at the moment.

Yeah so we're still looking for a volunteer to run it.

- get started (pick a date / location, start looking for a venue, get the website back up, get an eventbrite page up, start marketing it)

Ah yes, the website. How's your Japanese? http://bootstrapd.com/

I know, I let it lapse, sorry everyone.

I notice bootstrapd.io is still available though. Much more hip :)