Getting started: Venue, sponsors, etc

[Vero Pepperrell]

Theme:
SocialMediaCamp is fairly self-explanatory, we'll want to cover topics
like blogging, podcasting, social networks, community relations,
marketing ethics, etc... and I'm sure this list will grow as more
people get involved.

However, with developer-oriented camps, there's often a challenge:
Mashup of some sort or problem to solve. In an event that's slightly
less focused on developers, what could this challenge be?

Logistics:
Venue: Does anyone have a suggestion, a recommendation or an inkling
of a location we could use over a Saturday and Sunday? We'll need
enough room for a few concurrent sessions, a chillout area and the
ability to setup a wifi network. Somewhere fairly central London will
be most likely to please everyone.

Dates: FUEL Conference is in mid-June, and there's a BarCamp on May
31st. So I suggest we aim for 5-6th July, which apparently means we
miss school holidays by a few weeks for those who need to take the
sprogs on holidays at some point. Other suggestions?

A/V equipment & seating: So far, Adrian Moss has offered to podcast
the event, but we'll need to either borrow or rent enough projectors,
screens, tables and chairs for the sessions.

Sponsors: Obviously, for all this to happen we'll need sponsorship to
help cover costs & print the unavoidable *Camp tshirts.

Did I miss any of the basics? Who's got great contacts or suggestions
for any of the above? This is the first round of emails, so please
feel free to pass this on and get others involved!

[Whatleydude]

Challenge wise:

Once we get over the basics - ie:

Social Media Overview
Rules of Engagement/Etiquette (maybe we should get Maz Hardey
involved?)
Why it is important etc...

I think there is good scope for a project along the lines of:


1) What social tools are available for the modern marketeer/social
media strategist? (they are many; some mainstream, some not).
2) How can you leverage these tools to work hard for YOU and your
project (etc)
3) What's the best way to get the most engagement with the least
amount of dev? (if we're not focused on dev, then lets focus on not
being focused on it - right?)

I've never done a barcamp before (I KNOW I KNOW) so I don't know what
the par for the course is... Is that ^ ok?

[Vero Pepperrell]

Yes, these are definitely on track and on topic. Especially when
touching on the social media in business, a few of us are feeling the
weight of having to explain and justify through KPIs and forecasts why
our oh-so-web2.0 channels are worthwhile to members of the company who
are perhaps a bit less enlightened about it all.

At SXSW, there were a number of "Core Conversations" where there was a
topic and a moderator, but it wasn't so much of a one-man-presentation-
with-slides, and more of a managed conversation. Great idea, I'd love
to replicate that, especially for topics like the one above where
we've all got so much to learn from each other. However, logistically,
SXSW failed to take in account that ppl talk a bit loud, so these
would have to be as far apart as possible!

Good stuff, thanks for throwing ideas - Let's update the wiki in the
next couple of days to start giving whoever hits the page an idea of
what topics might be covered.

V