So You Wanna Host a ColdFusion Devcamp?

 
Dec 09, 2009

by Sid Maestre

Now that ColdFusion Devcamp is over, I'd like to share my experience with ColdFusion Devcamp San Francisco in November 2009. This is advice based on my experience and these are not meant as hard and fast rules. If you still have questions after reading this, then drop me a line. I'm more than happy to chat about devcamps.

How long do I need to plan a Devcamp?

My partner Luke Kilpatrick organized a Palm preDevCamp in eleven days. I began working on ColdFusion Devcamp three months prior to the event. I spent the first five to six weeks talking to sponsors and putting up the website. The last six weeks covered 80% of my effort to organize and promote the event. Six to eight weeks should give you enough time to plan your event.

What about a website?

I secured the two domain names — cfdevcamp.org and cfdevcamp.com. Both domain names point to the same web site. I'm hosting the site on my own server, hosted at Viviotech. The only additional cost was the domain names. I'm running Mango Blog because I think it's so darn cool. You are free to use the ColdFusion Devcamp name and link back to us as a reference.

Can I "piggy-back" on your website?

Yes, if you want to use our site to promote your ColdFusion Devcamp, contact me and we'll make arrangements.

How did you handle registration?

EventBrite is easy to use and offers several tools to help manage your event registration . In the spirit of Barcamp and Devcamp, we did not charge attendees. While some may argue that charging ensures a higher turn out rate, we wanted to lower the barrier of entry and give the event a community vibe. With EventBrite you can email attendees, print out an attendee list, put a cap on the number of attendees, etc.

How would you improve the registration process?

I would restrict it to one ticket per transaction. This will help you track the name and email of each attendee. I would also ask attendees their ColdFusion experience level. This information helps you allocate resources and improve project planning prior to the event.

What kind of support did Adobe provide?

Adobe provided the event location on a Saturday and T-shirts for all the attendees. The ColdFusion Team will support future Devcamps through the Flash Camp program. Fill out the Camp Form to contact Adobe for specifics.

How do you find sponsors?

This can be tough. Think of businesses that might be looking to connect with your attendees. Software training companies, web hosting companies, software companies, technology book publishers, ColdFusion consulting firms, recruiting firms, etc. Use your connections with businesses, universities and local user group managers for sponsor contacts.

What kind of support should you ask sponsors for?

Unless you want to pay for the "hard" costs, you'll need to ask your sponsors to cover some of your expenses. I found food to be was my number one expense. When contacting sponsors I'd mention the $1,500 needed to cover the cost of feeding 150 attendees. Sometimes sponsors asked what I needed and I'd throw out a number to see how they felt about it. Most of them agreed or countered with a slightly lower amount. In the end, I got $200, $250, $500 and $750 from four sponsors.

Give your sponsors the option to donate their products and services. Many will donate very nice door prizes. We received two training courses, software, books and one year of 30-mbps internet access.

Any thing to watch out for with sponsors?

My only warning is to watch for demanding or high-maintenance sponsors; they may not be worth the effort. Sponsors may ask for a copy of your attendee list or place conditions on their support. My initial sponsor wanted to be the exclusive sponsor in their category and would only commit $5 per attendee up to 150 people. In the end, I replaced them with another company in the same category who commited $750 with no conditions on attendee count.

If you want to share attendee information with sponsors, you may want to get permission during the registration process.

How did the mentors work out?

Recruiting mentors from our local user groups was critical to the devcamp's success. Eight experienced developers attended the event as mentors. Two of the mentors volunteered to create a beginner project and an advanced project for the day. We ended up with about 25 beginners and split them into two groups with two mentors in each group. The intermediate group had a dozen attendees and one mentor, which proved challenging. The remaining mentors and I floated around answering questions from individuals.

How did you promote ColdFusion Devcamp?

We tried several things with varying degrees of success.

  • ColdFusion Podcasts
  • Local Adobe user groups
  • Twitter
  • groups.adobe.com
  • Local university CS Departments
  • LinkedIn Groups
  • Adding our event to the www.barcamp.org website
  • Ben Forta blogged our event
  • Publishing an article on Fusion Authority online

Most of the new developers came from local Flex and Fireworks user groups and local universities. I am not sure if my efforts to promote via LinkedIn yielded any results. The article on the Fusion Authority website hit a week before the event. In hindsight, we should have contacted Judith three or four weeks before the event to allow enough lead time. Ben Forta blogging our event was unsolicited. Think of as many ways as you can to reach potential attendees and don't be afraid to ask others for help with promotion. The ColdFusion community is extremely supportive.

What was the ACTUAL agenda for ColdFusion Devcamp?

9:30 to 10:20:

Check-in, laptop setup, coffee and muffins.

10:20 to 10:40:

Introduction, thank you to sponsors. Three major sponsors each took five minutes to introduce their company and services.

10:40 to 11:40:

Keynote (State of ColdFusion).

11:40 to 11:45:

Discuss projects and ask attendees to come up and describe the projects they want to build. (This helps people organize into teams.)

11:45 to 5:30:

Break into teams and begin projects. Mentors lead larger groups on projects.

1:00:

Lunch provided, raffle off a few prizes.

5:30:

Pizza and beer arrive.

5:30 to 5:45:

Raffle rest of door prizes.


5:45 to 6:00:

Demo projects.


6:00 to 6:30:

Wrap up.


A word regarding the start time ...

My intention was for laptop setup to occur between 9:30 and 10:30 with the event kicking off at 10:30 AM. Attendees saw the 9:30 start time and showed up at 8:45 AM. This was not my intention. Those poor souls were bleary-eyed and sucking on cups of coffee. I should have stated DOORS OPEN at 9:30 AM. The first attendee who showed up helped me to unload my car, which was a bit embarrassing.

Graphic Assets for ColdFusion Devcamp

Download the Logo

Download the Postcard

Still have questions? Drop me an email at sid[at]cfdevcamp[dot]org.

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