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DrupalCamp Atlanta’s Story

The 2017 DrupalCamp Atlanta was held in Buckhead neighborhood in Atlanta
Zach Sines

DrupalCamp Atlanta is upon us again as we continue to inch closer to the finishing touches to the camp. The Atlanta Drupal Users Group (ADUG) team has been fast at work on getting the camp together, the website updated, the leadership team together to discuss programming and logistics… You would think we have it automated at this point! Well, some of the items are, such as some trusted vendors and some of the process, but every year we try to do something different to provide a better and fulfilling experience for our camp go-ers.

This year is no exception, with us changing our venue (much to the appreciation of the community, we’re sure!) to the Buckhead area and reverting to our 2015-style of camp that we found to be the best format (Friday and Saturday tracks AND training). With the new venue comes its own challenges, such as the layout of the facility to the positioning of sponsors. All these things need to be planned out way in advance. We need to understand the return on investment with an event like this, being we are a non-profit and have very limited resources.

In talking about resources, we wanted to put together some new “in-kind” contributions this year that can help us put on an event like this. These contributions are focused around the tangible things we need to pay for every year: t-shirts, bags, badges, lanyards, A/V, event catering, the location, the after-party, the speaker coordination and expenses, websites, graphic design, and the countless man-hours it takes to get all of this set up, delivered, and managed. We also decided to open the door to the community to really see how much an event like this costs. Below are some of the expenses we have this year that must be met:

  • Catering: $13,394.70
  • Video Recording: $1,800.00
  • A/V Onsite: $4,055.00
  • Keynote Speaker Travel: $1,200.00

These charges don’t include all of the event merchandise, website fees, documentation, or additional costs for random event items like signage and photography.

Historically, there have been many people involved in this effort. Since ADUG has been managing the event, there have been 5 or less people actually planning and executing on all of this with the help of day-of volunteers. This year, we are fortunate enough to have 7 people who have dedicated time and energy out of their normal lives to put this event on. So, how do we do it? How do we make this happen this year…a bigger, more expensive event?

By being fortunate enough to have so many people come from all over to attend the event. It makes it all worth it. We have so many people from so many backgrounds, cultures, and professions come to Atlanta to learn. The congregation of all of these folks for two days, sharing knowledge and helping the community is worth it all in the end. With the attendance comes registrations, a contribution to the community to put on this event. With us moving from Kennesaw State, where we called home for the past 3 years, our costs have almost doubled. Our hope this year is that we will have a much better attendance while also attracting more sponsors, which would help out tremendously.

Speaking of sponsors…they have been amazing. We can’t thank them enough for the help they give us in throwing these events. Mediacurrent, Sevaa Group, Paramount Software, Celebrate Drupal. They have been amazing in getting us up and running again this year by donating early. We definitely need more this year, and hope that we can reach more with lower cost sponsorships so it’s not always the largest companies that can get their names out there. We want the community to be involved so that they can contribute to hosting this event, getting their names out there, and being able to increase their networks as well. So, these in-kind contributions help with this gap while also being able to directly affect the outcome of the camp.

Want your company name on the lanyards everyone is wearing? What about your logo on the side of our bags? How about donating some cool stuff for our raffle and get a shout out?

These are some easy ways to get involved, get some great advertising to the community you serve, and to get involved in making this an amazing event.

ADUG

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