Announcing the Drupal Event Organizing Guide, Version 2

Published June 11, 2011

Over the past few months since DrupalCon Chicago, I've spent some time working with other members (bhosmer, greggles, coltrane, christefano, lisarex, marguerite) of the community in reorganizing and rewriting the first version of the Drupal Camp Organizing Guide. Along with a new title (signifying the inclusion of other types of events such as sprints, summits, and hackfests), the guide is greatly enhanced with a lot of new information.

The goal of the effort is to provide a mechanism for experienced event organizers to transfer knowledge to other (both new and experienced) event organizers. By sharing lessons learned, pain points can be minimized, and organizing processes can be made more efficient.

The new Drupal Event Organizing Guide is now more than 12,000 words, with 24 sections including committees, budget, volunteers, web site, t-shirts, marketing, and case studies.

The guide is a living document - it is a wiki page - with plenty of opportunities for fellow Drupal event organizers to easily contribute. Many sections have a bulletted "examples" list - where we're still looking for input. Specifically, we're looking for snippets or links that offer insights on:

  • How different user groups find enough volunteers to support their events
  • Approximate attendance of initial events in different geographic areas
  • Factors that should be taken into account when determining a date for the event
  • Types of venues where events have been held
  • Approximate sponsorship level of initial events in a geographic areas
    Marketing methods
  • Methods that groups use to organize themselves
  • Registration abandoment rates
  • How different camps organize session tracks
  • Links to sample budgets
  • Legal entity options
  • Sponsorship tiers
  • Sample sponsorship pitch letters
  • T-shirt size estimates
  • Methods for providing giveaways
  • Post-event survey samples
  • Case studies
  • Additional resources

Since it is a wiki page, any part of the document, not just these topics, can (and should) be updated by those who wish to share new information.

I'm hoping to get some feedback from experienced as well as potential Drupal event organizers about which sections need to be expanded or clarified as well as what we missed.

If you're an organizer with something to add - but too busy to edit the guide - feel free to contact me (please use the "Event Organizers" category) with the information you'd like to share and I'll get it integrated in the document.

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