Saturday, November 27, 2010

Free Making Money

We used the University of Colorado, Denver. The rooms were free. We had three rooms, each could seat between 50 and 125 people depending on the room and each had speakers, projector, lights and so on. You can find similar venues very easily, just ask around. We had the rooms from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. or so on the quietest day of the week for this particular campus and they were booked something like two-three months in advance.

Food



We used Einstein Brothers for breakfast and lunch. We planned food for about 100 people and it worked out very well, with food taken to the after-party too. We simply booked online, chose a ton of food and it arrived at 8:15 for breakfast and 11 a.m. or so for lunch. Breakfast consisted of bagels with various schmears, coffees (remember decaf too) and some bagel poppers (think donut holes). Lunch was boxes of bagel sandwiches (remember vegetarian option), iced tea, lemonade, cookies (three kinds I think), chips (including chips that don't suck, like Sunchips) and gherkins.



Set up was very easy, there were a couple of fold out tables and a few people volunteered to set up the boxes, etc., along with the staff from EB. At the end of the day I asked everyone in the room to help clean up one item (we had boxes, empty cups, etc., etc.) and it was done very quickly.



Breakfast mingling took from 8:30-9 a.m. or so. Lunch was one hour: noon-1 p.m. It was a nice enough day that people wandered outside, chatted and so on.



Website



As a hangover from last year, I happily used Google Sites to host www.wherecamp5280.org for free. It has a super simple editing interface. I only built a couple of very simple pages listing the details upfront as you can see.



Tickets



Eventbrite was pretty awesome. You set up your event, add ticket types (with different prices), link to it and you're done. It's entirely free to use if your tickets are free. For wherecamp, the majority of the tickets were free. You can also use their iPhone app to scan peoples tickets if you like, but I didn't do this as it's free and it would have just been a hassle for very little benefit. Tip: tell the attendees this so they don't print out the paper ticket! Also see sponsorship next:



Sponsorship



I used Eventbrite again. This worked out fantastically. Usually people spend a ton of time setting out sponsor levels, making a brochure and all that stuff about what a sponsor gets for their money. What I did instead was set up Eventbrite "tickets" that were priced as powers of two. So $16, $32, $64... $1024. Sponsors could then simply go in to Eventbrite and buy a ticket. This was wonderful for me as I didn't have to screw around with checks and bank transfers.



It was wonderful for sponsors as they could buy a "ticket" and expense that, whereas sponsorship is sometimes a much harder thing to get and has to go through other channels. One big thing to learn from though is that powers of two is a cute way to get sponsorship, but it doesn't match very well to what can be expensed. Often people can expense things with some rule like "so long as it's less than $1,000." Next time I will price things like $190, $490, $950 and so on.



As for "what do the sponsors get," I didn't produce a brochure or have anything particularly in mind. I've run conferences before which do do this and that's fine but this was a volunteer event. If the sponsors didn't come through, all I had to do was not order food (the major cost) and instead point people at nearby cafes, etc. It helps that I've run conferences before and therefore have a level of trust from the people sponsoring to not fuck it all up. I was asked a couple of times, but simply said it was a volunteer conference therefore time was short and we couldn't really produce brochures, etc.



Next page: How about actually getting the sponsors?







Earlier today the students of Citrus College in Glendora, California published an open letter ("Governor Elect Jerry Brown: We need your help") concerning the institution's financial health. And if the letter's economic illiteracy and intellectual bankruptcy are indicative of California in general, I recommend flushing twice and starting over.

Dear Gov.-Elect Jerry Brown,

...as the generation who is currently feeling the brunt of the state's financial hardships, we are asking for your help because we do care and changes need to be made.

-- Education is our priority. Please invest in it.

...College enrollment has gone down inpart because students cannot afford tuition costs, putting more weight on our already-impacted local community colleges.

The UC and Cal State systems have continuously imposed tuition increases while still making class cute , in reality, making students pay more for less... We as students are not only handling with the pressures of succeeding in our studies, but also dealing with the stress of getting, seemingly unattainable, classes and trying to afford tuition...

Could someone interpret those last few sentences for me?

In order to pay for the ever-rising tuition, we also need to find work.

We need you to create jobs and offer tax incentives to keep jobs in California.

In short: we, the students of Citrus College, demand that you raise taxes to help increase the quality of education while simultaneously lowering taxes to keep jobs in California so we can find jobs.

According to the Los Angeles Times, California is ranked as having the third highest unemployment rate...

Next cuts and tax increases must be made in appropriate areas to bring back balance to this state's finances.

I'm sooo confused, students! Tax incentives, mentioned in the prior paragraph, are the opposite of tax increases.

One thing is certain, California needs to keep a closer eye on who is receiving public services like welfare and WIC...

The government should be run just like any other business and reduce the wasteful spending that they so often spend on overtime and unrealistic government pensions.

There should also be an increase in taxes... Alcohol and cigarettes should be more heavily taxed as well as the uncommonly thought of, junk food... For example, reconsider the soda tax.

Say, I wonder if heavy taxation of "junk food", "soda" and sundry other taxes will hurt entry-level jobs like those in grocery and convenience stores, mom-and-pop retailers and the like?

This is your second time as California's governor and our votes have shown we trust in your experience.

Please, do not let us down.

Sincerely, the students of the Citrus College Clarion.

Jerry Brown's first two terms as governor led to many of the problems you're facing now, kids. In fact, during the campaign, he was forced to admit to a series of screwups and Statist social engineering policies that helped bankrupt the state.

What color is the sky on your planet, Citrus College students?

Sorry, children, but you're about to find out for yourselves just how screwed up the the modern Democrat Party is. There are no unicorns, there are no free lunches, and your new governor is just like the old Jerry Brown: dumber than ever and owned lock, stock and barrel by the public sector unions.

Welcome to the Tea Party.



bench craft company scam

No Batmobile in Arkham City <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of No Batmobile in Arkham City. ... Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 teaser 14 December, 2009. Latest News. Batman: Arkham City details emerge . Batman: Arkham City revealed, dated . Batman domains name Arkham sequel? ...

Minecraft dev explains sales transparency PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PC news of Minecraft dev explains sales transparency.

Web type <b>news</b>: iPhone and iPad now support TrueType font embedding <b>...</b>

This is also exciting news, as TrueType fonts are superior to SVG fonts in two very important ways: the files sizes are dramatically smaller (an especially important factor on mobile devices), and the rendering quality is much higher. ...


bench craft company scam

No Batmobile in Arkham City <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of No Batmobile in Arkham City. ... Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 teaser 14 December, 2009. Latest News. Batman: Arkham City details emerge . Batman: Arkham City revealed, dated . Batman domains name Arkham sequel? ...

Minecraft dev explains sales transparency PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PC news of Minecraft dev explains sales transparency.

Web type <b>news</b>: iPhone and iPad now support TrueType font embedding <b>...</b>

This is also exciting news, as TrueType fonts are superior to SVG fonts in two very important ways: the files sizes are dramatically smaller (an especially important factor on mobile devices), and the rendering quality is much higher. ...


bench craft company scam
We used the University of Colorado, Denver. The rooms were free. We had three rooms, each could seat between 50 and 125 people depending on the room and each had speakers, projector, lights and so on. You can find similar venues very easily, just ask around. We had the rooms from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. or so on the quietest day of the week for this particular campus and they were booked something like two-three months in advance.

Food



We used Einstein Brothers for breakfast and lunch. We planned food for about 100 people and it worked out very well, with food taken to the after-party too. We simply booked online, chose a ton of food and it arrived at 8:15 for breakfast and 11 a.m. or so for lunch. Breakfast consisted of bagels with various schmears, coffees (remember decaf too) and some bagel poppers (think donut holes). Lunch was boxes of bagel sandwiches (remember vegetarian option), iced tea, lemonade, cookies (three kinds I think), chips (including chips that don't suck, like Sunchips) and gherkins.



Set up was very easy, there were a couple of fold out tables and a few people volunteered to set up the boxes, etc., along with the staff from EB. At the end of the day I asked everyone in the room to help clean up one item (we had boxes, empty cups, etc., etc.) and it was done very quickly.



Breakfast mingling took from 8:30-9 a.m. or so. Lunch was one hour: noon-1 p.m. It was a nice enough day that people wandered outside, chatted and so on.



Website



As a hangover from last year, I happily used Google Sites to host www.wherecamp5280.org for free. It has a super simple editing interface. I only built a couple of very simple pages listing the details upfront as you can see.



Tickets



Eventbrite was pretty awesome. You set up your event, add ticket types (with different prices), link to it and you're done. It's entirely free to use if your tickets are free. For wherecamp, the majority of the tickets were free. You can also use their iPhone app to scan peoples tickets if you like, but I didn't do this as it's free and it would have just been a hassle for very little benefit. Tip: tell the attendees this so they don't print out the paper ticket! Also see sponsorship next:



Sponsorship



I used Eventbrite again. This worked out fantastically. Usually people spend a ton of time setting out sponsor levels, making a brochure and all that stuff about what a sponsor gets for their money. What I did instead was set up Eventbrite "tickets" that were priced as powers of two. So $16, $32, $64... $1024. Sponsors could then simply go in to Eventbrite and buy a ticket. This was wonderful for me as I didn't have to screw around with checks and bank transfers.



It was wonderful for sponsors as they could buy a "ticket" and expense that, whereas sponsorship is sometimes a much harder thing to get and has to go through other channels. One big thing to learn from though is that powers of two is a cute way to get sponsorship, but it doesn't match very well to what can be expensed. Often people can expense things with some rule like "so long as it's less than $1,000." Next time I will price things like $190, $490, $950 and so on.



As for "what do the sponsors get," I didn't produce a brochure or have anything particularly in mind. I've run conferences before which do do this and that's fine but this was a volunteer event. If the sponsors didn't come through, all I had to do was not order food (the major cost) and instead point people at nearby cafes, etc. It helps that I've run conferences before and therefore have a level of trust from the people sponsoring to not fuck it all up. I was asked a couple of times, but simply said it was a volunteer conference therefore time was short and we couldn't really produce brochures, etc.



Next page: How about actually getting the sponsors?







Earlier today the students of Citrus College in Glendora, California published an open letter ("Governor Elect Jerry Brown: We need your help") concerning the institution's financial health. And if the letter's economic illiteracy and intellectual bankruptcy are indicative of California in general, I recommend flushing twice and starting over.

Dear Gov.-Elect Jerry Brown,

...as the generation who is currently feeling the brunt of the state's financial hardships, we are asking for your help because we do care and changes need to be made.

-- Education is our priority. Please invest in it.

...College enrollment has gone down inpart because students cannot afford tuition costs, putting more weight on our already-impacted local community colleges.

The UC and Cal State systems have continuously imposed tuition increases while still making class cute , in reality, making students pay more for less... We as students are not only handling with the pressures of succeeding in our studies, but also dealing with the stress of getting, seemingly unattainable, classes and trying to afford tuition...

Could someone interpret those last few sentences for me?

In order to pay for the ever-rising tuition, we also need to find work.

We need you to create jobs and offer tax incentives to keep jobs in California.

In short: we, the students of Citrus College, demand that you raise taxes to help increase the quality of education while simultaneously lowering taxes to keep jobs in California so we can find jobs.

According to the Los Angeles Times, California is ranked as having the third highest unemployment rate...

Next cuts and tax increases must be made in appropriate areas to bring back balance to this state's finances.

I'm sooo confused, students! Tax incentives, mentioned in the prior paragraph, are the opposite of tax increases.

One thing is certain, California needs to keep a closer eye on who is receiving public services like welfare and WIC...

The government should be run just like any other business and reduce the wasteful spending that they so often spend on overtime and unrealistic government pensions.

There should also be an increase in taxes... Alcohol and cigarettes should be more heavily taxed as well as the uncommonly thought of, junk food... For example, reconsider the soda tax.

Say, I wonder if heavy taxation of "junk food", "soda" and sundry other taxes will hurt entry-level jobs like those in grocery and convenience stores, mom-and-pop retailers and the like?

This is your second time as California's governor and our votes have shown we trust in your experience.

Please, do not let us down.

Sincerely, the students of the Citrus College Clarion.

Jerry Brown's first two terms as governor led to many of the problems you're facing now, kids. In fact, during the campaign, he was forced to admit to a series of screwups and Statist social engineering policies that helped bankrupt the state.

What color is the sky on your planet, Citrus College students?

Sorry, children, but you're about to find out for yourselves just how screwed up the the modern Democrat Party is. There are no unicorns, there are no free lunches, and your new governor is just like the old Jerry Brown: dumber than ever and owned lock, stock and barrel by the public sector unions.

Welcome to the Tea Party.



bench craft company scam

No Batmobile in Arkham City <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of No Batmobile in Arkham City. ... Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 teaser 14 December, 2009. Latest News. Batman: Arkham City details emerge . Batman: Arkham City revealed, dated . Batman domains name Arkham sequel? ...

Minecraft dev explains sales transparency PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PC news of Minecraft dev explains sales transparency.

Web type <b>news</b>: iPhone and iPad now support TrueType font embedding <b>...</b>

This is also exciting news, as TrueType fonts are superior to SVG fonts in two very important ways: the files sizes are dramatically smaller (an especially important factor on mobile devices), and the rendering quality is much higher. ...


bench craft company scam

No Batmobile in Arkham City <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of No Batmobile in Arkham City. ... Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 teaser 14 December, 2009. Latest News. Batman: Arkham City details emerge . Batman: Arkham City revealed, dated . Batman domains name Arkham sequel? ...

Minecraft dev explains sales transparency PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PC news of Minecraft dev explains sales transparency.

Web type <b>news</b>: iPhone and iPad now support TrueType font embedding <b>...</b>

This is also exciting news, as TrueType fonts are superior to SVG fonts in two very important ways: the files sizes are dramatically smaller (an especially important factor on mobile devices), and the rendering quality is much higher. ...


bench craft company scam

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