{"id":127130,"date":"2013-07-28T23:23:23","date_gmt":"2013-07-29T04:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2013.toronto.wordcamp.org\/?p=127130"},"modified":"2013-07-28T23:25:30","modified_gmt":"2013-07-29T04:25:30","slug":"discussion-notes-from-wordcamp-2013-planning-meetup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2013\/discussion-notes-from-wordcamp-2013-planning-meetup\/","title":{"rendered":"Discussion Notes from WordCamp 2013 Planning Meetup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Toronto WordPress meetup <a title=\"Discussing WordCamp Toronto 2013\" href=\"http:\/\/www.meetup.com\/WPToronto\/events\/127760312\/\" target=\"_blank\">met on Saturday afternoon<\/a> to discuss plans for WordCamp Toronto 2013. The turnout was great, and we got a lot of fantastic conversations going about what&#8217;ll be happening on October 5th &amp; 6th at Humber College.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to B2B marketing agency <a title=\"Brainrider B2B Marketing\" href=\"http:\/\/www.brainrider.com\" target=\"_blank\">Brainrider<\/a> for providing the space for us on last-minute notice. It was greatly appreciated! We wouldn&#8217;t have been able to do this without their support.<\/p>\n<p>Notes from the meetup are after the jump.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h1>Meetup Notes<\/h1>\n<p>These are in point form. We&#8217;ve beefed up some of the points with contextual details.<\/p>\n<h2>Schedule<\/h2>\n<h3>Tracks<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Structured. We want there to be a logical theme for each track and each session time slot.<\/li>\n<li>Four tracks on Saturday. 3 are defined (Beginner\/Intermediate\/Advanced) &#8211; still figuring out the 4th.<\/li>\n<li>Sunday is open. Planning on dedicating it to workshops and panels.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Panel Discussion Ideas<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>WordPress for Non-Profits<\/li>\n<li>WordPress on a Budget<\/li>\n<li>Content Development, Inbound Marketing<\/li>\n<li>Running\/Building a WordPress-Based Business<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Venue<\/h2>\n<h3>Humber College<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Lakeshore West campus @ Kipling and Lakeshore in Etobicoke.<\/li>\n<li>Accessible by transit from the Kipling bus or streetcar. Mimico and Long Branch GO stations nearby.<\/li>\n<li>Massive parking lot at the adjacent West campus. Parking is free!<\/li>\n<li>We&#8217;re hosting WordCamp in the new L building. Modern equipment, rooms are wired, lots of outlets available for laptops.<\/li>\n<li>Big space available in the building. We&#8217;re calling it the &#8220;WordPress Commons&#8221;. Will house our Happiness Bar and networking\/socializing space for people wanting to chitchat.<\/li>\n<li>Humber will cover Security &amp; First-Aid.<\/li>\n<li>There&#8217;s a Tim Hortons out front!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>After-Party Venue (TBD)<\/h3>\n<p>We don&#8217;t know where we&#8217;re going to hold our after-party!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Talked about locations in Liberty Village.<\/li>\n<li>Lots of buzz about Sherway Gardens \/ Bier Markt.<\/li>\n<li>Also mentioned: Canadiana.<\/li>\n<li>To cover higher costs: Opting into after-party during registration, possibly charging a bit more for after-party attendees.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Speakers &amp; Sessions<\/h2>\n<h3>Topic Ideas<\/h3>\n<p>We&#8217;ve got a list of starting points on our Speak page. Here are some other ideas that came up:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Building a membership site.<\/li>\n<li>Choosing a hosting provider<\/li>\n<li>Securing WordPress<\/li>\n<li>Boosting performance (speed, resource usage)<\/li>\n<li>Content Development<\/li>\n<li>Specific verticals using WordPress<\/li>\n<li>Niche plugins<\/li>\n<li>Showcasing projects<\/li>\n<li>Related topics but not specifically WP (e.g. running a shop, biz dev.)<\/li>\n<li>Submit whatever you\u2019d like to talk or learn about!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Sponsors<\/h2>\n<h3>In-Kind Sponsorship Needs<\/h3>\n<p>We&#8217;re looking for in-kind sponsors who could help us offset the following costs.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Printing (Merchandise, Signage)<\/li>\n<li>Live Streaming<\/li>\n<li>A\/V Equipment<\/li>\n<li>Video Production (Editing)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Microsponsorship Ideas<\/h3>\n<p>Microsponsorship is an idea we&#8217;ve been kicking around, a new opportunity for individuals to make smaller contributions to the event while still being recognized for their support.<\/p>\n<p>WordCamp is a community event, after all, and it seems odd that we&#8217;d block people from contributing below a certain amount. Every bit helps, right<\/p>\n<p>Here are some ideas that came up:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Provide a common table to put out merch\/biz cards<\/li>\n<li>Limit the number of microsponsors?<\/li>\n<li>Less than core &#8211; $50 to $100<\/li>\n<li>Straight up text-only link on the site<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Potential Sponsors<\/h3>\n<p>Who else should we be reaching out to?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ryerson DMZ<\/li>\n<li>Mars DD<\/li>\n<li>Other local incubators or accelerators<\/li>\n<li>Local economic development orgs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Volunteers<\/h2>\n<p>In previous years we just had an open free-for-all on volunteer spots. This year we&#8217;re doing things a bit differently. We&#8217;ve got Room Teams, Registration, Wizards (Happiness Bar), and Float Team as separate groups. <a title=\"Volunteers\" href=\"https:\/\/2013.toronto.wordcamp.org\/volunteer\/\">More details are available on the Volunteer page<\/a>. Points:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Volunteers will pay their registration fee and be refunded after serving a 3 hour shift.<\/li>\n<li>We have limited slots, so not all volunteer applicants will be accepted.<\/li>\n<li>Being a volunteer at a previous WordCamp doesn&#8217;t mean you&#8217;re automatically accepted.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Promoting the Event<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Need to print collateral\/literature for distribution.<\/li>\n<li>Flyers in coffee shops, libraries, etc&#8230; (community boards)<\/li>\n<li>Other Meetup Groups\/Networking Events\/WordCamps &#8211; Dev TO &amp; Hackernest<\/li>\n<li>Colleges &amp; Universities: UoT, Ryerson, Humber, George Brown, etc&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>Reaching out through economic development orgs.<\/li>\n<li>Reaching out through incubators and accelerators.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And that&#8217;s it! <strong>Here&#8217;s how you can get in touch with us:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.714285714;font-size: 1rem\">Want to speak at the event? <a title=\"Speak\" href=\"https:\/\/2013.toronto.wordcamp.org\/speak\/\">Go to our Speakers page.<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.714285714;font-size: 1rem\">Want to volunteer? <a title=\"Volunteers\" href=\"https:\/\/2013.toronto.wordcamp.org\/volunteer\/\">Go to our Volunteers page.<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.714285714;font-size: 1rem\">Want to sponsor, either financially or in-kind? <a title=\"Sponsor\" href=\"https:\/\/2013.toronto.wordcamp.org\/sponsor\/\">Go to our Sponsors page.<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.714285714;font-size: 1rem\">Have another idea, suggestion, comment, criticism, etc? <a title=\"Contact Us\" href=\"https:\/\/2013.toronto.wordcamp.org\/contact\/\">Use our Contact form.<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Thanks again to everyone who joined us for the meetup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Toronto WordPress meetup met on Saturday afternoon to discuss plans for WordCamp Toronto 2013. The turnout was great, and we got a lot of fantastic conversations going about what&#8217;ll be happening on October 5th &amp; 6th at Humber College. Thanks to B2B marketing agency Brainrider for providing the space for us on last-minute notice. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6358608,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[10013,4979],"class_list":["post-127130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-meetup","tag-planning"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6358608"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127130"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127555,"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127130\/revisions\/127555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toronto.wordcamp.org\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}