Attendees:

• Chris Hutchins
• Cathy Goerz
• Alex Hoffman
• Heather Rasley
• Amy Fox
• Sherbeam Wright
• April Buchert
• Rajiv Doshi

Minutes:

For planning and volunteers:

If there is one lesson tonight: if you see something that should be changed on the wiki, just change it! Anyone can change anything.

3 big goals

1. Lock down the venue
2. Defining job fair- find who is interested, figure out logistics, define how the job fair might work
3. Finding more sponsors (individuals can also sponsor)(someone to sponsor the internet? Once the venue is locked down, then will worry about the internet issues, someone will have a datacard, case by case basis)

4. *Bonus Goal* Ideablob blog: every month they give out $10,000 to an idea, no restrictions at all, this would require enough votes (Feb 1st – Feb 7th) the more people that click and vote on this, it would require a LOT of votes. The idea that wins can be as low as 200, as high as 1500

Location: (Needs 3-4 separate rooms, 250-300 easily people coming)

1. *Microsoft (Located in the Westfield Mall) - unless we know someone else who works at Microsoft, both the present contacts Chris has will be out of town, we need someone within the company to be a point of contact.
2. *Other alternative* Temple Nightclub (located btwn 1st and 2nd on Howard) they have secret rooms!, have a ton of space, Prana restaurant in the middle, temple has projectors screens in all the rooms, they have internet. BUT there are 2 catches-
   1. because they are a nightclub, insurance requires 2 guards all day ($250), ,
   2. we can have a job fair after and a happy hour, but they want $1000 commit bar tab, if there is media coverage there, they will be even more flexible since media means attention for them

Job Fair:

Companies willing to pay $100 for a table- which perhaps could solve the bar tab issue, we can also give out drink tickets instead of an open bar. Chris doesn’t think money is going to be an issue.

The main event is about building community and learning and engaging. The job is fair is a place that people can look for work.

Job board- if you want to come to the event and talk about the job, $100 sponsorship you can have a booth and can also have a job board post. $50 for a job board only

Sponsorships:

Hasn’t actively searched for sponsors yet- current sponsors heard and wanted to be involved (current sponsors here)

Breakfast, coffee, tea is covered, snacks covered, someone wants to pay $300-$400 dollars

Demos during lunch on the side wouldn’t be an issue, there will be no keynote, not speaking to the entire group

LaidOffCamp is following the BarCamp sponsorship model (which is not donating more than $300, no co-branded stuff, there are no tiers, companies can donate as much stuff as they want but they’re all on the same level for monetary donations). Chris is trying to make a conference that will last longer term and sees nothing wrong with taking more than $300, unless there is a legality issue. Companies can contribute everything and are all on the same plane, he wants to sponsors to come and participate because they are also smart people (probably) but the companies sponsoring things like breakfast just wants to pay for it they don’t want to organize.

What kind of companies to sponsor?

VC firms, funded startups are interest just to get the name out there, this will be the most relevant to the online generation. Anyone targeting this demographic would probably find it beneficial. Accounting companies, job stuff, monster? Freshbooks? Launchsquid? Mint, financial companies

When asking sponsors, it helps to point them to the media attention that LaidOffCamp has already received.

The Nitty Gritty aka Day-of Logistics:

People signing up to talk- doesn’t think we're going to have an issue, someone asked “what about having people already confirmed?” Not going to have people to sign up beforehand as confirmed speakers because it makes people seem more important and whatnot.

If more than one person wants to talk about something, Chris says to schedule the session in in the afternoon and then the people talk about it during lunch. If you have an idea for a big session- talk about and collaborate with other people interested in the same thing beforehand.

People will need to fully realize that this is BarCamp style. Collaborate!

A rule- if you’re in a session and its lame, either make it better or leave

Hours: TBD 10ish? Will that be too late? 9 or 9:30 starts breakfast sessions start at 10 firm?

What about timing? 15-20 minute breaks between each session

How to organize time? 2 ways to do it:

1. Create topic for each session- category, topical
2. One set of sessions that vary in length

Do we need a big whiteboard? Yes, we can borrow one from Citizen Space or Cathy. We can use 5X7 index cards, like CupcakeCamp, and then there is someone that is scheduling and assigning the times, we will need lots of people to do small duties, eventually have a printed handout?

Traditional BarCamp would have people add their name to the wiki but for this, it might be better to use Facebook or preexisting social networks.

Nametags- stickers with pens- barcamp has a template that has tags area.

Media:

Do we still need a press release? New American Media wrote a really GREAT one. (suggested: Media alert- day before the event) The press release should be going out 2 weeks before the event. Cathy can write a kick-ass press release

We need a signup spot for the various responsibilities- you can find it here, SanFranciscoBudget

Rough breakdown (more here)

• $250 breakfast- Cathy
• $80 coffee-tea- Heather (potential Mighty Tea Sponsorship?)
• Lunch- Box lunch? Have food for purchase? We need to set a dealine for how much money we have to work with to feed people at lunch. Maybe a pizza place will sponsor?
• Snack- also needed

Mini-break: we each shared our stories of employment and unemployment

What’s happening around the country:

People around the country! Chicago getting a lot of sponsors, people in San Diego already organized BarCamp in the past

T-shirts:

Designs shown, people liked the black

What about other items? USB drives, chotskies, sponsor for cool schwag? Potentially have a sponsor co-brand schwag. T-shirts would be nice but there are many other potentially more useful and diverse options

Miscelaneous:

One session idea-Cofounders speed dating- get different types of people who want and then have a sponsor that would give a prize based on the best business idea (Stanford is running something similar)

What about virtual conferences? Haystack? You can see all the people who are attending the conference, Adtech did it, last year they had one at Web 2.0, Crowdvine! Is the one chris has seen. Probably best to have this as part of facebook. But how to do it without it being to hard to sort throug?

Suggested: what about someway to entertainment and someway to blow off steam?