You could go read the event notes
You could stay in touch with people on facebook
You could follow up on Twitter for announcements: “Freelancecamp”
Write a blog post about your experience and link back here so people can read them.
You could implement what you learned!!

What to Expect at This Saturday (15th) at Freelance Camp Santa Cruz

The day will start at 8am with an hour of socializing over coffee and pastries. We will be handing out free Klean Kanteen stainless steel water bottles at the sign up. We have 250 bottles and 300 signups, so come early!

It is really important you arrive by 9am so you can participate in creating the day’s agenda. At 9am sharp we will give directions on how to propose a topic and then we will create the schedule. We will be harvesting the minds and expertise of all the people in the room to come up with topics pertinent to freelancers.

If you’d like to lead a session you’re going to want to speak up with your topic idea at 9am, when the schedule is being created.

Looking for more info: browse www.freelancecamp.org

What You Need to Bring

* A head full of topic ideas
* Your laptop (free wi-fi provided thanks to Cruzio.) or a notebook and pen will do.
* Lots of business cards. This is a great networking opportunity. You can get a quick turnaround from Zazzle.com if you are in need of cards.
* Please consider bringing your own coffee mug (if you don’t want to use your canteen). We will provide a water cooler full of refreshing cool spring water for you to fill your own drinking device.

Session Participation

After the schedule goes up you’ll be able to peruse the offerings and decide where you want to go. Remember, this is a participatory event. You’re encouraged to join in the conversation that gets started in the session, so you may want to go to some where you want to learn more about the topic, and you may want to go to some where you have useful knowledge to share.

If You Want to Lead a Session

Bring any materials you’d like to share. As a topic leader you keep the conversation going. You don’t have to be an expert on your topic; since topics are usually fairly broad, there’ll probably be others present who can help you out. This is about sharing information within the group so you want to encourage everyone to participate.

Need a topic idea? We’ve suggested some here to get you started. Please be thinking of others that can be added to the list, we’re working off the power of the collective:

* how much should I charge?
* handling slowdowns
* contracts and negotiations
* part time: balancing job and clients
* how to fire a client
* business structures
* getting work through your portfolio
* why start a business?
* sales – creating new leads
* doing both services & products
* handling quick growth
* retirement
* managing remote teams
* time management
* subcontracting
* what to do when things go wrong?
* from part time to full time
* taxes and savings
* how to work from home and stay happily married
* insurance: health, life, liability
* [your idea here] …

After Party at Motiv

The owners of Motiv, a high end restaurant / bar / club have made their venue available starting at 5:30pm. For location and more visit: http://www.freelancecamp.org/santa-cruz-after-party-at-motiv.

Other Useful Information

* Morning coffee + pastries and lunch will be provided – free of charge thanks to our generous sponsors. Lunch will be selected from a variety of downtown venues including Zoccoli’s, Planet Fresh, Jack’s, Woodstocks, The Greek and a smattering from Costco.

* The event takes place in the brand new Rittenhouse building right on pacific and church. While the address is 1375 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, the entrance we will use in on Church Street right by across from Clouds. This is a really cool place to hold a BarCamp, lot’s of creative inspiration with a great view! Many many thanks to Palace Office Supply & Office Interiors for providing furniture.

* If you plan to live blog or tweet – the hash tag is #freelancecamp

The General Schedule:

8 – Coffee and socializing
9 – 10 Planning Session
10 – 12:30 Sessions Run
12:3 – 1:30 Lunch
1:30 – 5 Sessions run
5:15 – 6 Wrap-up / discussion / cleanup
5:30 + Drinks and Food at Motiv

Volunteer

We could use your help! Just reply to this post. Please let us know if you are open to giving an hour to help with the following:

* Signup
* Food
* Cleanup
* Runners
* Move in (friday evening)
* Move out (sunday afternoon)

Thank you to our Totally Cool Sponsors!

Please patronize them often and thank them profusely for supporting our cause.

Baskin & Grant Legal
City of Santa Cruz: Economic Development & Redevelopment
Cruzio
Elance
Hope Foundry
Mashable
Nextspace
Palace Office Supply & Office Interiors
Parachute Creative
Rittenhouse
Santa Cruz New Tech MeetUp
Shane & Peter Inc.
Central Coast Small Business Development Center
Studio Holladay
SugarCRM

We have decided to take advantage of barcamp.org’s wonderful free wiki to save the event notes. If you are leading a session, please have someone take summary notes and post them to the wiki at http://barcamp.org/Freelance-Camp-3. If you are coming here after the event, I hope they are wonderful.

Curious about last years notes? Check them out: http://barcamp.org/FreelanceCampSchedule

We asked everyone under the sun for suggestions. What could we give out at the event that they would actually use and keep? The winning answer was: “A nice canteen.”

We heard you (ditched the tried and true t-shirt approach) and decided to even throw down some extra cash to get, not just a nice one, but the very best in the industry. A bunch of negotiation and Klean Kanteen slapped our artwork on a 27oz Stainless Steel bottle. We are quite thankful to the team at Parachute Creative for their generous donation of poster / bottle art.

In short, every attendee (unless we get some party crashers) will get for FREE their very own canteen. Even more awesome? Our local outdoor shops sell these exact bottles for about $20-25! The cost of a freelancecamp ticket: $25. So it is no surprise we are feeling pretty darn proud of ourselves right now.

Below is pre-print mach of what the bottle will look like. The artwork wasn’t final at this point but you get the idea.

A HUGE thanks to our sponsors for helping to make this happen.

We have had request for ride sharing, as many of you are coming from all over the bay area and beyond. Need a ride from the airport or from the city? Santa Cruz carpool company Zoom Pool has volunteered to help provide ride sharing support. If you are interested click the link below to see if someone else is heading in the same direction.