A few days back, Jeremy Neuner, Owner of Nextspace Coworking and Innovation, posted a review of the emerging tech scene in Santa Cruz. He named the first Freelance Camp as a significant player in the evolution of our growing and thriving local community.
Now you may think, emerging?!?, that’s silly. Santa Cruz is just 30 minutes out, a hop over the hill, from Silicon Valley. Borland, Plantronics, Netflix, Seagate and more were born there. All true. And yet, over the last decade the cohesion of the local community had evaporated. We had become just another bedroom community for the hordes of people commuting to google or trying to convince the investors on Sand Hill to cough up another few million.
That began to change a year and a half ago. We started geek dinners, which led to jellies, which led to freelance camp and a coworking space, which launched some hopping start-ups (for example: 12 Seconds, User Voice) and catalyzed a once disparate community of freelancers.
Feel like your town is isolated? Frustrated there isn’t enough action and clients? Get some people together and it will change things. I promise it will blow your mind.
Help the economy. Help yourself. Help your friend. Run your own freelance camp.
We have received a significant number of questions on how to run a freelance camp. In order to help as best as possible, Dmitry and I will be writing a series of articles detailing the lessons we have learned over the past year.
Running your own camp is a pretty straight forward process! The bar camp model is quite well documented and we borrow heavily from it. Dmitry is gathering a number of blog posts and will begin making a basic checklist.
There are two questions that comprise most of the emails we get: “How do I find Sponsors?” and “How do I get people to come?”.
To kick it off, I wrote a post last month on my own blog to help answer questions regarding finding sponsors: http://blog.shaneandpeter.com/2009/03/19/finding-sponsors/. I am re-posting the article below with a few modifications: (more…)
Date: Saturday August 15, 2009
Time: 9am – 6pm
Location: somewhere in Santa Cruz, CA (venue ideas?)
Cost: Free for Students & Hardship Cases, $25 General Attendees
Breakfast, Lunch, an After Party and cool Schwag Included
We have some planning and promotion to do, so anyone interested in being involved in the bay area should send me a note. You can find my contact info on www.shaneandpeter.com.
We have been blessed with a phenomenal outpouring of sponsorship offers this year and our early efforts have been paying off handsomely. I sincerely want to thank so many of you for the offers of support!! With your help, I have no doubts we can have an incredible event.
On Saturday, June 6, 2009 a host of job-seekers, freelancers, entrepreneurs and startups will attend South Florida’s first community-driven conference for creative employment: FreelanceCamp / LaidOffCamp Miami.
We live in challenging times with the unemployment rate at its highest in over 20 years. You should attend LaidOffCamp / FreelanceCamp Miami if you are:
* Looking for creative ways to supplement your income or change your career
* Running your own business a freelancer, solo entrepreneur or startup company
* Wanting to connect with creative, friendly and helpful people
* Seeking employment or recently laid off
Stay tuned for more info as the planning unfolds. If you want to help out, fill out the contact form and tell rick what you have in mind.
We hope that you have not been recently laid off. But if you have, now might be the best time to start a business or change your career.
Texas’ second annual Freelance Camp is to be held April 11th, 2009 from 10 am to 4 pm at the Houston Technology Center in Houston, Texas! The event is designed to explore and promote the synergy that independent contractors can bring to business today. The day will center around bringing together freelancers, remote contractors, entrepreneurs, and anyone else interested to network, share ideas, and explore opportunities. Thanks to the support of Bridgette Penel, Debra Robinson, and Travis Skweres from Werkadoo, Marc Nathan of the HTC, Shane Pearlman, Louis Sandoval Jr., Brad Parler, and a lot of other folks, this event is going to be a huge success!
Freelance Camp is a place to discuss and explore the different approaches to running a successful freelance business / small service company. The Houston camp is FREE to attend thanks to some very cool sponsors. So come ready to learn, and if you’re up for it, sign up to give a talk the day of the camp!
Be sure to come to the after-party and Werkadoo Launch Celebration right after the camp! Join us at Caroline Collective for free beer, food, and music! The party starts at 5pm and ends when all the kegs are tapped. See you there!
Caroline Collective
4820 Caroline St.
Houston, TX 77004
Live in Houston? Freelance? Don’t miss out on the 3rd official freelance camp. The camp is an opportunity for freelancers, entrepreneurs, independent business owners, and anyone else wanting to expand their network, share ideas, and discover new opportunities.
Date: April 11th from 10 am to 4 pm Venue: Houston Technology Center. 410 Pierce St.
Houston, TX 77002 Cost: Your call, make a donation!
Consider another camp in the books! San Antonio’s first FreelanceCamp was an astounding success, but not without all the participation of our attendees and our sponsors. Without these two groups the event would have been nothing, but with enthusiastic and supportive sponsors, the organizers were able to put together an event where attendees could share, learn, network, and collaborate on future projects.
The atmosphere was electric with the buzzing of sessions, ad-hoc discussions, and the sounds of laughter and overall contentment with the entire thing. Of course the venue helped to create all this excitement. Big mention for Radius Cafe, a very creative, progressive spot perfect for functions of all kinds.
Discussion included Co-Working spaces in San Antonio, how a freelancer can leverage social media to their benefit, blogging and podcasting as a marketing tool, law protecting freelancers and employers, freelancing in the non-profit sector, and the hour long presentation, Freelancing in a Flat World done by Austin’s own Trish Lambert, a California transplant now enjoying life in Central Texas.
Most of the recorded sessions can be found at the following two links below:
You can listen to the Tech in Twenty recap discussion from FreelanceCampSA HERE.
If you took photos of the event and they are Flickr, please make sure you use the the tags #fcsatx to mark your photos so that others can find them.
I want to send a big thanks to Shane Pearlman, of Shane & Peter, Inc., for the donation of the FreelanceCamp.org website. Leaders in the community like him opened the site to assist other FreelanceCamps in the nation and is also an excellent model for those us all looking to work with one another to make these even
ts happen. San Antonio and the camp’s organizers thank you for sharing this site with us!
And finally, as mentioned above, thank you to our entire group of sponsors who made the event possible. Your help put FreelanceCamp San Antonio on the map, and I look forward to working with all of you next year in 2010 for FreelanceCamp San Antonio 2.
FreelanceCamp San Antonio 2009 Sponsors
Thanks to the organizers who helped me make this a reality. Alysan Delaney-Childs (@alysan), Jennifer Navarrete (@epodcaster), and Gylon Jackson (@gylonj)
Drum roll please. The Freelance Camp San Antonio Tshirt is officially off to the printer. Quantities are limited. Be there early on Saturday at Freelance Camp San Antonio to get yours. Freelance Camp San Antonio starts at 9 am at the Radius Cafe Thanks to John Navarette for the design assist.
Headquartered in San Antonio BlogCatalog is more than just a social community for bloggers. They are one of the largest blog directories on the internet. Whether you are looking to search blogs, connect with bloggers, learn more about blogging, or promote your own blog, BlogCatalog is for you.
You can join the community everyone’s buzzing about
Bloggers, BlogCatalog is the place for you to connect with other bloggers, become a better blogger, attract more blog readers, participate in groups and discussions, find the latest tools for your blog, and much more!
Freelance Camp San Antonio is pleased to say BlogCatalog is one of our most generous sponsors. BlogCatalog knows blogging freelancers want a place to connect and promote their blog. Thanks BlogCatalog!
FreelanceCampSA is an opportunity for freelancers, entrepreneurs, independent business owners and individuals to come together to learn from one another, connect with opportunities by expanding their network, and finding answers to some of the questions enabling them to expand their business, start their business or develop additional income streams.
Freelance Camp SA will be the second Freelance Camp in the nation. The first FreelanceCamp was held in Santa Cruz CA in August 2008.
In addition, FreelanceCampSA will offer a Teen/Young Entrepreneur’s session. Many of the newest online entrepreneurs are those in their teens. Many teens are already building websites and actively participating online. The track will be coordinated by Chance Sanford manager of Sea World’s San Antonio Adventure Camps.
Background Of The Unconference or BarCamp Movement
The BarCamp movement started in August 2005 as a reactionary spin off of an invitation only participant-driven, idea-sharing meeting sponsored by Tim O’Reilly. Tim O’Reilly is a technology publisher credited by many as being an articulate advocate for developing technology especially open source programs.
Barcamps are organized around a general theme or idea.The unconference draws upon the experience, curiosity and expertise of the participants. It is called an unconference because of its participant generated sessions determined at the location, at the time, and interest of those attending.
There is no pre-determined schedule of sessions, though pre-registered participants can offer sessions.The format encourages sharing, demonstration, and interaction.
The Unconference is organized and promoted online through a wiki. “A wiki is a page or collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a coding system.
Proposed topics are posted on flipcharts, wall posters and live online on the unconference wiki for the listing times and room locations.People then attend the sessions, which interest them. Depending on interest some sessions will be packed while others will have only a few interested participants.
Wifi and often live video streaming is provided during these Unconferences. This leads to online participation and contemporaneous blogging of the Unconference events. It is not unusual for people from across the country or even the world to tune in and either watch, listen, or question during the events.
Funding And Promotion
Funding for these events happens through the generosity of sponsor/partners. Expenses can include facility rental, meal and break food costs, name badges, banner and T-shirts. Participants are generally admitted free, with a donation, or for a minimal charge. Organizers are not paid but serve as volunteers. All funds go to event expenses there are no profits.
San Antonio Unconference Movement
San Antonio has been host to several Camp style conferences. There have been PodCampSA focusing on podcasting, Start-Up Weekend focusing on new company startups and BarcampSanAntonio focused on technology platforms. People who have attended have been of all ages from 13 to in their 80’s.
In addition to FreelanceCampSA, other 2008 Unconference style camps being held in San Antonio include ones focusing on online accessibility(AccessCampSA) and environmental issues (GreenCampSA).
Who Participates
Most often the participants are tech savvy ranging in age from teens to 80’s. People who come are from corporations, organizations, self-employed, students, retired and those merely curious.The tech savvy are drawn as most of the promotion is done online through forums, social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, wikis, blogs, and video.
Using online communication tools (usually called Web 2.0) such as wiki’s. Wikis are online tools people using to collaboratively share information.
