The event is really coming together!

We now have a venue, which is the newest building on pacific ave right in the middle of down town Santa Cruz! In fact, the building is so new it is completely empty, so we got Palace Office Supply & Office Interiors as a sponsor to set up a series of 5 meeting spaces / lounges. Top floor awesome view, big balconies, 10,000+ square feet of prime space surrounded by some killer restaurants and right up the street from the beach.

We also are now working with Klean Kanteen to get custom stainless steel water bottles for the event. This is going to be the sickest schwag ever. I must see one in the hand of every 10th person walking down the street and they retail for close to $25. You get one along with your ticket! And I am talking the 27oz bottles, not those tinny ones.

• Venue: Rittenhouse Building, Downtown Santa Cruz, CA
• Date: Saturday August 15, 2009
• Time: 8am – 6pm + after party
• Cost: $25 or free if you are a student or really, really, really need the help (please be respectful)
• Schwag: Klean Kanteen 27oz bottles (retail cost for these is more than the price of your ticket)
• Register: http://freelancecamp3.eventbrite.com/

Not in the area? Don’t worry! We have a freelance camp coming to Reno soon (date still to be decided). Still out of luck? Start your own. We have already had five freelance camps in 2009 and every freelancer who has put one on sent me personal notes telling stories of how much this has caused a serious boost to their careers and the local economy.

Fire marshal has us capped at 300 people, so that nails down the ticket count. Last year, after my email blast (which we will be sending out around June 18th or so) we sold out in 3 days. As of June 19th we are already down to 221 tickets just based upon word of mouth. So if you want to come, sign up fast.

Who should come? If you sell your services (or are considering it), you are a perfect fit: developer, designer, accountant, blogger, journalist, realtor, lawyer, carpenter, engineer, financial adviser, marketer, sales, musician, artist, inventor… Historically, the bulk of attendees are from hi-tech. We encourage all types of owners to come to provide a balanced perspective to business.

• Get experience based answers to your questions.
• Network and meet people running successful freelance businesses.
• Form partnerships and collaborate.
• Find clients.
• Help others and be a person of influence.

The “Camp” in FreelanceCamp implies that the event is informal with an emphasis on face-to-face interaction with other attendees. “Community-driven” means that the attendees of the conference actually run the conference by discussing topics appropriate to the subject of the event. The presentation schedule is determined on the morning of the conference and anyone is welcome to present.

Our sponsors include:

Baskin & Grant
City of Santa Cruz
Cruzio
Elance
Happy Santa Cruz
Hope Foundry
Nextspace Coworking and Innovation
Palace Office Supply & Office Interiors
Parachute Creative
Rittenhouse
Santa Cruz New Tech MeetUp
Shane & Peter Inc
Small Business Development Center
Studio Holladay
Sugar Crm

Palace started in Monterey in the 1890’s, expanded to Santa Cruz in the ’40s and was purchased by the Trowbridge family in 1949. Palace has grown exponentially acquiring 9 other independent office supply companies throughout the Central Coast.

Today, we are the largest independent dealer of art and office supplies, and office furniture in Santa Cruz and Monterey. We clearly understand that we are the Local Alternative to the Mega Companies and we know that we must try harder, be more creative, add value, offer equal to/or better pricing and out service our competition everyday to continue to earn the privilege of being in business. We have built this family owned company and our reputation on doing exactly as we have promised: giving world-class service locally and truly saving our customers money everyday on both office supplies and office furniture.

Need Furniture or Supplies? Visit Palace Office Supply & Office Interiors

A new reason not to commute –

Check out today’s Santa Cruz Sentinel front page article “Startup gives freelancers, entrepreneurs a chance to work in downtown Santa Cruz” about NextSpace. NextSpace is a new downtown co-working space for freelancers, entrepreneurs and home office workers to work and cross paths at the proverbial coffee pot. Place like this are one of the reasons I love Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz can also be proud of Santa Cruz Next, the relatively new local organization committed to providing a fun, hip and diverse environment to discuss issues affecting the next generation of our community.

This is great press is just in time for tomorrow’s Freelance Camp in downtown Santa Cruz.