The following provides a how to manual for putting on a freelance camp. This checklist is an accumulation of all the questions we had to ask and hurdles faced over the last year and a half. When it comes down to it, there are really three things you need to figure out: Venue & Food, Money (Sponsors) and Getting Peopl to Show Up (Marketing).

STEP 1: Getting Started
1. Register with www.freelancamp.org
2. Brainstorming Venues & Food
3. Preparing for Sponsors
4. Create a budget

STEP 2: Putting Plans into Motion
1. Secure a Venue
2. Signing Up Sponsors

STEP 3: Marketing and Outreach

STEP 4: Have Fun and Watch it Unfold

Oh and Side Notes & Recommendations

STEP 1: Getting Started

1. Register with www.freelancecamp.org

•    Seek to use freelancecamp.org as a basis for outreach and platform for your event. If you are need of any assistance, send Shane (my first name at shaneandpeter dot com) an email and he will gladly help you connect with the correct people, help you explain how to run the event, and will provide you with the proper resources and tools to use.

2. Brainstorming Venues

•    How many people do you plan on having? What location preferences do you have? Local? Nearby City?  Are there any restrictions you can think of? What kind of food do you want to serve?
•    Start gathering information on potential venues in your area (Possible venue options include: Coworking Centers, Museums, Community Centers, University/College Rooms, Churches, Recreational Facilities, Vacant Warehouses, Vacant Real Estate Properties, Hotels,  Banquet Hall etc.)

3. Scoping for Sponsors

•    Staring drafting your Sponsors Benefit Sheet. We have a sample on in a more complete post on getting sponsorship.
•    Talk to your City/County if they are willing to help you out with the event. You would be amazed!
For example, the City of Miami donated the venue (Convention Center) for the 2009 Miami event. There can be numerous mutual benefiting advantages to this partnership.
•    Ask your friends, coworkers if they know of any of any good potential sponsors for this type of event. (When you ask, make sure you keep it short and clearly explain the event in a few sentences. Tell them what your ideal sponsor looks like should they spot one in the wild.)

4. Create a Budget

•    Create a well thought out budget with a price ranges. I use google docs so that it is easy to have volunteers help manage the budget. We made 2 tabs, one for sponsors to keep track of both cash and in kind donations, and one for expenses. Our expenses have included: Breakfast, Lunch, Drinks, Schwag, Venue, Marketing, Office Supplies (name badges, pens, white boards…) , Wifi, Furniture Rentals, After Party. Many of these will depend on your venue and your ambition level. Some events have been run on $1,000 while others on $8,000.

STEP 2: Putting Plans into Motion

1. Securing a Venue

•    The venue should have a combination of large and small rooms. You would want a large room for the initial gathering, plus smaller rooms to have on-going workshops.
•    Come prepared with a well thought out budget and know exactly what you will pay for and what you will not.
•    Prepare a list of potential sponsors. This is good to have in order to gain leverage in negotiating for a lower price or for some in-kind services.
•    Does the venue have exclusive rights on food? If so, what type of food do they serve and what are the costs? Does the venue provide a coffee kiosk? Expresso Cart?
•    Are the following provided with the venue: Wireless internet, Extension Cords, Microphones, Podiums, and Screens?  Look for any hidden costs such as Janitorial services & insurance fees (To lower costs expect your guests to clean up after themselves.
•    Always remember to ask if they are willing to trade sponsorship for lower prices or some in-kind services. A lot of companies could use some good marketing support and you are offering to bring together a large number of business owners. This is a valuable service to a venue.

2. Sign-Up Sponsors

•    Have one sponsor per business vertical. This increases the value and helps sponsors make a commitment. This is the #1 concern sponsors expressed aside from the legitimacy of the event.
•    Approach local service providers who support small businesses such as: Lawyers, Accountants, Bank/Credit Unions, Commercial Real Estate Agents, ISP, Insurance Payroll Specialists, Investment/Retirement, Web Service Firms, Print Shops etc.
•    Check out any local institutions that have small business owners as benefactors: museum, design center, co-working centers, coffee shops.
•    Think of large companies that service freelancers and email them. You never know. Santa Cruz 2009 landed Elance.com as a sponsor, which came from an email sent into the ether.
•    Send your benefits sheet to all potential sponsors.

STEP 3: Marketing and Outreach

Marketing the freelance camp is an ongoing project. While finding sponsors and a venue may have deadlines, the marking aspect of freelance does not end till the day of the event. To market effectively it is not so much about getting the word out to everybody you know, but finding specific niche groups that have an interest in entrepreneurship, innovation, freelancing, and other related fields.

•    Put together a marketing email to promote your event to various groups, and businesses.
•    Place your event on www.barcamp.org
• Create an event via Facebook, Myspace, Linkin, Yelp, and Upcoming and on any other social networking site.
• Tweet it (tastefully).
•    Figure out which local groups have mailing lists. See if you use could use their mailing to promote your event. Be open to asking what is the best way to reach and present to their membership.
•    Research freelance or small business owners’ blog circles and write posts about your freelance camp. Some good sites are http://www.freelanceswitch.com, http://www.freelanceforlder.com and  http://www.elance.com/blog
•    Promote your event at Barcamps and other events that are happening in your area. Forge connection between those groups.
•    Outreach to local universities, colleges and research centers that offer internship program for students who are willing to help you put the event on or are interested in attending.
•    Ask your friends, your coworkers, your twitter pals, and your Facebook friends, who might have an interest or know someone who will help you, move the implementation process forward.

STEP 4: Have Fun and Watch it Unfold

I am not going to write much here. The world of barcamps is quite similar and this topic is so well covered. In short, relax and quit trying to do everything. Find a lot of volunteers so that everyone gets a chance to enjoy the event. Nothing is perfect. Ever. I promise. That’s ok.

For more: http://barcamp.org/OrganizeALocalBarCamp

Side Notes and Recommendations

•    Costco and other wholesale stores are a great place to buy food for your event. However, many venues have exclusive rights on food
•    You don’t have to provide food, but we have found that if people leave for lunch they will often not come back.
•    Make some preparations for an after party. Although this is not necessary, it is always good to have some sort of voluntary gathering after the event.
•    Do some preliminary research on SHWAG items to give out during the event. T-Shirt and/or stainless steel canteens are great items. Seek sponsorship or some in-kind services in exchange for these items.
•    A good way of finding out what your city has to offer is visiting your Small Business Development Center or talking to your city’s Economic Development Coordinator.  In most cases they will have a good idea of what type of venue you will need. In addition, they may even put you in contact with local property owners who have vacant lofts for you.
•    In some situations, Hotels and Banquet halls would like to reserve their rooms for dinner events. For example, if your freelance camp is between 9AM-6PM, they may ask you to finish up earlier such as 4pm. It is always good to be flexible.

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:

Have a Budget

First figure out how much you need and what kind of money you are comfortable asking for. It cost me just over 3k to run the event last year with a free venue (Thank you Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History), significant in kind contributions and 150 attendees. That covered breakfast, lunch, t-shirts, internet, a phat after party (Thank you local Heineken distributor for sponsoring and throwing down beer) and a pile of office supplies. I was asking for $250 per sponsor either in cash or in kind. We ended up with 17 sponsors in order to get the event accomplished.

This year, I expect to have more attendees and really don’t have the time to hunt down 20+ sponsors, so I asked for $500 per sponsor in order to keep the number smaller. Borrowing from Wordcamp’s recent decision to charge attendees as to help cover the cost of the event, we have decided to ask for $25 per person. We have reserved 50 free tickets for students and hardship cases, as well as another pile for sponsors. After making a budget, I figured I was looking for about 10 sponsors this year.

What are you offering?

First things first. I only have one sponsor per business vertical. I found that increased the value and really helped sponsors make a commitment. This was the #1 concern sponsors expressed aside from the legitimacy of the event. I then put together a list of benefits that sponsors would receive. Here is the list I sent out this year:

Sponsor Benefits

* All sponsors receive 5 free tickets. (More available upon request)
* Your Brand will be Publicized on:
Freelancecamp.org Website
Event Schedule
All Marketing and PR Materials
Email lists hitting over 10,000 business owners
Blogs Posts and Articles
T-shirts (or Stainless Steel Canteens)
* Sponsor signage at the event
* A short timeslot at the beginning of the event to promote your company
* Distribute and bring promotional materials for discussion and networking.
* A chance (depending on attendee interest) to facilitate a freelance session. For Example “Maximize your chances of winning the gig”

With that list, I began to cast my net.

Who do you know?

First, ask your friends, your coworkers, your twitter pals, on facebook etc. Tell people you are looking for sponsors. They will most likely send you a bunch of leads. When you ask, make sure you keep it short and clearly explain the event in a few sentences. Tell them what your ideal sponsor looks like should they spot one in the wild. Once you have exhausted the personal connections list then you hit the pavement at a jog: think local.

Think Local

Start by visiting your local Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and talk to them. They can be incredibly helpful. They might be a sponsor and if not, can connect you with numerous business owners. If you need someone from the SBDC to vouch for the event, I can ask my local SBDC director to email them. Even if you don’t plan to run a freelance camp and just want some help, the SBDC kick some serious butt. I’m talking free HR consulting, free bookkeeping support and education, business planning, marketing consulting and more. They exist (thank you well spent government programs) to make sure we are succeeding.

Go talk to your city and your county. The City of Santa Cruz is one of our sponsors as it wants to support any activities that drive business and are a viable solution to the current economic times.

Approach local service providers who support small businesses: lawyer, accountant, bank, credit union, commercial real estate agent, ISP, insurance, payroll specialists, investment/retirement, web service firms, print shops etc.

Hit up any local services firm and startups that use freelancers and want to meet more / be seen positively in the industry.

Check out any local institution that has small business owners as benefactors: museum, design center, coworking centers, coffee shops.

Set a meeting with any educational organization such as jr college or local university that wants to help their students transition into business ownership or has a business education department.

Think of large companies that service freelancers and email them. You never ever know. We just landed Elance.com as a sponsor, which came from an email sent into the ether. I am in discussions with Sugar CRM and Automattic among others (fingers triple crossed).

And so there you go folks.

Support Freelance Camp!

Attend Freelance Camp Miami 2009!

Attend Freelance Camp Santa Cruz 2009!

I’d like to sincerely thank the current Sponsors of Freelance Camp 2009 (August 15).

Baskin and Grant LLP
City of Santa Cruz
Cruzio
Elance
Happy Santa Cruz
Lighthouse Bank
Nextspace Coworking and Innovation Center
Shane & Peter Inc.
Studio Holladay