Its official. Freelance camp Washington DC 2009. They have a venue (the DC improv – can’t get more inspiring than that). They have a signup site. And they are rocking the preparation. Join them in Spring of 2010.

Looking to help out. Volunteers are encouraged. Just leave a comment.

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

The folks at Sacramento’s Co-Working space, The Urban Hive are planning to run a freelance camp this October. If you are in the area and want to help out, leave a comment and we will reach out! I will let you know more as soon as I find out.

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

We are so grateful to the Santa Cruz MAH, for donating space so that we could hold freelance bar camp. If you live in the area and are not a member of the museum, please go check it out some time and donate.

We are going to be able to use the entire bottom floor and rooftop statue garden. Four spaces, the boardroom, the auditorium, the kindergarten room and the rooftop garden should provide tons of space for good discussions. Please make sure you check in and have a badge because they are still open to the public and will be charging for people who are not part of the event.

Location: 705 Front Street • Santa Cruz • CA • 95060 • 831.429.1964

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