DrupalCamp London wrapped up on March 1st, making it the third large Drupal event in London since DrupalCon London in 2011. Over the past three years, the local events team has learned a great deal about planning a successful DrupalCamp in one of the largest and most diverse cities in the world.

“The tricky part,” said Ben Wilding (kazillian), one of the lead DrupalCamp London organizers, “is getting the core group who will commit to the camp. There are always lots of people who say they'll volunteer, but ultimately, you need a core group of people who will make it happen."

When planning a DrupalCamp, Ben says there are seven main points to keep in mind.

1. Find your core supporters

“In the years we’ve been planning DrupalCamp London, we've encountered two challenges: informing the local community enough, versus not giving them too much info," said Ben. "Things went slowly in year one since there was a revolving door problem as different people showed up to the planning meetings each month. Ultimately, it boiled down to the same five or six people who turned up at all the meetings, and they became the decision maker group.

“When it comes to planning a camp with your local community, open it up. Get as many local people involved as you can, but don’t be surprised if those numbers dwindle quite rapidly down to a core few. Then, closer to the event, engage with the actual community who has volunteered to help out during the event. We actually had that as a ticket type— you could buy a free volunteer ticket. We probably had about thirty so, but we capped it. There are always dropouts at the last minute, so we always let a few new people come on board — but always cap the volunteer tickets."

2. Define the most important jobs

Ben says that, when it comes to planning a DrupalCamp, having clearly defined jobs is critical to success.

“We had one person in charge of supporting the volunteers on site,” Ben said. “That person is responsible for updating everyone on what’s going on and managing the volunteers on the day-of. Our volunteer coordinator does a walk around with the volunteers on the first day at the venue, and he keeps a spreadsheet where he maps volunteers to specific rooms and tasks.

“Especially with a job like managing volunteers, or handling the website, we’ve found that it’s best to make sure that one person owns it, and it’s not too difficult for them to manage."

3. Plan ahead

“Give yourself more time than you think you’ll need — like months and months more time,” Ben advised. For DrupalCamp London, the team starts more than ten months out on certain elements, such as the website, approaching the venue, and coordinating the team.

“Start anything you can as early as you can,” said Wilding. “The first thing, the hardest thing to get sorted out, is the venue — it's hard getting a space to commit for free. One you have that space, a lot of other things can fall into place if you’re being sensible about it and starting early.

“We get really involved with the whole team about four months out,” Ben continued. “Our camp is always the last weekend in February, so it’s awkwardly placed where Christmas sits. We do things in October and November, the ball gets rolling, and then Christmas happens and we lose five weeks. When planning your camp, look out for anything holiday related in your calendar, like major public holidays. Be wary that you don’t sit back. Plan around it."

4. Use personal networks

According to Ben, one way to get great things at low to no cost is through utilizing your community members’ personal networks.

“The more people you reach out to, the better, and the more people you’ve got looking through their personal contacts, the better,” said Ben. "The time to manage speakers and sponsorships is a lot, so it’s best if possible if you can get someone to really own that. It’s something that’s easy to pass around a group of volunteers— you have to have one key person to own it."

Personal networks have helped the London team get keynote speakers, their venue, even their sponsor.

“We’ve been very fortunate that we get the venue in central London for three days straight. It usually costs hundreds of thousands of pounds, but we got it donated.

“It goes back with personal relationships that one of the organizers had with the university — he had done some free lectures promoting Drupal. It’s also about finding the right venue who benefits from the event, too. The computing department at the university we host our DrupalCamp at is very keen to find industry connections for students, so we always donate lots of tickets to their students so they can promote it internally.

“The way it stands now, the university students get the opportunity to meet the best of the best of the Drupal world, and the community benefits from the introduction of new users as well. Housing DrupalCamp London within the city university means they get the benefit of real world enterprise business and technology paired up with their students, which is ideal for them."

5. Be prepared for complications

Ben noted that organizing DrupalCamps can be complicated in unexpected places.

“This year, we had the BBC as a diamond sponsor,” said Ben. “We had a contact on their end who was great. However, we had to put everything through their legal department and their marketing department. It was a good lesson for us in that, when you get to a certain level of sponsorship, the complications and the amount of work you have to put in to manage those relationships is incredible."

However, there are ways to address normal pain areas and cut down on the headaches for everyone.

“Registration can be pretty difficult,” said Ben. “Printing names out on lanyards takes ages, and sometimes someone can’t find someone’s badge because God knows where it went, and there are long queues. We managed to make it much easier this year — we had ten volunteers by the doors in the morning for the first two days, and with 500 people coming in, we knew it could take a long time.

“So instead of printing badges, we just let people sign them on their own. For the actual registration process, we used an app called check me in. People RSVPd for the camp through EventBrite, and  so when they walked in, they could check in with the door volunteers, all of whom had the app on their phone. After that, attendees could grab their lanyard, T-shirt, and tote bag. It was so much better than having 150 disgruntled in a queue at the start of the event."

6. Enjoy your successes

Every DrupalCamp has great moments, and DrupalCamp London was no exception.

“We had Dr. Sue Black as the keynote for DrupalCamp on Saturday, and it was a bit of a different angle than what we usually have,” Ben said. “We wanted to go beyond the normal Drupal talk for the keynote, so we had Dr. Black come speak about her experiences of promoting women’s engagement with technology — and also saving Bletchley Park, too.

"One of Dr. Black's favorite projects that she does and does a lot of fundraising for is called Techmums. She promotes technology amongst mothers in poorer, lower income households, and trains them to use it. One success story was how they trained a mum on how to put an attachment on an email. It was totally new to this woman who was running her own business. Before that, she was sending her son at the end of the day across town, on a bus, with these samples for clients to look at. And the email attachments totally changed her life.

“After the talk, Dr. Black had a huge queue of people who wanted to help with her various projects. It was so great that we were able to help our community share knowledge, and hopefully we benefited the world a bit."

7. Thank your supporters

“I’d like to issue another huge thanks to the volunteers and sponsors again because DrupalCamp wouldn’t happen without them,” said Ben in conclusion.

“We’ve had a few people step back from organizing this year so we’re looking for new people to get involved and get engaged next year. If you’re interested in helping out, keep an eye on the Twitter account (@drupalcampldn and #dclondon). We’re taking a break for a few months — but keep an eye on Twitter, and the Drupal London User Group. We’ll make some noise in a couple months time, and get people together who want to chat about stepping in and helping out. We’re always looking for new people, and are happy to answer any questions people have."