OpenCamp Weekend Overview
Hey, happy OpenCampers! It’s the big week, and I hope you are as excited as we on the Core Team are. The first OpenCamp is going to be a memorable event.
Between Twitter, blog posts, Facebook, Meetups, and LinkedIn, there is a lot of information circulating about the weekend’s events. This post will hopefully sum things up for you.
Unless otherwise noted, all conference events listed below will occur at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Addison, TX. It’s a great facility, and we recommend staying there for the weekend, even if you are coming from nearby. And where applicable, be sure to RSVP for the events, so we can get accurate head counts for food and drink.
Thursday, August 26
First thing in the morning, the U.S. Army Golden Knights parachute team will conduct a skydive with several of our key speakers (see the story here). This is a prelude to the big exhibition jump they will perform the following night. Arrive by 9:00am to see the first jump, and stay through lunch to see the entire event.
Besides our speaking talent hurtling towards the ground at high speed, we have some other treats planned, including the first mid-dive interview ever conducted. Come witness the event, which will be held at Greenhill School (next to the Crowne Plaza Hotel; park at the hotel and walk next door).
Friday, August 27
No conference sessions are scheduled for Friday, so you are on your own during the day. A good way to pass the time would be looking at our schedule and planning which sessions you want to attend.
And that night, we have a huge opening event: at 7:30pm, the U.S. Army Golden Knights return with their big exhibition jump. You won’t want to miss this: a squadron of our country’s finest, parachuting in formation, complete with smoke and pyrotechnics. They’re excited to show off their skills, and I hope you’re also excited to see them soar. Once again, park at the Crowne Plaza and walk over to the Greenhill School next door. The lead jumper will be on the ground at 8:00pm, and the rest of the formation will land by 8:30pm.
Immediately afterwards, join us at the Crowne Plaza for the Friday Night Mixer, sponsored by Crossvale. This party is free for all registered OpenCampers, and your plus-ones can get in for just $10 each. It’s a great opportunity to loosen up before the weekend, meet some of your fellow participants, mingle with speakers, and even score some swag. Why yes, I did say swag! That evening, we will be giving away a Canon T2i dSLR camera, thanks to Crossvale.
I don’t even need to tell you how kick-ass all this is, so be sure you don’t miss these events.
Saturday, August 28
Assuming you made it back to your hotel room after the Friday mixer and got some sleep, you’ll wake up bright and early as if it were Christmas. Except replace Christmas with OpenCamp, and presents with sessions!
OpenCamp registration opens up that morning at 7:00am, downstairs in the lobby/bar of the Crowne Plaza. You’ll get your badge, your goodie bag, and your official OpenCamp T-shirt hot off the presses (check out our sweet design here). Be sure to grab breakfast on your own beforehand, then filter upstairs to where the sessions will be held.
OpenCamp kicks off with our Common Track sessions starting at 8:30am. These sessions are for the benefit of everyone, so most people will want to attend these. DrupalCamp starts their day in the morning as well, with two rooms of sessions beginning at 10:00am.
At 12:00pm, we will all break for lunch, which will be served downstairs where registration occurred. During lunch, be sure to take the time to visit the booths of our generous sponsors and thank them for their support. Also, stay tuned for “Strut Your Site”, where attendees can get 5 minutes to showcase their own site and tell everyone about it — what cool customization they’re using, etc
Sessions start back up at 1:30pm. And instead of a big common session, we break out into several smaller tracks: WordPress, DrupalCamp, Joomla!, .NET, and Multi-Media. For those of you who are CMS-specific (like yours truly), this is a great opportunity to cross-pollinate and learn more about other platforms and mediums. In fact, this is the driving philosophy around OpenCamp, so please participate outside of your areas of expertise. Sessions are designed for all ranges, from beginning to advanced.
The afternoon sessions will continue until 6:00pm. After that, we take a break, and you are on your own for dinner. Good thing we are in Addison, which is 95% restaurants when I last checked — there is an incredible array of dining choices, all within short walks or drives of the Crowne Plaza. If you need help finding a good place to eat, inquire with the hotel or OpenCamp staffs.
Don’t take too long grabbing dinner, because you will want to be around for the Saturday Night Party, sponsored by ZOMM. Starting at 8:00pm, Nashville musician and friend of OpenCamp Geoff Smith will be performing his magic on the guitar and piano. Geoff performed for OpenCampers just a couple weeks ago, when he streamed a pre-conference concert. The man is amazing, and I am not exaggerating. For those of you who can’t attend in person, we are likely to stream it here.
As if a night of great music and celebration isn’t enough, we’re also giving away some more prizes Saturday night. Specifically, a Sonos ZonePlayer S5 and ZoneBridge remote speaker system. We blogged about this previously, and we hope the winner immediately takes it back to their hotel room, fires it up, and invites us to the dance party!
Sunday, August 29
We are pretty sure that 100% of you are going to stay up late Saturday night, but don’t let that keep you from attending the Sunday kickoff session at 8:30am. Registration for those who missed it the day before will begin at 7:30am. Be sure to grab breakfast on your own beforehand!
Sunday is very much like Saturday, in that we gather as one group in the Common Track room with DrupalCamp being held down the hall. Lunch is again at 12:00pm, followed again by breaking out into different tracks at 1:30pm, all of which last until 6:00pm.
Never let it be said that we didn’t make every moment count at OpenCamp.
Anything Else?
All during the conference, we will be running a Hospitality Suite on the second floor of the Crowne Plaza. The suite has access to the hotel pool, so be sure to swing by and check out the fun.
Across the hallway is our Birds of a Feather room, where “unconference” sessions will take place. This room provides our attendees and speakers with additional opportunities to present exciting content to their fellow OpenCampers, so visit the room often to see what last-minute activities are being scheduled. More information about BoF can be found here.
Our own Mark Ramsey is staying at the Crowne Plaza, and he plans to host his The Tech Tards Show podcast from the charging room during lunch. Stay tuned for more details about location and time.
And finally, we will have an army of OpenCamp volunteers roaming the conference, both outside in the hallways and within each session room. If you have any questions, ask one of them and we’ll attempt to point you in the right direction.
Whew! After typing all of that, I’m going to go and ice/elevate my fingers now. See y’all soon!
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Article written by MatthewMatthew McGarity began blogging in 2003 in an effort to entertain his friends and chronicle their many adventures together. These stories have been collected on his website, an ongoing, ever-updated, never-finished autobiography powered by WordPress and a custom theme. His nickname “Spamboy” comes from a now-24-year-old can of Spam currently entombed in a time capsule. Matthew lives in McKinney, TX with his wife Jennifer and baby son Zachary. During the day, he is a mild-mannered business analyst for a Fortune 30 Company, while at night he strives to become a WordPress rock star (when he’s not changing diapers, training for marathons, or debugging this website).
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Great overview, Matthew! Everything I wanted to know and more. Thank you and see you at OpenCamp!
Update to this blog post: Mark Ramsey’s Tech Tards Show will be Sunday at noon during lunch, live from the Charging Room. The Pigskin Radio Podcast occurs at 12:01am Sunday, after the Saturday parties, in Mark’s hotel room.