http://www.flickr.com/photos/kk/708687628/ by kk+

So after a bit of a hiatus and another change in personal circumstances I think it is time to dust off West of Interesting. Bathcamp has happened and been another storming success and Russel Davies managed to run another amazing Interesting conference in London so I am once again all fired up.

I am wondering if it is possible to do this as a joint event with the idea of Brizzlecamp? Not sure but it might be fun. Also the idea of a KidCamp or Interesting Jr has been mentioned so that parents could bring children along happily in the knowledge that they wouldn’t be alone and the kids wouldn’t be bored. I think early February is now the target date wise so I need to get my skates on - not least to round up some other people interested in giving this a go.

I have a target of an autumn event now - though I am hoping to interest Mike and the Bathcamp gang in trying out some of the ideas for Winteresting for those who are impatient.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far - you will more than likely get an email sooner rather than later as I try and make this more of a team activity.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeyh/2948892935/

So I’m getting along OK with the planning and should know about a venue in the next couple of days (then I’ll need to find a sponsor but thats for a different post) but I continue to have a nagging worry about two things (1) will anyone actually volunteer to speak and (2) will anyone show up!

Now getting some interesting people to step up for (1) should hopefully go a long way to making me worry less about (2) so this is just a quick post to get the ball rolling and hopefully get a few things sorted out.

I have been doing a bit of a trawl through my Twitter stream for things that seem interesting and I (and hopefully other people) would be up for hearing more about;

- Graffiti (thats a shock coming from me I know)
- Gaming - whether it be ARGs, LARPs or particularly stuff from IG Labs
- Fixie bikes - have no idea about this stuff but I like the ‘pimp’ my bike element of it
- Something about the (historic) music scene in Bristol
- Obviously something about the PRSC would be cool
- Transition Towns stuff maybe? Again I don’t know much but it seems interesting
- Burlesque stuff - I have a friend well into that stuff and it always amazes me the effort people go to
- DIY Masters, self learning etc
- I’d like to hear something on maths or science that is far beyond my understanding as well, just cos it makes me feel clever
- Oh and Cider

Now to be clear this is just me babbling - I’m not saying we should have these sessions or that they would take preference over anything else, they are just to get the conversation started. Though if you would like to talk about anything on this list can’t say I’d be upset..

Oh and I’d quite like someone to open the event either by singing or playing an instrument - the original London event has been known to feature a ukulele after all!

The other question is whether we should try and get a couple of ‘name’ speakers lined up (well local ‘names’ anyway) to get some momentum going?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/artesea/500720937/

I spotted a tweet from Steve Boneham this morning that I found really interesting and signaled this brief break in our usual programming here at West of Interesting.

TEDx is an attempt by the TED team to spread the content from their events even further and to create a network of small, semi independent events focusing on TED video content with a spattering of live speakers.

As these events would be able to use TED branding and (eventually) be publicized on the TED website it does come with some pretty strict ‘guidelines’ (rules really) that our outlined on the website.

I think it might make for an interesting event here in Bristol - a kind of spin-off from the Festvial of Ideas stuff - with a mix of peoples favourite TED videos (via some kind of vote) and some local speakers.  I like the concept enough to have had a bit of a crisis of faith this morning about West of Interesting wondering whether this would have been a better idea so I think I’ll ponder that over the long weekend.

Motivational Poster - Planning 1.3

Thanks to everyone who commented and replied via Twitter - I feel like Hannibal Smith now as the plan comes together!

This is what I think makes the most sense at the moment based on everybodies advice;

• We’ll charge £5 per person (aiming at around 80 people) and seek some sponsorship as well
• Trinity as a venue - assuming its available. Several emails to the Cube have gone unanswered and the more I think about Trinity the more sense it makes
• The event taking place on a Sunday afternoon between 1 and 6ish
• No live streaming but video the talks using Flip cameras and anything else available - will hopefully let the mighty Hector take the lead here
• We’ll have some kind of Twitter projection and encourage its use as a backchannel
• No bottled water! We’ll have jugs of water plus some ‘interesting’ squash available
• Cake! (I’ll work out the insurance details with the venue)
• There is a hot water urn so I think tea bags etc should available

A remaining big decision is the date of this grand happening - for personal reasons these are the 3 potential dates I’ve been thinking of - 26th July, 9th August or 23rd August - what do people think? They are far from set in stone and basically just represent the three easiest dates for me during a period that is far enough away to be achievable but doesn’t clash with Bathcamp which is likely to be in September. Assuming the dates don’t horrify anyone I’ll contact Trinity later this week and check availability - if need be I’ll front a deposit to confirm the venue asap and then the really difficult task of rounding up speakers would begin..

Planning Session

OK here is my current thinking based on my Twitter groupmind - feel free to chip in, especially as well I can’t do it all by my lonesome.

The conference/event/day/whatever will cost £5 per person and we’ll look to see if we can find some kind of sponsorship as well to make sure we cover costs. It will take place on a Sunday sometime between late July and mid August and will start at 1 (to let everyone have a lazy Sunday morning and to get things set-up) and continue til 6ish (5 hours or so should be plenty of time to get a great mix of talks in) with some kind of ‘after party’ in a different, but nearby, venue starting about 8. Should give people time to refuel in between?

The two venues for the day I’m currently thinking of are the Cube and Trinity, with Trinity currently slightly ahead on points (mainly as it has a really helpful website). I have no idea about the evening yet.

Other things I’d like to do is find someway to supply free bottled water - not sure why but I’m a bit fixated on this one! - and also as its a Sunday afternoon I’d kind of like to do something that included homemade cake as an afternoon treat

I don’t really like the idea of live streaming for this but unless a speaker says otherwise I think the talks should be recorded and put online after in the tradition of other Interesting events so hopefully someone(s) will volunteer to help with that. I also quite like the idea of using Visible Tweets to have a live Twitter wall somewhere so projectors might be an issue.

So does this sound like a reasonable plan? Nothing is set in stone yet so if anything sounds stupid speak up in the comments (though if I’m being really stupid mail me at matt AT winteresting DOT org)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tracy_olson/61056391/

OK there seems to be a decent amount of support for pushing forward with West of Interesting so I guess its time for phase 2 - checking up just how feasible it actually is! I’d really like to do the event at the Cube (although I did at one point have grand plans of trying to book Jesters which is a pretty amazing venue these days) so its time to reach out and find out just how much it is going to cost.

There are a number of options for raising the money for an event like this I think although I am for the time being focused on 3 possibilities;

- charge for attendance (just enough to cover the costs)
- sponsorship (though its important that this complies with “Sponsors give tangible things that make the day better”)
- community fundraising (using something like Fundable maybe?)

I particularly like the OpenTech model with the £5 fee on the door as well as having 4iP sponsoring the event (4iP seem to sponsor alot of tech type events these days - I wonder if a tech powered but essentially all things geeky event would appeal to them?). A combination like that would likely pay for the venue plus incidentals and some kind of small payment might minimise no-shows (seem to remember Bathcamp having some success with this idea last year?)

Something about the community fundraising thing does appeal to me, and I particularly liked the WordCamp idea of micro-sponsors, but I don’t really know whether enough people would be interested in a debut event to make it work?

Interesting Conferences in the past have had a small fee associated with them and while that does somewhat add to the admin burden it does seem to be accepted as long as the price is small - however say we got 80 people to attend (which might be optimistic!) at a fiver a head thats only 400 quid and thats not going to go far.

There are all sorts of decisions to be made as well that add to the costs; things like refreshments and lunch for as start! One thing I’d like to be able to do is have free bottles of Frank water available but avoid the whole coffee/tea hoopla. Lunch is a tough decision to make as well - as after the cost of the venue its usually the most expensive element of the entire enterprise. Plus I’d really quite like to do some kind of ‘after-party’ with a few quid behind the bar (for selfish reasons as much as anything - I know I’ll need a drink!)

Well thats alot to think about - any ideas would be gratefully received - the more the merrier in fact!

Basically it starts with some kind of traditional-ish organising committee who each get to invite 3 people each. The people they invite get to invite 2 more people each, who in turn get to invite 1 person (and potentially it can carry on from there I think). Pete is working on a little web app to help automate this entire process, particularly to show if people have been invited more than once and also to do some visualisations have of how the invites spread out. I think it could be an interesting experiment and that is kind of the point in the whole idea - especially if people make the invites with the idea of getting as eclectic a group of people together as possible.

Not sure how this would work if the people who wanted to speak weren’t invited! Then again I’m sure I’d be able to reserve some discretionary powers to invite a few people outside of the system.

What do people reckon?

So lets assume I’m going to be able to pull this together for sometime in July/August, the next question is what day? Traditionally this sort of event takes place on a Saturday, or as a shorter form one night in the week. Both of these options are possible but I was wondering whether Sunday should be dismissed out of hand? I think getting a venue on Sunday might be a little easier, particularly at the venues I have in mind and while it would likely put off people from traveling from further afield for the event it would reinforce the West Country vibe to the whole endeavor. I’m sure there are all sorts of logistical issues I’m blithely ignoring but I do kind of like the idea - its interesting..