12 Drupal Camps in 2010 [How I did it and why]

OK. I haven't blogged in like 6 months! So this one may be long! :-)

In this post: 12 DrupalCamps in 2010 [How I did it and why]
In my next blog posts: [a] My brief stent with Acquia & [b] 2011 the year of Drupal Training [What I've been up to]

Coast to coast delivering Drupal Training to the masses!

Last year I hit Drupal Camps in Orlando, Nashville, Chicago, South Carolina, DC, Denver, Los Angeles, Dallas, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Atlanta, and Indiana. There were three camps I did NOT hit and that is because they occurred at the same time as another camp.
Note: I never stayed in a tent at any of these "Camps." :-) 

How did I do it?
* For about half of those camps I was sent by Duo Consulting who paid my way. They got a lot of press off of this and thus, a lot of leads. We all know that many potential clients ask the question, "What are you doing for the community?" DUO was happy to say that they were contributing largely to many Drupal Camps.
* For Los Angeles I was covered by Web Enabled for whom I gave a packed out session where I explained their Web Development Platform.
* For the DrupalCamp at OpenCamp in Dallas I was invited by the organizers as their guest.
* In Wisconsin I finally paid my own way!
* In Atlanta I was sponsored by PrometSource 
* And in my own home state of Indiana I had PrometSource again sponsor me for my time in promoting and organizing the event.

How did this work?
Very well. In every case the camp organzers were very happy to have me out to provide special sessions for beginners. In the case of Ashville NC I did 6 sessions in a row that built off of eachother. In Nashville I did only 6. In every case, except one, the camp organizers were willing to list my hosting organization as a sponsor. They determined that the value in having me there was worth a logo and a alanding page for the organization that footed the bill.
I tried this in one other camp and they had a board meeting where they determined that to grant an organization a sponsorship roll based merely on the fact that they brought in someone to do a few sessions was unacceptable. That's fine with me. 12 camps were enough. This perticular sponsor was only sponsoring me IF the quid pro quo was in effect. And yes, that camp had little to offer the n00bs, if many showed up. Again, this is fine. Not every camp needs strong n00b classes or even dougvann for that matter! ;-)

Why did I do it?
My passion is for the n00bs. Not just the people who have used FrontPage or DreamWeaver, but the asp.net and java developers who don't know what a node, block, or region is. I want to hit ALL these people. I firmly believe that the future of our platform is found in today's crop of n00bs. I believe our foundation and bedrock are SOLID but that we need a LOT MORE shops and devs and themers if we're going to meet the demand for Drupal development in the long-term.
While my motivation was to simply spread the Drupal goodness all around I have to also admit that my contact form has enjoyed a steady stream of Drupal Training and Drupal Development leads. I'll post more about that later!

Last note:
I've already missed a camp last month and my workload is heavy this year so I know for a fact that I won't be racking up the frequent flier miles jetting from camp to camp to camp to camp.
But if you're interested in having my out to your camp... Contact Me!

ttfn...