ScalperCamp: Toronto sells out
It seems you’d have an easier time getting tickets for The Spice Girls, than Toronto’s upcoming DemoCamp 17 (February 25th). The event has perhaps become too popular, too big, and too expensive. To accomodate the demand, the organizers now rent space at First Canadian Place at a whopping cost of $2,200. To attend, you now need advance tickets. Some are still free (perhaps to maintain the illusion of barcamp purity), the others cost $5, $10, and $200. All are sold out.
Maybe it’s time for someone to re-invent (once again) the concept of an “Unconference”!
“Some are still free (perhaps to maintain the illusion of barcamp purity)”
Actually most are still free. There’s no illusion to be made.
The $200 tickets are for sponsors – actually $50 less than is usually asked for to sponsor BarCamp events in Toronto.
From what I saw, the $5 & $10 tickets were selling at a proportional pace to the freebies (and the $10 sold out before the $5 tickets) – what that says to me is you have a community of people willing to help support events like these, and willing to voluntarily pay to make sure it happens.
“Maybe it’s time for someone to re-invent (once again) the concept of an “Unconference”!”
It’s easy to snipe from the sidelines but honestly, my response to comments like these is “put up or shut up”.
A lot of work goes into putting on DemoCamp and other *Camp style events. Usually at your own personal expense.
If you think there needs to be change I invite you to pick a theme, tack Camp on the end and give it a go…
You’re not serious, are you?
Hey Ryan,
I didn’t mean to snipe. I know you and David and the gang put a LOT of work into these events. They clearly have been hugely successful… The fact that sponsors and attendees are willing to pay is a great sign. The point I was trying to make is that TorCamp has elevated itself to the “major leagues” of conferences. I’ve participated in all Ottawa BarCamps so far…
In Ottawa, we don’t yet have the diversity of entrepreneurs to get out of “the pub basement”. I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing.
Mark, do you think they’ll be scalpers in front of First Canadian Place, Monday night??
I’m not sure bigger is better. We’re exploring ways to continue to host these events that attract and retain community members.
We’ve required registration to help us manage the numbers. Honestly, 250+ people makes it very difficult for new community members to network, to meet people, to foster the edges. I think we’ve learned a lot about publicizing our events. And there is a core community that has deemed the event valuable enough to sponsor individually ($5 or $10 + $0.99 service fee from EventBrite) or corporately ($200 + service fee).
Getting out of the pub basement is a tradeoff. We’ve fully embraced that this community is beyond entrepreneurs. We actively encourage participation from:
* Technologists
* Designers
* Entrepreneurs
* Marketers
Using entrepreneurship and the participatory web as a basis for attracting people has served Toronto well. There are a lot of marketing and design agencies, technologists working for banks, hospitals, government, etc. There are also a lot of VCs. There are others with social entrepreneurship. People looking to learn about the participatory web. People just looking to hang out.
Sold out means that we’ve got a big buzz machine.
I still think that it’s the derivatives that matter most. Check out:
* http://torontocodecamp.net/
* http://casecamp.org/
* http://www.heroeshappenhere.ca/
* http://podcamptoronto.com/
* http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/handheld/
* http://www.marsdd.com/Events/Event-Calendar/exptech08.html
* http://ice08.com/
* http://meshconference.com/
There are a lot of interesting things going on in Toronto. In Waterloo. In Ottawa. Fuck Ottawa has one of the best organizations in OCRI – http://ocri.ca/ doing awesome events for the Ottawa community. Things like:
* TechRocks – http://ocritechrocks.blogspot.com/
Ugh, I wish we had a Communitech or an OCRI. It means there might have been some resemblance of technology community in this town. I’m glad to see MaRS stepping up.
You have led this amazing movement, David… that is directly responsible for Ottawa having any “grass-roots” networking via Camps. I agree OCRI is excellent – but most events are out of reach / scope for our startups (example $300 afternoon talks, $65 breakfasts).
Again, this post wasn’t to take away from anything that has been accomplished – just to acknowledge that you’ve reached a new plateau. It’s something significant that is much more organized and (probably) more influential than ad-hoc Meet-ups between 20 or so people meeting in a pub. You even have Rick Segal challenging others to match his sponsorship of DemoCamp! wow!
For that, you and your team deserve a lot of thanks. Didn’t you write me a couple years ago lamenting Toronto’s lack of entrepreneurial vibrancy? LOL what a difference does 17 DemoCamps make!
Ottawa has something to build around. I think that there is a significant opportunity to look for collaborations with OCRI to build a vibrant, grassroots community in Ottawa.
Very simply, there is a trade off of price and quality. The biggest problem for a lot of event is that they cost money to run. Space. People. Food.
The BarCamp model has proven that you can successfully run a participant-organized conference. But there are things beyond conferences that are necessary for a healthy community.
My issue these days is with the “sense of entitlement” that all conferences and events should be free. There is an ecosystem of events. I don’t expect that TED should be free, but I’m super happy that the content is available to me in podcast and other format. The other issue is what are you doing to enable and facilitate the community. Toronto has had the benefit of me standing on a soapbox without a pay cheque for almost 2 years shouting about the power of community.
I would argue that 17 DemoCamps does nothing to prove “Toronto’s entrepreneurial vibrancy”. I think the growth and success of the events have proven there is an unfilled need for tech and entrepreneurial events in Toronto. DemoCamp and others have stepped in to provide a venue to meet these needs.
I’ve been to many camps in Toronto, Montreal, and a few in Ottawa. I’m not sure the size of the venue guarantees quality. I’m glad people put in the effort to organize – as David says no paycheck for 2 years is a sincere comitment. Don’t know about the sense of entitlement, but you can’t argue that the Toronto scene hasn’t been a victime of its huge success.
I’m not sure why this Ryan guy is so defensive. I don’t think he understood your post.
Ryan http://blog.ryancoleman.ca/ and Mark http://remarkk.com/ are fixtures in the Toronto community.
I think it’s ok to get defensive. I don’t think Mitch meant any harm with respect to the Toronto efforts, it was more a commentary about Ottawa.
Very true: quantity != quality
The other interesting one is that: price is not related to quality, i.e., I’ve been to awesome free events and I’ve paid a lot of money been to awesome events.
Maybe the question Mitch should be asking is “what ideas can we rip, mix and burn that will have success in Ottawa?”
Steve – I’m not alone in “misunderstanding” the post. There were more than a few people I talked to yesterday who had similar reaction to the post.
It’s clear from Mitch’s response that the post came across differently than he expected. But at first blush, for anyone who’s spent any amount of time working to build up the Toronto community it’s hard to find the positive in lines like -> “Toronto sells out”, “The event has perhaps become too popular, too big, and too expensive.” and “Maybe it’s time for someone to re-invent (once again) the concept of an “Unconference”!”
This has been an interesting (and unexpected) discussion, guys. Thanks. Of course I meant no harm – perhaps just poking a bit of fun (readers of SensoryMetrics know that we like to find humour in tech)
David’s right, I’m lamenting Ottawa’s sleepiness at the moment. Things should pick up soon though, Ian Graham is launching the Code Factory… At SM, we are working on a new events site called SparXstreet.ca
Ryan has commented on the title of the post… of course it has a double meaning. The DemoCamp sign-up site site has “Sold-Out” all over it! In entrepreneurial circles, “selling out” is often a good thing! (infinately better than “shutting down”)
Have a great night on Monday. Wish I could make it! (Yes, I’d pay 10 bucks
)
i thought this was pretty funny kmon guys he’s comparing you to a SG reunion tour scalpercamp lol look at the article after yours where microsoft patents failure recognition you gotta laugh sometimes otherwise youll get hemeroids
Mitch as Christopher MacDonald says as the father character in SLC Punk http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133189/quotes
“Steven, I didn’t sell out son. I bought in. Keep that in mind.”
The Toronto community has needed to build value to establish legitimacy. And I think the people, the events and their activities have made a world-class community.
Adding to my above list of awesome events and activities that have nothing to do with me check out http://podcamptoronto.com/
OMG. rebellion, freedon, love! David, you’ve done it. Dn’t forget that the TOR camps have had their share of controversies – remember when uncle Rick stepped in to cool things down
http://ricksegal.typepad.com/pmv/2006/03/camp_fights.html
Had everyone tied their underwear in knots in 2006, took their toys and gone home we would not have a democamp17!