Choose location

Pros:

• There's a potentially untapped group of people in Boulder (students, entrepreneurial scene, general tech scene)
• I like the idea of moving the camp around, at least in theory.

Cons:

• Colorado Springs is no longer commutable. If you are from the springs you /will/ have to get a hotel.
• People from Denver might not go. I'll be going because it's Drupalcamp Colorado. There are very few events I would actually go to Boulder for.
• Cab rides from the airport are $100 (compared to 60 to Denver). Shared shuttles are $35. The bus is probably considerably less, but telling people to ride the bus doesn't give a particularly professional vibe.

I guess as a whole, I'm concerned about attendance if we do it in Boulder. I think we give up a non-trivial chunk of our Denver / Colorado Springs / Out of state attendees. Do we gain enough by having it in Boulder to warrant that? I personally lean towards no, but it's worth a discussion.

FWIW I live in Fort Collins and will be commuting/attending regardless of the location (i.e. distance is not a determining factor).

-1 (Downvote).

But this is an awesome discussion! I'm so psyched that planning has started!

As noted above:

Price. Boulder is discouragingly pricey for transportation and lodging.

Location. The Springs area and Pueblo County are more populous than Weld (Ft. Collins and Greeley), when talking about in-state travelers. Boulder is more remote for out-of-state travelers.

Denver is just the natural convergence point for camps and conferences. CU Boulder may have lots of interest in Drupal as an organization, and a camp should attract a great deal of interest from the community there.

But the idea of moving things around is, in itself, appealing. As noted, different locations would lend a different vibe to the event! I think that when Kevin mentioned DU above, he meant CU, but I'm thinking (to answer Scott) that the DU campus could be a way to get out and about--right there in Denver!

+1 for Boulder

I generally disagree with most of the statements listed as cons for Boulder outside of price related concerns. Boulder is appealing to many tech people from outside Colorado and is known for being tech-centric. I speak to a lot of people that are not only aware of Boulder as a technology center, but would appreciate an opportunity to visit. To think that someone from Denver wouldn't go to Boulder for a camp is a bit of a shock to me.

Pros:

• Boulder is known as a technology producer - an event like this could appeal to a broader range of technologists than Denver - this could also be an opportunity to find non-traditional sponsors
• The atmosphere in Boulder could be conducive to relaxed social interaction
• DU has a strong interest in Drupal - the student appeal could be quite high and of different quality than from Denver
• We could do some really nice extra-curricular activities that involve the outdoors
• I like moving the camp between cities ... it is much more fair to the overall community in the state and is reflective of the strategy utilized by Drupalcons

Cons:

• Price - I think we would need to rely on help from the college to keep costs reasonable ... I'm not sure what communication has happened there or what the cost impact would be.
• Travel logistics/parking etc - could be tricky depending on the event location. I think this could be managed.

I think you meant CU, but here's the link for DU events:

http://www.du.edu/events/event_calendars.html

This is an awesome discussion.

I will be there regardless of where it is ... but I'm also very lucky that I live central to both Denver and Boulder. I will also say that I'm happy to give up a couch, a floor, a child's bed, to help with accommodation costs for anyone travelling up from Denver or Colorado Springs, or even coming from other areas. :)

I love the idea of having one in Boulder, as was specified above, Boulder is a technical and start up hub these days.

As we work through these we can update the issue summary so that the pro/con list there is definitive.

That said, let's try to be unbiased. There's simply no way to claim that boulder being ~20 minutes further from the airport isn't a con. It's just a fact. We can argue that the cons are offset by pros (or vice versa) but our initial list should be inclusive.

+1 for Boulder

I generally agree with almost everything cyberswat said in #5. It seems like people are generally in favor of moving the camp around, and Boulder seems like a logical place to have the camp. There's a huge tech scene here with one of the largest New Tech meetups in the country (with ~400 attending every month). There's been lots of large conferences held in Boulder with great success (IXDa11 was one of the notable recent conferences I attended http://interaction11.ixda.org/). TEDxBoulder was a week ago and had 1,803 attendees. It's got one of the most successful Ignite events in the country, and is the home of Startup Weekend. TechStars began here. The startup/tech community is widely considered one of the best in the country (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/business/14boulder.html)

The University is rapidly adopting Drupal and I have no doubt that we'd see a number of faculty/staff/students from CU-Boulder attend if it were held on campus who wouldn't otherwise travel to Denver.

Transportation: As for transportation from DIA - in my opinion, telling people to take the bus is not at all "unprofessional" - the bus leaves every hour and costs $13 (one way) . I've taken this bus countless times with nothing but positive things to say.

Hotel prices: It is true.. it's hard to find a "cheap" hotel in Boulder - there are a couple, but not nearly as many as there might be in Denver. This is why I did ask CU-Boulder to include the option of on-campus housing in the proposal. Turns out, it's probably not worth our time due to the restrictions, but it is still something we can consider.

Cost: Sadly, I dont think we can get the cost down much more (besides cutting things like food/coffee). I'm going to pursue this a bit further and see what I can do, but it seems that there's not much difference in pricing for departments vs outside events. I don't think parking is a huge deal - Parking and Transportation Services works with CU Conference Services and makes a deal for some of the lots around the venue location.

Food: I keep thinking about how awesome it would be to have lunch in the C4C (https://housing.colorado.edu/node/478). This is a beautiful buffet-style with a host of world cuisines. Cost is $13 (including tax), but it might be possible that could be brought down with a group deal. I know that the UMC (where'd we'd have our keynotes) requires the use of their catering service. With that said, there's plenty of good food right next door to campus on The Hill. We'd be a pretty good trek from Pearl Street, ruling it out as options for lunch, but there's plenty of options for a party downtown in the evening.

Just for sake of transparency and comparison, do we want or care to get a bid from another venue?

+1 Boulder.

I really like the pros stated in the summary, and I genuinely feel like Boulder would be a fun place to try to lure in students who want to get involved in open source web development. I concede that Auraria campus also has many students as well, and I would be interested in any kind of data pointing to the number of converted Drupalistas that were a direct result of drupalcamp being held in Auraria campus. However, and this is pure speculation and pre-conceived notions of Boulder, I feel like the open source community, specifically surrounding the student body, could possibly be more interested in Drupal than the student body at Auraria (of which I used to attend).

Here's some additional points (please excuse the terseness thereof). I also appreciate the effort put forth by ultimateboy and greggles in figuring out what the logistics might look like for the venue.

Pros:

• It's really pretty
• We could possibly organize a fun event in the outdoors for free(a small hike at flat irons?)
• It's really really pretty

I don't really have any additional cons that haven't already been stated.

Just my two cents :)

@Rick - absolutely!

+1 for more venue quotes.

If we get a hotel quote, would that possibly get us a break on hotel room rates?
What about the Omni in Interlocken as the camp venue?

Worth getting a quote for?

I just submitted a request for a proposal from the Millennium Hotel in Boulder http://www.millenniumhotels.com/millenniumboulder/meetings/

I think that's the only other place in Boulder (besides CU-Boulder) that could accommodate our needs.

By the way, if you don't have access to the CU-Boulder proposal, please find me in IRC and give me your google email address and I'll share the google doc.

Cross post from OA (now closed):

Did we get any discount/prioritization with Denver/Metro for the space? One issue about moving annually that the PNWDS planners have complained about is that it's hard to build a relationship with a venue. It's much easier to negotiate the space and price you want when you can leverage a recurring use (i.e. "You gave us the big theater hall last year for $X and you know we'll be here every year, so you should give it to us again instead of [other concurrent event] and only charge us $Y... otherwise we'll need to start looking elsewhere.")

Although, maybe that cost isn't much of an issue, since DCCO keeps making money... but just thought it was worth a mention.

+1 for Boulder here, mostly because of how much WordCamp Boulder rocked in 2010. (Not that WordCamp's situation is identical to DrupalCamp, of course, but I develop for both and thought it was a particularly good local conference.)

For WordCamp Boulder in 2010, three session tracks were hosted at three locations within a block of each other on the Pearl Street mall. Big venue: Boulder theater, smaller ones: TechStars Boulder and Atlas Purveyors. Boulder Theater worked very well and is rental-friendly; the others were probably due to community connections and I'm not suggesting those specific ones. But the several-spots-on-the-mall thing did work well.

The conference had a big mix of attendance from folks all along the front range- lots of Fort Collins, Denver, and Colorado Springs represented among both attendees and speakers. Sponsors included companies in Boulder, Denver, Arizona, etc...

Full disclosure: my opinion is one of someone currently in Denver, who loved WC Boulder while living in Fort Collins, but was (admittedly) born in Boulder.

Update pros/cons list.

@jyee - We've lost our contacts at Metro, so I think that's a good thing to consider, but it feels like a wash this year.

For anyone interested in Denver, there is http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/business/resources/MastersStu... which lists Dawn Gregg of http://www.isaucd.org/home/ as the contact.

danomanion, we're expecting about 500 this year.. so yes, a bit too tiny!

+1 Boulder

I think of it like an experiment. If it works, awesome! Alternate each year with Denver or even spin off a new location. If it doesn't, then Denver is the obvious goto choice for all subsequent years.

That said, I'll be happy with either location because ultimately it's going to be a ton of geeking out with Drupal friends :)

Adding a bit of background.

I think Boulder would be a great change. Having lived and worked here off and on for 13+ years, some other points to be comprehensive as possible:

• It's generally cooler in Boulder, ranging from 5-10 degrees, depending, as compared with Denver (which admittedly can vary quite a bit itself). Cooler will be nicer in summertime.
• Boulder has a totally different image than Denver's. It will lend a slightly different appeal to Drupal and the camp. It would be interesting to see how that plays out.
• DIA shuttles (Super Shuttle?) are another option for air travelers.

On the other hand,

• Motels can be pricey, but not all, yet most are well out of walk-to-campus range. There's decent variety, with places like Best Western and Residence Inn. That means attendees staying in town will likely need to drive or bus it to the event every day. Closer places like the Julien, Boulderado and motels on 28th south of Colorado will entail a bit of a hike.*
• There are B&B options that should be highlighted in event info. There are a few in the downtown area, some pretty nice, yet affordable.*
• Most restaurants, bars and cafes are away from campus. Downtown will be a short hike, but it's a decent hill.* Other places are a drive away. Parking at other places is generally not a problem, but those who drive downtown will find that parking is not easy, though not impossible. On the other hand, there are plenty of excellent places to eat, for those foodies who want to make a trip of it.

* The hill is steep enough where people who are largely desk jockeys as well as people who are older and/or not in the same shape as they once were may find it daunting for a daily walk both ways. For people in shape, we're talking a 10-15 min walk, depending on distance.

FWIW - I've already been contacted by one out-of-state person who would like to be in attendance and doesn't seem to be put off by the Boulder option.

In response to comment: http://drupal.org/node/1797110#comment-6531448
But incredibly fun to see my friend Jeremy's name mentioned on a Drupal post. LOL

I am working on a proposal for the King Center on Auraria Campus. I am hoping to have it tomorrow. If it does not come in time, I have put together a rough estimate using costs from 2011 and information found on their web site. Which I will post in its place.

Auraria just got back to Justin with an estimate of $10k for the facilities we used before. If we got student group sponsorship then it would drop back somewhere closer to what it was in 2011 (I think about $4k). If

At this point, we've decided on a location. Marking this as fixed.

Setting version.

Hoping for some transparency in comparing different venues! Adding link to Google Doc to description.