@mardixon

Less than a month to go until @MuseumCamp on Oct 1!

September 3, 2012@mardixon

This email has been sent to everyone who has signed up:

Dear Museum Camper

Thanks for signing up to Museum Camp – it is now less than a month away!

100 tickets have been booked and we have a waiting list for the 50 tickets to be released soon. If for any reason you can no longer make the day please let me know as there is a big demand for places, so if we know early enough we can fill your spot!

The event is now taking place at The Bond Company in Birmingham. It is a lovely venue with lots of space/rooms and we’re very excited about hosting it there! It is a 10-15min walk from New Street Station and a 10min walk from Moor Street Station. Location:http://www.thebondco.net/location/

We will be providing a veggie friendly lunch on the day (and cake!) – if you have any specific dietary requirements you may wish to bring food with you. This is a free event (thanks to our wonderful sponsors and volunteers) on a limited budget so we are sorry that we can’t cater for everyone’s dietary needs on this occasion.

Remember, if you have something to share (a project you’ve worked on? Some clever problem solving?), an idea, an issue, something you’d love to discuss, etc – pitch a session on the day! This is a day to be involved, contribute, share – and eat cake!

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Please do let us know ASAP if you can no longer make it to Cakefest… MuseumCamp.

Again, we needs to thank ALL of our wonderful sponsors.

Without their support, we wouldn’t be able to put on MuseumCamp. Please take the time to click on their links and find out more about them.

MuseumNext

Stop Press! Lots of Updates (Including new venue)

July 14, 2012July 15, 2012@mardixon

Since our last post, there have been lots of exciting things happening.

New Venue

As we said in our last update, we were looking for a new venue to ensure we had the best value for our very kind sponsorship money. We have decided to book with:

The Bond Company which is about 10-15 minute walk from New Street Station. We took a cab from the station and it cost £6. For more specific directions, please see their website. The Bond is providing us with a large space for the initial talks / meet/ greet and enough space for break-out rooms. We invited Alison Smith from Go Genie to join us on the scouting tour to ensure accessibility issues were addressed. Go Genie will be writing up and sharing the findings and we are very grateful for their sponsorship in this matter.

If you have any accessibility issues, please feel free to contact me at mar@mardixon.com. There is limited parking that we can reserve for people if required.

If the change of venues is an issue for anyone or you can not attend MuseumCamp now, please let us know as soon as possible as we already have 30 people on the waiting list. However, we hope you understand the change and was it was required.

More Sponsors

We couldn’t have organized MuseumCamp had it not been for our wonderful sponsors. MuseumNext was first on board and we are eternal grateful to Jim Richardson’s support.

In addition to Sound Delivery, Mar Dixon, Orangeleaf Systems Ltd, & Marches Network we are also thrilled to announce Go Genie, Midlands Federation of Museums and Art Galleries, Blists Hill and Museum Association as sponsors.

We are still on the lookout for more sponsors, so please get in touch if you would like to be part of this very popular Unconference.

Thank you

I’d also like to thank the people who have been working on MuseumCamp:

Linda Spurdle – visionary and creator of Museum Camp. Without Linda, Museum Camp wouldn’t exist.

And the rest of the team: Mar Dixon, Rachel Cockett and Glynis Powell.

We would also like to thank Danny Birchall for agreeing to be our MC on the day.

Waiting List

That’s all the updates for now. We will be releasing the remaining tickets closer to the date but please feel free to add your name to the waiting list.

Please click on the logos and visit our sponsors

Keeping the ball rolling

July 6, 2012July 6, 2012@mardixon

Thank you to everyone who has signed up for Museumcamp. We’ve released the next batch of tickets now so head on over to Eventbrite and sign up now!

If you’re still unclear about what Museumcamp is, please see our original post and feel free to ask questions. One thing we want to make sure is that you know it’s open to EVERYONE from visitors to CEOs. It’s important that we don’t label this a digital conference or family conference or audience conference. It could be all or none of them- we won’t know until the day.

We are very grateful to MuseumNext for being our first major sponsor.

Our current sponsors include:

Orangeleaf Systems Ltd

We are still on the lookout for sponsors. If you, or if you know of anyone, that could help, please let us know. We would like help obtaining (or the money) for the following:

Venue*
Cake
Food
Goodies
Cake
Tea/Coffee/Water

*In my last post, I mentioned the venue however, we are currently researching other venues just to make sure we’re doing the best we can for MuseumCamp.

We have been joined by several great Unconference pro’s (@sasha_Taylor, @cybrum, @mixedreality) who have offered their services to ensure we keep the flavour of the unconference true.

If you would like to help and get involved, feel free to contact us via Twitter or the website.

Thank you to everyone who has helped spread the word for us!

Just a little update on @MuseumCamp as things are moving swiftly along…

June 29, 2012June 29, 2012@mardixon

Our first batch of Early Bird tickets have been snapped up! But don’t worry, we have a waiting list and more tickets coming after our meeting.

When is our meeting you ask? Why it’s July 5 (Details below). Please do join us if you can as we’ll be talking CAKE and details. As this is an Unconference, there’s not a lot of detail required but we do have some I’s to dot and t’s to cross.

One thing is we still need some more sponsors. We’re so thankful for MuseumNext, Birmingham Museums and Sound Delivery for already pledging their support and sponsorship. We’ll have more of an idea as to what we need after July 5 but the one high priority is a sponsor for Cake (amongst other things).

Details of Meeting:

When: July 5^th

Time 2pm

Where: 6/8 Kafe in Birmingham (@sixeightKafe)

Things we know we at this point is we will be looking for sponsorship on a few items and volunteers for others. If you fall in either category, please feel free to contact us.

Thanks for all the brilliant support.

Save the date! October 1st – Cakefest, er, I mean @MuseumCamp

June 21, 2012June 25, 2012@mardixon

We don’t know where we’re going but we know there’s cake! Actually, that’s not true – we *do* know where we’re going!

Met up with the MuseumCamp group today and we have a date! And even better, we have a place!

Save the Date:

What: @MuseumCamp, #MuseumCamp

Where: Thinktank (Birmingham Science Museum)

When: October 1, 2012

How: Tickets via Eventbrite here

What now?

Now we need help. We’re holding another meeting to start to work on the ‘UN’planning for this Unconference/Camp.

When: July 5^th

Time 2pm

Where: 6/8 Kafe in Birmingham (@sixeightKafe)

Things we know we at this point is we will be looking for sponsorship on a few items and volunteers for others. If you fall in either category, please feel free to contact us.

Did I mention cake? It’s on the agenda for the day!

What is an Unconference or Camp?

May 11, 2012May 11, 2012@mardixon

This is the question I put to Twitter today. Here are some of the responses I received:

@DartmouthMuseum No idea what it means. Needs explaining in 140 chars or less

@NeallM that it should be a good concept but actually makes me think it will be a disorganised mess. Is that good or bad? @NeallM Bad. It makes me think I won’t get much from it, and won’t be worth my time / money. I am aware that am basing this on a few bad experiences. But marketing / blurb would have to help me overcome that.

@JanMinihane an informal gathering of people with a common interest who want to throw ideas around/push boundaries 🙂 Have been to 1

And my favourite: RT @jenniwaugh: Cake!

But what *is* a Museum Camp or an Unconference?

It’s a forum for like-minded people (in this case anyone who visits, likes, works, wants to work, etc with museums, galleries, culture venues). While they might be new to some, these productive gatherings have been running successfully for a few years.

What do they do?

It starts by members pitching ideas of what to talk about. You might come with a discussion in mind or you might be there to listen. Or you might be there for networking. Or cake.

People share their ideas for a session and roughly 5 or 6 are chosen. Those not speaking can choose which talk they’d like to attend.

The talks are usually less than an hour.

As a speaker, this doesn’t mean you’re forced to talk for an hour though – it only means you get the conversation going with your thought/idea and others join in with their thoughts and ideas.

As a member, you’re not committed to stay for the hour should you feel it’s not for you.

Basically, it’s an organized chaos but in a worth while way!

Is there an agenda for the day?

No. Not really. There are a few people that will attend with ideas but it’s not a requirement. The goal of the day is to flush out thoughts and ideas that don’t fit conventionally in other conferences and meetings.

Why should I attend?