Feel the need to have a local event? Hosting a Cocoa Camp is a lot of work, so be prepared. You do need a team, so enlist volunteers from your local iOS dev groups and Cocoa Heads group. To get started, here's a Cocoa Camp checklist that we use, here at Cocoa Camp Atlanta.

You should also check out www.barcamp.org for additional tips. Good luck on your event!

• CocoaCampKit_1.1.zip 50.5 MB

  Cocoa Camp Kit is a freely available (un)conference kit. This kit contains images, logos, Numbers spreadsheets, Pages documents, badges and ideas to help you have a successfully event. The Cocoa Camp Kit is more of an experiment in social events and is licensed under the MIT License. Enjoy.

1. Secure an Event Venue & Date

   Everything is backtracked upon securing a place and time. You should consider major events (baseball, football games) in your local area that might have an impact on parking and getting to the event. We think Saturday mornings work the best and should only take up a half day. This allows folks to have the rest of the weekend.

2. Create a Cocoa Camp App

   Since this is a Cocoa Camp, why wouldn't you have a Cocoa Camp app for your event? Feel free to get the latest open source Cocoa Camp iOS App from github.com/cocoacamp. Build only for the iPhone for now, everyone will most likely be physically carrying an iPhone on them (they might not be carrying a Mac, iPod touch or iPad on them). Remember to give yourself a window of at least 3 weeks to be approved in the App Store.

3. Session Speakers

   Consider having speakers and sessions posted before the website goes live. Keep a room or two open for dedicated 'day of' speakers. We found that a 30 minute session is about perfect for Cocoa topics. Build in a 15 minute transitions between speakers.

4. Keynote Address

   A simple keynote address would do wonders for your event, especially if you can secure a rock star Cocoa developer.

5. Killer Cocoa Camp Badges

   Don't look any further. You need this template badge.

6. Sponsorship

   Cocoa Camps are not designed to make a profit, however they are designed to cover the costs of hosting the event. To help offset the costs, you should consider getting sponsors for your event. Also, look for "In-Kind Sponsorships" for catering, venue, wi-fi, video recording and t-shirts.

7. Attendee Registration

   Consider charging a registration fee to cover hosting the event. Remember, the cost of venue, t-shirts, drinks, security, catering, it all adds up. There's a general rule, if a person has some skin in the game, they'll liking come to the event. From our experience, free events typically have lots no shows.

8. Wi-Fi

   You'll need this. Look for a local sponsor that is willing to provide free Wi-Fi hookups.

9. Catering

   Consider feeding your peeps.

10. T-shirts

    Go to a (un)conference and don't give out T-shirts? Consider adding sponsor logos to the back of the t-shirt.

11. Banners

    Vinyl Banners add polish to your event, and in fact they are relatively cheap these days. We typically go for two banners or more banners. We use one banner to hang at the entrance of the event (this banner should be designed to be used over again). And the second banner is a list of all the sponsors.

12. Video Record Sessions

    If you can video record the event, that would be awesome.