Find Great Venues
Developer Camp is a three-day hackathon and community event, held regularly in cities all around the world. It relies on a certain pattern to create trust and foster cooperation — right up until the presentations begin. Here is what we look for, when choosing a venue.
Space Requirements
Any successful idea contest or weekend collaboration has to recognize several fundamental realities:
- People work better in teams.
- Teams need plenty of space and sometimes privacy.
- Long hours of straight productivity require comfortable, welcoming spaces.
After iterating across four different spaces during the ten years of Developer Camp, and exploring countless others, a timeless way of quickly building software has emerged. The pattern language of comfort and security is focused on the needs of teams and individuals to collaborate in friendly “coopetition.”
Seated Ergonomics
There are three kinds of seated arrangements that are generally preferred at a collaborative event:
- Lecture style: desks or tables in rows parallel to the stage, with chairs facing the stage. Plenty of chairs should be made available for people to face each other as need be. A couple of rows in the front of the room should be arranged without desks, for people to sit and congregate and rest close to the stage.
- Round table: a large desk or combined desks with chairs all around. This enables a group to sit facing each other and share working space with plenty to spare for personal items or work material.
- Nook-and-cranny: some people prefer to hole up by themselves or in small groups, and work on laptops or tablets. Beanbags are helpful for this purpose. Low chairs, couches, or camping chairs enable this kind of collaboration. Anything easily moved or reconfigured will serve this purpose.
In general, collaborative spaces should have seating that promotes extended work hours — nothing cheap, small, or hard. Desk areas should be standard and open, no cubicles or funky configurations. Ideal ergonomics allow for everyone on a team to have a keyboard and mouse for proper input.
Shared Space
Some people prefer to work in a large room with many people present. This gives a feeling of business and productivity, and can provide a feeling of comfort to those who seek community. This arrangement has the added value of persons being easily recognizable or locatable, for those who wish to make themselves available.
A large group in one area is easily addressable, so for that reason about half of the Developer Camp attendees tend to congregate in the lecture hall. This way, they are the first to hear announcements, requests, or offers of support. This is where the weekend soundtrack is played, and where the evening game session is held.
The main stage is set at the focal point of the hall, and chief organizers should set up camp there for continuous presence. Microphones should be made available to those who wish to address the hall, mediated by the master of ceremonies. The stage should be raised, with a podium and two desks ensconced.
Doors to this space should remain open at all times, except during presentations, for noise considerations.
Private Space
Several large rooms lend privacy to teams that want to work in isolation. These rooms should have whiteboards and group seating, doors that close and provide a sound barrier, and proper ventilation.
Some teams may choose to co-habitate but not cooperate. In this case, the usual motivation is quiet and removal from the larger groups for concentration. Although it can be difficult to “keep secrets” with so much coming and going around the grounds, these private spaces allow groups to police their own area to whatever degree they prefer.
Another purpose to private spaces is sonic ergonomics and control. Some groups will work on music or sound-related applications, and either don’t want to disturb others or mask their progress to give the final presentation some pizzaz.
Additionally, small lecture halls or rooms specialized for presentations are important. This allows for attendees to lecture and inform each other in “side sessions” in the tradition of BarCamp, where the learning content is driven entirely by the knowledge brought to the event by participants and sponsors. These are set up in classroom style.
Common Area
In addition to the lecture hall, and shared private spaces, an area where everyone can congregate for meals and society is crucial. In the Developer Camp common area are the sponsor tables, the constantly-refreshed snack area, and the drink refrigerator.
During opening night, this area is the most heavily used. It is where the organizer’s Concierge station is located, and any Grand Prizes or special offerings are located. In our configuration, this is adjacent to the Lecture Hall / Shared Space, and participants must pass through it to go from the Shared Space to the Private Spaces.
Full Power
Sometimes overlooked is the need for each seated station to have at least one or two power outlets nearby. We often plan for one outlet per person, with some people using two at a time while others charge as need be.
This arrangement is easily serviced by power strips, but special care must be taken not to overload nearby sockets or power system as a whole. Power strips and extension cords also present a safety hazard if not properly taped down or affixed.
Also, in the Lecture Hall, which may need to be reconfigured for the Contest demonstration times, taped down cords or strips can present a problem. Make sure to take this into account when designing for full power.
Abundant Bandwidth
The biggest challenge, besides space that can ergonomically provide for the maximum number of attendees, is connectivity. There are three aspects that must be satisfied:
- Fast overall site bandwidth. This means the facility must have excellent, consistent upload and download throughput.
- Considerable support for many endpoints. Typically, attendees bring two or three devices per person (laptop, phone, and tablet or test device). So, multiply the number of registered attendees by three to get the average number of devices needing connection to WiFi. This is not an easy task, and whichever system is providing this connectivity must be prepared for devices continuously coming on and offline.
- Proper number and types of open Internet ports. Support for SSL, IRC, and streaming audio and video are just a few requirements that are crucial to attendees. Frequently they rely on documentation and support from offsite, and may require strange and rare protocols to accomplish this.
The only sure way to guarantee uptime for these requirements is to have a network support agent on call—on site—throughout the event. Things will go down, guaranteed. There needs to be an escalation path for all requests, even on a weekend. It helps to incentivize this network person with special perks from the organizers because they will undoubtedly feel the heat from everyone when things fail.
Food Court
Although the majority of work takes place inside, it’s also important to give attendees a place to congregate outside at any time. Daylight rejuvenates the soul, and staring across a long distance helps the eyes relax and adjust after long periods of intense work.
In our tradition, we make an interior courtyard available for anyone to either work or dine. It’s common to find a person or two sitting alone doing design work, or concentrating on a problem here at all hours. The food court is not a kitchen space, nor is it a dedicated dining area. It’s a space that is meant for outdoor seated conversation, appropriate for dining but not only so.
Other Patterns
More architectural patterns that have emerged over the years include:
- Entrance Hall: where registration and greeting occurs. Security sets up here.
- Organizer’s Room: where key contributors can escape and plan.
- Prize Room: where valuables can be held, accounted, and secured.
- NDA Room: where topics covered by various program non-disclosure agreements may be discussed under implicit confidentiality.
- Jobs Board area: where a Needed / Offered listing is maintained, both for the weekend and regarding ongoing opportunities.
- Group Photo area: where the entire group can gather with great lighting and a good angle.
Final Note on Space
The overall character of the facility permeates the entire event. Our most successful events take place in areas that are meant for medium-scale gatherings in the hundreds of people. A single space that requires reconfiguration multiple times over the weekend simply will not do. The best hosts are those that produce events on a regular basis off of business hours.
“It’s one of the most pure and original hackathons. People come from all around and really just hack on something, meet new people, cherish the relationships that they create here — and go out to create huge companies. The developers we’ve met at Developer Camp are among the best in the world. Some of them have gone on to join our team. We’re excited to be supporting the event again this year. Developer Camp is the best.”
- Zac Bowling, Google engineer, has attended 106 hackathons
Developer Camp sponsor/participant
