Base Camp 2008 !!!!!

aidanchopra

Hi everybody,

CraigD let me know that there was some chatter on the SCF about Basecamp, so I thought I'd poke my head in...

We're currently working on an idea: we're going to rent some giant Dutch floating cranes to move California around the tip of Chile, anchoring it just off the coast of Portugal

It wasn't our intention to exclude anyone based on geography. Believe it or not, having a successful Basecamp at the Googleplex is probably the best chance we have for eventually having one in Europe. Headquarters offers free space, cheaper food, better technical amenities, and a host of other things we wouldn't have access to anywhere else, which gives us a better chance of being successful. It's our thinking that the key to having more Basecamps is to have the most successful (first post-acquisition) Basecamp we can. Having it in California gives us the best chance at success. We would LOVE to have a Basecamp in Europe -- believe me. it's just not where our main office is located.

Regarding a SUC event (such as the one Mike is talking about), I can tell you that it would take five guys with heavy weapons to keep me (and a bunch of us Sketchuppers) from attending. That's not a promise or a guarantee; just a bit of friendly encouragement to do everything in your power to stage one. Precedent would also be a powerful motivator in any decision about the location of future Basecamps... As to sponsorship or other "official" Google participation in a SUC-organized event, please just let us know (an email to me at: aidanc at google dot com) what you have in mind, and we'll see what's possible.

About the random invitation process... it's probably best explained by a story: This last year, the Colorado Rockies (the Denver professional baseball team) made it to the World Series (so-named because it's the final playoff, but badly-named because there's only one non-US team in the league: Toronto). Tickets were made available by means of a "first-come, first-served" online system. Of course, the system was overwhelmed, the whole thing crashed, and chaos ensued. It was probably the most unfair distribution of tickets in the history of professional baseball. We didn't want this to happen to us, and we certainly didn't want it to happen to our best users.

The problem is that we honestly don't know how much interest there will be in this event. It's free and it's at the Googleplex, which will probably draw a crowd (events at headquarters are always free, and besides that, we thought that charging would make it even harder for farther-away people to attend). The universe of SU users is a lot bigger than it used to be, which means there will likely be more interest than there was in 2005. On the other hand, it's still not entirely cheap to travel to Mountain View and stay in a hotel for three nights, and taking three days off isn't an easy decision for most professionals. We just don't know who'll show up.

The fact that the event is free also made us worry that lots of people would sign up but then change their minds, leaving us with a lot of empty seats. We're hoping that having been randomly selected from a large pool will cause people to think twice about giving up the opportunity without letting us know in time to make sure there's someone to take their place.

We decided on a random selection process because it will yield two important things: a geographically-random sampling of SU users, and a fair, transparent system for people to sign up. If not too many people "put their names in the hat", then almost everyone gets to come. If there's a huge response, then we end up with a good distribution of familiar faces and "newly-converted". It seems the fairest way to proceed.

In the interest of full disclosure, one more fact: We've reserved some spots for a small number of presenters, press and super-users who we felt have made the largest contributions to SU's success over the years. The process of choosing these folks was naturally subjective, but included people from our QA, development, sales and education teams. These people have already been contacted, and we're waiting to see how many of them would like to come. We didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, so we asked them not to broadcast their special invitations to the world. The random selection process is for the roughly 250 remaining spots.

As for the program for Basecamp 2008, Jon, Dusty, Bryce, John, James and I are still working on it. We were all at Basecamp 2005, so we remember what made that event so much fun, and so successful. We haven't announced any details of the program yet, but I can fill you in on the tentative plan:

Day 1: Basic Training in the morning for new users who need to be caught up. There were a lot of these folks in 2005, and they told us they would have benefited from some instruction beforehand to better understand the rest of the proceedings. We expect more experienced users to arrive in time for the lunchtime welcome, which might allow them to save on one night's hotel stay.

The afternoon will feature concurrent sessions, organized into "new user" and "more experienced user" tracks. For example, "Smart modeling (low-poly, grouping, scenes, etc)" for newbies, and "Best of Ruby" for more advanced folks. In the evening, a huge party (I'm advocating for a bonfire and a roast beast, but we'll see : )

Day 2: More concurrent sessions, organized the same way as the previous afternoon's. There will be a recommended track for newer users, and always something for the more knowledgeable among us. The sessions themselves are a mix of the most popular ones from 2005 (Daniel Tal's Sandbox extravaganza, Tyson's Photoshop wizardry) and some new ones on LayOut, Style Builder, geomodeling and a couple of things we can't discuss just yet. It should offer something for everyone.

There will also be a big, open lab with projection capabilities, lots of tables, power and (I assume) snacks. The lab was one of the most exciting places to be in 2005, and we're trying to make it even better.

Day 3: We're calling this "SketchUpalooza" for now, but here's the gist: an all-day, hands on, sleeves-rolled-up, working-in-SketchUp design charrette. That's all we can really say right now, but the intent is to give everyone the opportunity to see how other people work, get feedback from the SU team and each other, solve problems right away, and put into practice some of the things they've picked up in the previous two days. There will also be a steady stream of mini-presentations, in a separate room, on specific tips, tools and techniques. These will be short, directed and entirely optional -- go to the ones that interest you the most.

None of this is absolutely final, but we're pretty happy with what we've got so far. That said, please feel free to weigh in on this thread -- that's why I'm filling you all in. We value your opinions, and want to make this the best event we can.

Whew. That might be the longest thing I've written since the Dummies book : )

Please let me know what you think of all this!

Thanks,

Aidan

solo

Thanks Aidan, and welcome to SCF. (The Master himself)

I never went to the last one, but certainly would love to attend this one.

Can you give us a link to application please.

I plan to scout the campus in search of Nurbs while there. (probably only find nerds)

boofredlay

Wow, thanks for chiming in!
This sounds like it will be a great event and I only hope I am one of the few who gets a Golden Ticket.

lewiswadsworth

Thanks for the clarifications, Aidan.

And, as I noted above, I am quite willing submit to cybernetic "enhancement" for the opportunity to participate in all this SketchUp goodness. I, for one, welcome our dominant-search-engine-providing web-application-developing virtual-globing do-no-evil-ing overlords.

Ross Macintosh

I'm hoping to attend. I'd have to cash in all my airmiles points as I'm about as far away from San Francisco as you can be while still on the same continent. I attended the BaseCamp in Boulder and it was a great pleasure to get to meet the company staff and other users. Hanging out with Mike Lucey, Alan Fraser, Fred Abler, John Clements, Steven Johnson, Susan Sorger, Jim Holman, Ken Foster, and Allister Godfrey was a real pleasure well worth the costs of the trip.

Thinking back another great benefit of attending was getting to meet Olle Bergman from Sweden. When I started with version two of SketchUp seeing Olle's images was a great inspiration (He likely made that example image in version one). I think he was the first 'Master', or at least was so for me. It was also wonderful to meet other Masters like Todd Burch and Coen!

Anyways, the memories of the last one have me hoping I can attend this one. I look forward to meeting the faces behind the names of those we see posting here.

Regards, Ross

Gaieus

Thanks Aidan for the looong words (I can imagine writing such a post)

Actually what we have had in mind for an European meeting is surely nothing like a "counter-bas camp" - it's more just like an idea for a (definitely smaller scale) regional meeting of the members here (or actually anyohne interested).

Surely it should be after the one at Mountain View - exploiting all the experiences there. And yes, if such an event happens here, I'd really love as many of you guys over there to participate - and I guess others are just like that, too. But we deliberately started a new topic on this so we don't want to hijack the Basecamp at MV thread.

As for the programme you outlined; it's very attractive, I can tell. Being very tempted myself to participate, I should really find some way to California (and well I have only been to the East Coast so far anyway)

Chris Fullmer

Well if you've only been to the east coast, you've gotta come to base camp! The west coast is SOO much better than the east. We're laid back and we have lots better weather Just don't tell the folks on the east coast I said any of this.

Anyhow I am totally excited about basecamp and too am hoping to attend. I just happened to move up near the Googleplex a few months ago to go to school at UC Berkeley, so its only an hour away from my house (whereas before I moved it was about 7 hours away). It should be awesome and I'm very pleased with the outline that Aidan provided. Most excellent!

Chris

lewiswadsworth

Will there be a band again? And a coyote or two? You have to uphold the 3D Basecamp traditions!

Of course, now that this is being run by Google it will probably be more like some PD or Max (the audio program, not the modeler) deejay/genius at the end of the room surrounded by holograph projectors and keyboards, remixing Autechre and NIN instrumentals...and instead of a coyote Muppet Labs will supply wildlife....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUWv2n-ElIA&feature=related

Wo3Dan

For the happy few:
http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dg8w2dp_6djbrz3cz

Maybe I should wait till there is a Base Camp 2008 EU.

spence

I'm definitely throwing my hat in the ring. My boss said He'll pay if I get a golden ticket. Now that I have the clearance, with my luck I won't get one.

I was not able to attend in o5', so the thought of being able to go in 08' just makes me giddy!

As for suggestions, gee, I really don't know, I'm just exited for the opportunity.

lewiswadsworth

There is a kind of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory excitement to all of this....

CraigD

Hey guys!! I've been absent for the past weeks or so due to tons and tons of work, but I wanted to jump in and say that I'm psyched for the 3D Base Camp and can't wait to meet ya'll!!

It should seriously be fun! ...Kind of like the TED event for SketchUp!

In case you thought we weren't crazy (and so you can recognize us newer Sketchers) here's a few shots of the newer additions to the SketchUp cuckoo's nest! http://picasaweb.google.com/sketchupblog/NewIshMembersOfTheSketchUpTeam

See ya there!!

Cheers,

- CraigD

P.S. ...and some of you pledged to buy me a beer (or two) if I remember correctly!

aidanchopra

Oh -- and we are planning to have a band, but we're not sure who, yet. Anyone have any suggestions? We're thinking something between CraigD with an iPod, and U2...

aidanchopra

@lewiswadsworth said:

There is a kind of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory excitement to all of this....

I like that -- that's one of my all-time favorite books. It's a good thing we aren't making anyone buy 6,000 chocolate bars to have a shot at coming, though.

todd burch

@craigd said:

Hey guys!! I've been absent for the past weeks or so due to tons and tons of work, but I wanted to jump in and say that I'm psyched for the 3D Base Camp and can't wait to meet ya'll!!

It should seriously be fun! ...Kind of like the TED event for SketchUp!

In case you thought we weren't crazy (and so you can recognize us newer Sketchers) here's a few shots of the newer additions to the SketchUp cuckoo's nest! http://picasaweb.google.com/sketchupblog/NewIshMembersOfTheSketchUpTeam

See ya there!!

Cheers,
- CraigD 
P.S. ...and some of you pledged to buy me a beer (or two) if I remember correctly!

I'll buy you a beer Craig! And you know, I would have never thought, in a million years, to pose like you did for that picture. (not that I could!)

Todd

tinanne

Wow, I would love to be in invited! This would be sooo awesome! Count me in!

If I don't get invited, maybe I'll just crash...

lewiswadsworth

@aidanchopra said:

@lewiswadsworth said:

There is a kind of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory excitement to all of this....

I like that -- that's one of my all-time favorite books. It's a good thing we aren't making anyone buy 6,000 chocolate bars to have a shot at coming, though.

If you wanted to really freak us out, all you Googlers should turn up at the opening ceremony dressed like Oompa-Loompas and speaking in rhyme. I know that I would probably just collapse to the floor and start gibbering...

Someone will have to play Wonka, of course. Got anyone on staff who is tall, thin, and slightly creepy in a tophat?

lewiswadsworth

@aidanchopra said:

Oh -- and we are planning to have a band, but we're not sure who, yet. Anyone have any suggestions? We're thinking something between CraigD with an iPod, and U2...

Just find out who is currently deejaying at Club Technochocolate, and get them to moonlight at the Googleplex.

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail185.html