Moldcamp 2014 - a late review

I know, it's been a while since the event took place (17th - 18th of May), I was pretty busy and had a lot of stuff to do meanwhile, so I finally found a couple of hours to make a small review.

Here we go.

CXO Dinner

That's the night where all CXOs (Silver and Gold Sponsors) gather together for a dinner to discuss business and other interesting things. We've chosen a nice small cozy place in the heart of Chisinau - Karl Schmidt. Everyone showed up except for one of the sponsors. Everything was paid by the Drupal Moldova as a part of the Moldcamp project.

It went very well. It was just 1 night before the Moldcamp event has taken place so that was the perfect timing to ask for CXOs to bring their marketing material for the event with them.

Registration / Preparation

We've got early in the morning and started to prepare the rooms for the event.

We bought water bottles and placed those in front rows. We've installed the electric cords so everyone with a laptop stays with us. We've checked all the projectors / screens to work, speakers & mics. Internet was our big concern and even thou' we've came 2 days before the event to configure the routers and all, they were still failing.

We had 4 volunteer girls that helped us with the Registration Process, they've packed everything in Moldcamp-branded bags, prepared badges, etc. We've offered to all of the session-speakers T-shirts and a bottle of wine (in the end of the event).

Sessions

Sessions went very well, amazingly well, I must say. We had a small hickup and had to transfer two sessions because our guests from Ukraine couldn't make it on time, but other than that - it went perfect.

I had hard time mixing my 3 sessions + the opening one and the closing one with the event itself, but I've made it through because the later sessions weren't that complicated.

I couldn't make it to most of the sessions I've eagerly wanted to visit, but I remember visiting and liking the following:

• Personalisation with Drupal. Acquia Lift - by m1r1k
• Behat, Agile & Drupal is not BAD, или Как мы создаём лучший в мире сайт центрального банка - by Batteryman
• Why Drupal? Как продавать Родину с напильником - by Leviks
• Signers API - by caraivanov
• CI and other tools for feature branch development - by Yuriy Gherasimov

Coffee Breaks & Wine Break

We had free coffee (limited to 3 or 4 per person) and one wine break. Coffee was everywhere, in the sessions, in the hall, between the sessions, everyone had a cup of either tea, or cappuccino, or coffee.

Wine Break was a nice thing, big wine glasses, different wine types - a perfect way to prepare for the Drupal Party.

Drupal Party

In the evening we had an Official Party in 513 Club. There we've ordered around 100+ bottles of beer and around 15 of bottles of wine and some snacks. All of these were covered by the event itself. We also had a DJ hired exclusively for us.

The party went on until 4 or 5 AM (I've stayed until 2 or smth.).

2nd day Sessions & Closing

2nd day people were kind of tired from the Party but still were pretty interested in sessions. The initial picture is a picture of the last-survivors, lots of people went home and didn't make it until the end, but I was surprised to see so many survivors.

Anyway we had a closing ceremony, our sponsors had a small discussion, everyone was happy about the event.

Final Note

I think we could do it better in some chapters such as Internet Connection, but other than that, the event went super-well, I was surprised there weren't a ton of problems as it usually happens, and the project was above the zero, sponsors covered all the expenses and thanks to them, the event was great. 

I would like to thank everyone who came (around 140 folks) and all the sponsors (9) and partners (14) that contributed to the event. 

See you next year ;)

Pics on Facebook -> 

PS. Don't forget to watch the video!