Drupal Europe 2018 - our learnings from organising a large camp

In September 2017 a group of Drupal community members decided to fill the gap of no DrupalCon in Europe in 2018 and organise Drupal Europe. 

Weekly meetings were organised for status meetings and working groups created to work on tasks related to the event. The first priority was to find a venue and location to organise the event.
 
The key location requirements where that it could facilitate quality as well as be affordable. This was the big challenge, we knew not to search in metropolitan or capital areas. 

The call for venues delivered us with 13 options of whom one was not in Europe but Australia. 

After careful consideration and validating all the pros and cons, one proposal stood out. While most of the venues proposed could have worked, we choose Darmstadt because it provided a good combination of an amazing venue in a very accessible location combined with reasonable pricing. It was key that the German community not only suggested us the venue but they were ready to stand behind the event and serve as the fiscal entity. 

The event took place in September 2018 and in this session we want to talk about how our work was organised, what we changed from the original DrupalCon format, what worked out and what didn't, what challenges we faced during the organisation and what are learnings are.

More detailed information can be found in the Drupal Europe post report that was published on the 19. October 2018 and can be found here: https://www.drupal.org/project/drupaleurope/issues/3007861

The session will be held by two of the main organisers of Drupal Europe.