Budget Camp

Below is the breakdown of the approximate expenses for BarCampNYC 2006, which had about 70 attendees. Hopefully this will be helpful to other BarCamp organizers who want to get a rough sense for what a BarCamp costs.

• Breakfast (bagels & cream cheese) - $75 per breakfast

• Lunch - $300 bought us 15 large pizzas including tip. That was a good amount for 70 people: everyone got a slice, but there was none left over.

• Dinner - $430 for catered sushi, but we had a very generous dinner sponsor.

• Snacks - $100 for the weekend (this is probably too low, but in our case many people brought homemade stuff)

• T-shirts - $950 (from Goodstorm).

• Supplies - approx. $300 (paper towels, trash bags, paper plates, toilet paper, plastic cups, etc.)

• Coffee - $110 per morning. Easiest method is to buy those jugs from Pete's, Starbucks, or the like.

• Drinks - $350, but this one is easy since you just tell the bartender ahead of time how much you want to spend and after that people have to pay for their drinks.

A few related notes:

• Overall, we raised and spent $3,000. The venue was free, which makes a huge difference compared to a typical conference in a hotel ballroom.
• I recommend collecting money from sponsors ahead of time, unless you already know them well. We did this and none of the sponsors objected. In fact, we had one sponsor who reneged on their pledge, and obviously it was better for us to find out about this *before* we spent the money they had initially promised.
• Things that are easy to overlook when planning your budget: tax tips for delivery people, napkins, toilet paper, paper plates, plastic silverware.
• Having toiletries like spray deodorant, mouthwash and liquid soap on the morning of Day 2 is a good idea. So is having a supply of breath mints available throughout the event.