Coming to Edcamp Philly? Please read this *NOW* (and keep for future reference!)

We, your friendly neighborhood edcamp philly organizing team, want to share these last-minute tidbits to help ensure your edcamp experience is smooth, trouble free and overloaded with awesome:

Event Location

• EdCamp Philly will be held in the same place it was in 2012, Jon M. Huntsman Hall on the University of Pennsylvania campus. The address is 3730 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19106. Click here for a map of the area.

Registration / doors open at 8:00 am

• Please be patient as you see the organizing team and volunteers scurrying madly in the minutes leading up to 8:00 am … that is when we will begin checking people in!

Parking

• There is street parking in the area and a large parking facility called Penn Garage 30 at 38th & Walnut directly across the street from Huntsman Hall. Click here for a pic of the garage. Here’s a photo of the rates they charge. The garage says they open at 7:00 am, but based on past experience, an attendant may not be on duty until 8:00 am.

Use either entrance to Huntsman Hall (Locust Walk or Walnut Street)

• This year you can enter Huntsman Hall either on Locust Walk or Walnut Street. There will be signs all over the place to guide you!

Bring your Photo ID! <= this is IMPORTANT!

• UPenn security has a list of all registered edcampers and will check that list and your photo ID every time you enter the building. This includes if you leave the building for lunch. Please have your photo ID with you at all times so you can enter the building when needed. (TSA-style pat-downs are optional and are available for a small fee.)

No Walk-Ins!

• We’re sorry but the list of edcampers is now final and we can’t allow walk-in or on-site registration. 🙁

Breakfast & Schedule Creation

• Once you’ve checked in, come down to to Room F94 (on the ground/lower floor, also called the “Forum Level”) to enjoy some light refreshments and coffee courtesy of our terrific sponsor, PAECT! We’ll be creating the schedule in the same room, so, if things get crowded, please move to the atrium area and find a place to sit  and relax once you’ve gotten something to eat (and proposed a session if you wish.)

Wifi

• Yes! We’ll have WiFi. No! We won’t have cryptic, hard-to-read codes, just ONE everyone will use for the day. 🙂

Stickers!

• Yes, boys and girls, we’ve got STICKERS this year! They will be available (on a first-come, first-served basis) until supplies are exhausted. One per Edcamper, please!

Session Schedule

• Once the schedule of sessions for the day is determined, it will be posted in this super-cool live updating Google Doc.

#Edcamp Greeters

• Interested in acting as a greeter/volunteers to direct people and answer questions? Please let us know when you sign in!

Twitter Hashtag

• #edcampphilly

Flickr Group & Flickr Photo Tag

• http://www.flickr.com/groups/edcamp/ <= why not go ahead and join it now?
• edcampphilly

Capturing the Learning

• We have set up “Session Notes” Google Docs pages for each room and time slot. These documents are open for ALL to edit on Saturday. You can find the hyperlinks in the schedule.

“Smackdown” at 3:30 pm in the auditorium

• A “Smackdown” is a fun, lively session where people from the audience take turns coming up to the podium and are given a very short amount of time (measured in minutes) to show and possibly demonstrate a particular Web 2.0 tool. Don’t miss it!

Door prizes will be given away after the Smackdown

• We have some cool door prizes to give away thanks to our terrific sponsors! You must be present to win – we will handing out raffle tickets as attendees enter the auditorium for the Smackdown.

After party at City Tap House starts at 4:30 pm

• This year’s after party will be held at the City Tap House at 3925 Walnut St (about three blocks west of Huntsman Hall). The festivities start at 4:30 and go until 6pm. There should always a group heading that way at the end of the day, so come and hang out for some FREE food, drinks (on you) and conversation (free for everyone)! Click here for a map.

“Leave No Trace”

• Huntsman Hall is a pristine, exclusive, PRIVATE meeting space being made available to us by our awesome sponsor, Wharton Computing. Please clean up after yourself. While you’re at it, please clean up after others, too. We want to treat the facility with the respect it deserves!

That should be it! If anything changes or if new information becomes available, it will be posted here on the blog. Have a question? Post a comment!

SEE YOU SATURDAY!