Bubble Foundry

The Two Thirds Rule is very simple: for all the people that sign up for a free event, only 2/3 of them will attend. This has been true at all the Lunch 2.0s and BarCamps I organize (BarCamp Amsterdam IV being the exception) and I know it was also true at the TechCrunch/eBuddy Meetup. I also see that this occured at the San Francisco iPhone Dev Camp.

So what? Well, as an organizer it’s frustrating to plan for more people than actually come (food may go wasted, etc), so it’s good to be able to know how many people will really attend. Some people figure it’s worth charging a small but noticable amount (say €10) to make people feel committed. I haven’t done this yet, but my hunch is it would increase your yield to something like 3/4 or 4/5 of signups.

This Friday sees Lunch 2.0 visiting Utrecht for the first time, where will be hosted by iDiDiD. On August 22 we have a Lunch 2.0 at Sogeti in Diemen. Finally at the end of the month, I am hosting an iPhone Dev Camp on August 30 at my office. We’ve had a huge response to the Dev Camp idea, so if anyone has any routers, tables, chairs, projectors or other gear they’d be willing to lend me for the day, it’d be much appreciated!

Finally, keep November 22 open in your calendars. Together with Joris Machielse, I am organizing a BarCamp-style event around creating startups. More information to come in early September, but if you have any people you’d like to meet or things you wished you knew before you started your business, please leave a comment below or email me at peter@bubblefoundry.com.

I apologize for writing this after the fact, but last Saturday I was proud to host BarCamp Amsterdam IV at my office. The event was a fabulous success, with people from six countries (Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Sweden, Finland, and Romania) attending, including several startup founders who had presented at The Next Web Conference. Building on that success, I will be hosting a Health 2.0 BarCamp tomorrow and BarCamp NLGovWeb in June.

And for those who don’t know what a BarCamp is, it is an ‘unconference’ where attendees make the schedule and everyone is encouraged to participate in presentations. I highly recommend attending one, so if you’re free, come by tomorrow or in June!