Incase you haven’t heard, I’m (not in association with my employer) working on a new social community experiment called CampPress. CampPress is a 2-3 day event that is about creating space to disconnect from our digital lives, and connect or form deeper connections with fellow members of the WordPress, geek, open-source, and tech communities. Think of it as an adult geek summer camp infused with burning man values.
The ingredients for creativity
We will come together for a few days bringing with us ingredients for creativity. You bring your offline talents like banjo playing, frisbee throwing, fire spinning, fly fishing, or sun tanning, and the basics will be provided: Basic food staples for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (along with preparation space). Space to camp (and possibly a cabin or RV hookup depending on the final location) and ice for beer. There will be a thing called the ‘Pit of Creativity’ (more to come on the official CampPress site). There will be plenty of space for recreation or just hangin out. The rest is up to the CampPress community (with a little coaxing of-course). We will build an offline community for a few days full of inclusion, self-reliance, laughs, new traditions, and radical self-expression. And as quickly as we build it, we’ll disappear leaving no trace of our contact with nature or each other, but we’ll take with us personal growth, stronger community bonds, and pictures to show for it.
This sounds crazy, why do it?
We owe it to ourselves as creative professionals to take a step back, and re-adjust every once-in-a-while. Re-calibrating to what’s important (relationships) is one of the healthiest things we can do for our code, designs, businesses and personal lives.
Logistics
They’re coming. We’ll post recommended packing lists, rules, cost, dates, local attractions, etc once we officially lock in a location. On that note, there are multiple venues in play, and multiple people interested in helping out. In short, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Wherever CampPress is held, it will be (at minimum) accessible by air and a reasonable car / carpool drive. Many more details coming, so get on the updates list if you’re interested in helping or attending (official site at Camp.Press under development and launching soon).
In the meantime, here are some snaps from the latest location I was scoping for the get-together (Camp Campbell)
