-
Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects.
At this very second, thousands of people are checking out projects
on Kickstarter. They're rallying around their friends' ideas, backing projects
from people they've long admired, and discovering things that make
them laugh and smile.
Every project is independently crafted, put to all-or-nothing funding,
and supported by friends, fans, and the public in return for rewards.
-
Independently crafted.
The filmmakers, musicians, artists, and designers you see on Kickstarter have complete control and responsibility over their own projects.
They spend weeks building their own project pages, shooting their own videos, and brainstorming
what to offer as rewards.
Rewards are things like a copy of what's being made, a limited edition, or a custom experience related to the project. This isn't Best Buy — rewards aren't shrink-wrapped and ready to ship. Once the project is funded, the journey to bring them to life begins.
-
All-or-nothing funding.
Every project creator sets their project's funding goal and deadline.
If the project succeeds
in reaching its funding goal
all backers' credit cards are charged
when
time expires.
If the project falls short no one is charged.
Since our launch in April 2009, more than 20,000 creative projects
have been successfully funded by awesome people from around the world.
But Kickstarter is about much more than money...
-
The big picture.
People come to Kickstarter to build community around their projects. It's inspiring to be supported by people you know, and amazing to connect with strangers who are discovering your ideas for the first time.
The feedback, press, and love that can come with
a Kickstarter project are just as valuable as the money raised. Ask anyone who's done it before. There's nothing like it.
Damnit, line breaks. Come on, Kickstarter!
You're definitely right. We ruled our RIT because of the atmosphere and the no-alcohol-thing. We want RR not only to be a mini-conf, but also to encourage a bar-like atmosphere, eliminating boundaries between speaker vs. audience. Refresh Boston does that with the after-conf bar excursion, while we try to provide that throughout the whole night. Neither one is wrong, our way just costs a bunch more.
We have a funding opportunity that will make Refresh Roc happen at least once every year, at this style. We're not sure we want to host it monthly, as we just don't have the time, and we're not sure we can attract folks with that much frequency.
If RR can become an attraction for folks from the northeast region once a year and have a kickass time with awesome web personalities, we've succeeded.
Even RIT? I would've thought that would be the perfect place to hold these events. I can't imagine the school charging you to have a large room, or forcing you to cater with them, but maybe that's not the case. I just figured with all the RIT students and grads, it's the best option if you don't want to raise $2k every month.
Another problem we originally had with finding a place was somewhere that would allow us to bring our own food in. Every place we looked at required us to use them for any sort of catering.
Well! How about that, Kickstarter. Never emailed me about these comments, so I'm just seeing them now, months later :)
We totally agree. We want folks to have a good time (beer), but it's tough to stay within budget, mostly because of the logistics of serving beer. The beer itself is cheap (we only spent about $250 and had enough for 80+ people). The bartender, security, license, etc, of course is not cheap.
We've looked all over for better places, but simply haven't found something we've been happy with. The folks at Artisan are awesome, and they even have a bigger room that allows more appropriate seating for a conference, which we'd push for next time.
We've got some big things planned for Refresh Roc, it just takes time. We're all busy, and we want to put together kickass events. We'll get there.
Thanks guys for commenting!
I have to agree with Patrick, here. I gave for the last one—$40—which I thought was a lot, but if you do the math, is only ~$10 more than the actual cost per person (assuming 75 or so).
Don't get me wrong. I really liked the last event and Artisan Works is really great, but unless you can get some big sponsors, $2300 might be a bit lofty.
Sorry, make that "Monday - Thursday" after work hours. Friday is still a weekend after 5pm as far as I'm concerned.
Yes, Brion, I'm talking about Monday-Friday after work hours. Refresh Boston has always stuck to this schedule, with a usual 6:30pm start and 7pm presentations. Mingle time comes afterwards, and then we hit a bar in walking distance for drinks.
Fridays and Saturdays are tough for most people. Sure, it might work better for you and some folks, but I've noticed that most potential attendees have too much going on during the weekend, or would rather go out with friends than attend a "geek event."
That said, I am in no way trying to tell Nick and the other Refresh Rochester organizers what to do. The whole point of the Refresh movement is that each city brings people together once a month to try and improve the quality of the web in their local areas. There's no charter, no rules, and certainly no schedule any of us need to stick with. I like that each city does its own thing.
But I'm also trying to help avoid months of downtime for Refresh Rochester. I know how hard it is to get these things organized and then get people to show up. I'd hate to see Rochester's group fizzle out after a fantastic start.
Anyway, I'm all ears if anyone wants to talk to me about my experiences in running our own Refresh Boston for 4 years, and I'd be glad to help in any way that I can.
Patrick, what do you mean by weekday? Simply in the evening on week days instead of Friday or Saturday night or actually during the work day? If the latter, I would not be able to attend (although I'm still happy to sponsor to a degree).
I'm just curious.
I had a good time at the last Refresh Rochester event, and I'm hoping it continues on in the months to come. I do however have a suggestion, and one that might not be all that welcome.
Is Artisan Works a place you need to hold these events in the future? It's a decent location, and the room was interesting, but it was really hard to see the small projection screen or see the presenter from some of the seats in the middle of the room. It's also expensive.
Also, a lot of Refresh groups don't serve beer at events because it's costly as well. In fact, Refresh Boston, which has been around for 4 years, has never done so. We're considering it once in a while, but paying for bartenders and then beer cuts into our very small budget. If you were to find another location (such as RIT, where it's possible to get a room without paying a dime) and skip the beer for a weekday event, you're budget just dropped $1,500.
That said, it's not as easy as it sounds to find another location, but I'd keep looking. We use the Microsoft New England Research & Development Center's 11th floor space for free each month, and they provide us pizza and drinks (non-alcoholic), which means our operating cost is nearly nothing. Any sponsor money we get goes to raffle prizes for attendees or extra food. All that means it's much easier for us to put together an event each month because we don't have to worry about raising a lot of cash to do it, and weekday events mean not many people are going to want a beer anyway.
Just food for thought. Each Refresh group does their own thing, and that's the way it should be, so take my advice with a grain of salt. But I've seen groups dissolve because they just couldn't keep events going, and I'd hate to see that happen here.