The holiday seasons are quickly approaching. With the growing concern over the economy and how it affects startups and the technology industry I’ve recently spoken with a number of startup founders who are looking for cost effective ideas for holiday parties.
Despite the doom & gloom over the economy, our community has a number of exciting things to celebrate. We saw a record number of startups launching in Montreal this year. We have had a growing list of community events including Barcamp, StartupCamp, DemoCamp, StartupDrinks, Founders & Founders, Entrepreneur’s Breakfasts, MontrealNewTech, GameCamp (plus others I’m sure I’ve forgotten) take hold this year.
With the size of many of our startups still under the threshold to throw a large party, the cautionary good sense about budgets and spending levels – there has been a discussion among the startup community about hosting a shared holiday party in December that would be open to all startups, contractors and members of the technology community.
With a great DJ, drinks and lot’s of friends we think it would be a better chance to enjoy & celebrate the seasons delights as a community with a large fun party then many of us doing smaller parties.
The organizing group is right now working on finalizing a date (Dec. 11th (Thurs), 12th (Fri), 13th (Sat) or Dec. 18th (Thurs)) and the location (Somewhere on the Main, St. Laurent Blvd area).
We are going to have door tickets (which include some drinks) and individual drink tickets to cover the costs of the event with any proceeds going to one of the many worthy Montreal charities (Old Mission Brewery or Montreal Childrens Hospital). Prices for the drink tickets & door tickets are going to be startup pricing and designed to be very affordable for anyone looking to attend. We may also have some sponsors donating a few prizes for a door prize draw.
This would be an open event with significant others, friends and employees all invited to attend. If you, or your startup team are interested in participating in this we are trying to guage the numbers to finalize the location.
Please comment on this blog post with an indication of the number of people from your company who might be interested in attending the event.
We will confirm the location & details on pre-purchasing tickets shortly.



Comments
jfdeschenes November 27, 2008
Alistair Croll November 27, 2008
Carl Mercier November 27, 2008
Erik Yeargan November 27, 2008
Me + 3
Thanks Austin
Heri November 27, 2008
Cherif Habib November 27, 2008
Martin Aubut November 27, 2008
allan isfan November 27, 2008
Ben Yoskovitz November 27, 2008
Jonathan Bond-Caron November 27, 2008
Chris November 27, 2008
austinhill November 27, 2008
With significant others, staff and a few friends of the company we think we would be around 25.
If everyone can give us #’s as close as possible to what you would bring that would be great.
Stirling Westrup November 27, 2008
George Favvas November 27, 2008
Tom Birch November 27, 2008
Mark MacLeod November 27, 2008
Tanya McGinnity November 27, 2008
I can’t give you numbers yet, but can put the word out to the gang once a date is close to being set.
I suggest some games (Guitar Hero / Rock Band) but that’s just the gamergeek in me wanting some interactivity to my drinking/socializing!
DM me if you want some location suggestions or help.
Fred November 27, 2008
Greg Isenberg November 27, 2008
Austin Hill November 27, 2008
Montreal friends interested a HolidayCamp? Shared holiday party for the technology community. Please comment & retweet http://bit.ly/SCSe
Sebastien Provencher November 27, 2008
: RT @austinhill Montreal friends interested a HolidayCamp? Shared holiday party for the technology community http://bit.ly/SCSe
heri November 27, 2008
rt @austinhill @sebprovencher mtl friends interested a HolidayCamp? Shared holiday party for the technology community http://bit.ly/SCSe
Claude Théoret November 27, 2008
MTLGirlGeeks November 27, 2008
@austinhill @mattforsythe @MTW MTGirlGeeks will certainly attend HolidayCamp! We’ll fight the fear of “sausage fest” http://snurl.com/6vzp4
Paul Marshall November 27, 2008
This is a great idea…GTA?? RT @austinhill: Shared holiday party for the technology community. Please comment & retweet http://bit.ly/SCSe
rossmckegney November 27, 2008
retweet: @austinhill Montreal HolidayCamp http://bit.ly/SCSe – great idea… any Toronto entrepreneurs interested in a Toronto HolidayCamp?
Alistair Croll November 27, 2008
RT @austinhill: Interested in Montreal HolidayCamp? http://bit.ly/SCSe . Needs a better name but sounds like a great idea…
Alexis November 27, 2008
Marc Chriqui November 27, 2008
Tamu November 27, 2008
Guillaume November 28, 2008
Thanks for the great initiative !
JS Cournoyer November 28, 2008
Christian Laforte November 28, 2008
Christian Laforte
President, Feeling Software
Martin Cadorette November 28, 2008
Alok Mohindra November 28, 2008
Robert November 28, 2008
December 18 seems to be the most voted date.
regards Robert
AJ November 28, 2008
austinhill November 28, 2008
We’ll post details on tickets, event activities and other stuff early in the week so people can plan accordingly.
Thanks everyone.
fritz November 28, 2008
Many thanks
Fritz
Heidi NextGen Commerce November 28, 2008
We would be a small group around six
David N November 28, 2008
Sylvain Carle November 28, 2008
@JSCournoyer ping me for a sitter, my daughter or some of her friends could help.
Marc Andre Lamarche November 28, 2008
Godot November 29, 2008
hugh November 30, 2008
David N December 01, 2008
Matt Harrison December 01, 2008
Carl Mercier December 01, 2008
John Elton December 01, 2008
Austin Hill December 02, 2008
It looks like Thursday the 18th will be the night and we’ll post details on ticket purchases shortly.
George Favvas December 02, 2008
What about a meal before the party? Could be optional at an extra cost.
Montreal NEWTECH » Blog Archive » Great turn out! December 03, 2008
[...] HolidayCamp: Sometime Dec 11-18 [...]
Austin Hill December 03, 2008
We thought about that, but we pinged a few people and it was going to be too hard to co-ordinate schedules, catering & menu requests for the time we had.
Next year we may start early and do something with this.
About to post the details for December 18th party.
Montreal Tech Watch » CelebrateCamp for the Grateful & Thankful Thurs. Dec 18th December 04, 2008
[...] Thursday December 18th at 8:00pm everyone is welcome to join us at CelebrateCamp (was HolidayCamp). This shared holiday party will allow us all to come join in the holiday festivities, drink, be [...]
CelebrateCamp 2008 - Shared Holiday Party for Montreal Tech Community » Billions With Zero Knowledge December 04, 2008
[...] Thursday December 18th at 8:00pm everyone is welcome to join us at CelebrateCamp (was HolidayCamp). This shared holiday party will allow us all to come join in the holiday festivities, drink, be [...]
Heidi NextGen Commerce December 05, 2008
Is there additionnal costs to the start up besides the drink tickets? Will there be any food and if so is that additionnal cost?
Please let me know
Ariadne Decker December 08, 2008
HoHoTO: “The Party That Twitter Built” Raises $25,000 for Food Bank January 08, 2009
[...] from inspiration for a shared tech holiday party in Montreal, the Toronto technology, marketing and PR community used Twitter to build momentum for [...]
caz February 09, 2009
RT @austinhill: Interested in Montreal HolidayCamp? Shared holiday party for the technology community. Please retweet http://bit.ly/SCSe
Twitter Trackbacks for Montreal Tech Watch � HolidayCamp? Communities that play together stay together [montrealtechwatch.com] on Topsy.com August 30, 2009
[...] Montreal Tech Watch � HolidayCamp? Communities that play together stay together montrealtechwatch.com/2008/11/27/holidaycamp-communities-that-play-together-stay-together – view page – cached The holiday seasons are quickly approaching. With the growing concern over the economy and how it affects startups and the technology industry I’ve recently spoken with a number of startup founders who are looking for cost effective ideas for holiday parties. — From the page [...]