In brief

Choose a space before you set a date. THATCamps are usually one day long and usually happen on or near a weekend.

Best times and lengths for a THATCamp

If you expect that many academics will attend your THATCamp, you might want to think about not having it in late April / eMay or in late November / December, because these are busy times for universities on the semester system. THATCamps held at these times have found that they have had a higher rate of last-minute cancellations than other THATCamps.

The original THATCamp was (and remains) one and a half days long: a full day on Saturday and a half-day on Sunday. As local THATCamps have proliferated, however, some organizers have found that a single day works better, because it means that fewer people will need to reserve a hotel room, which keeps travel costs low. Still, other organizers have said that an extra half-day provides much-needed time for additional sessions and, sometimes, reflection. It’s usually not a good idea to have a THATCamp that lasts longer than a day and a half, for the simple reason that THATCamp is tiring. “My brain is fried” (in a good way!) is a common refrain from participants near the end of a THATCamp.

One important exception to the above “no longer than a day and a half” suggestion is for a workshops: organizers are increasingly saying that having a separate day dedicated to workshops (as opposed to unconference sessions) has been a good idea. See, for instance, THATCamp Virginia’s dedicated workshop day, which took place before an additional day and a half of unconferencing. Some workshops have run concurrently with unconference sessions, however, also with good success: see for instance THATCamp New England’s schedule with workshops incorporated. (Note that many participants said in the evaluations that they’d have preferred a separate day devoted to training, however.)