The kind of supplies you need will depend on a variety of factors, like what your venue can provide, what your organizing team and volunteers already have access to, etc. There are some things every WordCamp seems to need, after which there’s no real use for them, so we’re starting to centralize purchase of some of these things and send them from one event to another. Right now these supplies are only being shipped within the U.S. due to prohibitive costs of international shipping, but we hope to expand this in the future.
Lanyards and Badge Holders for Name Badges
You don’t need to budget for this, we can send them to you. We have lanyards with swivel clips and clear plastic badge holders for 3″x4″ (portrait orientation) name badges. We’ll send you an appropriate number based on the number of attendees. Please put out a box by the exit asking for people to return them so they can be re-used at the next event on the WordCamp calendar. If you don’t want plastic badge holders, just lanyards, be sure to let us know.
Office Supplies
There are a number of generic office supplies that you might need, but you might not. What should you buy? We’ll send you a box of miscellaneous supplies: each WordCamp adds its own leftover office supplies and then sends it to the next WordCamp in line (we’ll tell you which one). Typically these supplies include things like a stapler, post-its, sharpies, pens, reinforcements, tape, and scissors. Anything you think you’ll need that we didn’t send, go ahead and buy from your event budget. When your event is over, put the leftover supplies into the box, slap one of your event stickers on it, and send it to the next WordCamp.
Electronics
In some cases, we will ship video kits or Flip cameras to your WordCamp.
We also have a few iPads equipped with Square readers that can be used to accept credit card walk-in registrations, donations to the WordPress Foundation, and/or sales from the official WordPress swag store. If you’re interested in adding this capability to your event, let us know.