• Central Bedfordshire Council
• The National Archives
• Comms2point0
• Driving Standards Agency
• Blue State Digital
• Bang Communications
• ActionRocket
• The Royal Society
• Suffolk County Council Trading Standards
• Department for Education
• Government Communications Network
• Local Government Information Unit
• Lewisham Council
• National Audit Office
• Reason Digital
• Helpful Technology (er, that’s me!)

It’s shaping up to be a fascinating afternoon, with talks interspersed with mini govcamp-style discussion breaks to go and talk to the speakers that interest you – all ably facilitated by master communitybuilder, Lloyd Davis.

Thanks to all those who’ve volunteered to help out, from picking up snacks or pizzas, through to running the registration desk or live blog (you can follow the event here on the day, from 1500 BST). The hashtag for the event is #mailcamp12, if you’re tweeting, snapping or blogging.

If you’re coming along, see you there!

The National Audit Office (sign up to their email alerts!) are kindly hosting us in their great office next to Victoria Station in central London. Kick off is at 3pm prompt, and we’ll end with pizzas and a well-earned drink around 6.30pm.

Last year’s MailCamp event was a fascinating afternoon of show+tell where we shared experiences of:

• what makes effective email newsletters
• how best to keep people coming back to your digital channels through email alerting
• using email to support communities & events and help in crisis situations
• the strategy and content side of crafting great emails
• the technical side of email deliverability, design, spam, and legal traps

We’re sticking with the format and adding a bit more time for Q&A, so we hear not just the amazing case studies, but also tales from around the room about the struggles people are having, and come up with some ideas and solutions.

This format only really works if you’re able to contribute your own experiences, ideas and challenges in using email marketing and alerts. So don’t be shy about showing us the way you’re currently using them – the things you’re proud of, and the things you aren’t.

We’ll be putting together the running order in early May – if you’d be willing to share your experiences with the group in a short (5 min) presentation, please drop me a line and I’ll put you on the list.

If last year’s event is anything to go by, it should be a fascinating afternoon of show+tell, pizzas and conversation about what works in the crucial field of public sector email marketing, newsletters and alerts. I’m hoping that we’ll hear from people doing it well, people struggling with knotty challenges, and people with tools and ideas both technical and content-related.

If you’re interested, register your interest here and pop over to the MailCamp group where we’ll be talking about logistics and topics.

Well that was lots of fun. On Thursday, around 80 people (plus others following on Twitter) heard 14 great talks about email. We talked about selecting a new email service provider, using email to drive engagement in web communities, using picture-focussed emails to showcase work around the world, saving money though email alerts on snow days, and getting news about medicine safety to frontline staff quickly. And plenty more besides. Thanks a million to Ed, Jess, Chris, Donna, John, Margaret, Andy, Simon, Paul, Hayler, Helen, Lloyd, Dave and Matt (and sorry to Nick, who didn’t get to speak, but whose presentation is online).

Thanks to sponsors GovDelivery and Campaign Monitor, the pizza and beer flowed into the evening, and somehow, a 5-hour session talking about email was somehow made enjoyable. Whoda thunkit?

The presentations are embedded in the widget below via Slideshare, lovely photos from the wonderous Paul Clarke too – and remember you can check out the curated Storify around the event too (thanks Shane!)

What’s next then? Well, there are more great events talking about digital and the public sector coming up, including camps on youth engagement (21 May, London) and local government (18 June, Birmingham), with more in the pipeline:

http://moreopen.org/who-got-funding/

We’re not planning regular sessions on email specifically, but we’ll keep in touch about related events via this list but it’s worth joining the UKGovcamp community too as that’s where these kind of sessions – and the issues behind them – get talked about. And, if you tweet, why not go the whole hog and follow @ukgovcamp too?

→ See more #mailcamp images on Flickr

| Get your SlideShare Playlist

Thanks for signing up for MailCamp. We’ve had over 100 people register representing central & local government and the wider public sector, charities and private sector email providers, with a great line-up of people willing to show+tell. We’ll be hearing about email for alerting, explaining, motivating and campaigning, with a mix of case studies, top tips and practical help to make your email marketing more effective.

Here’s what you need to know:

Venue: ‘Space for Place’, Department for Communities and Local Government, Eland House, Bressenden Place, London, SW1E 5DU. Map: http://helpful.im/mailcampvenue

Date: 12 May 2011

Start time: 3.15pm for 3.30pm start
Finish time: 7.30pm (followed by free pizza and drinks available until around 8.30pm)

We’re hoping there will be wifi, but you never know with these things, so please bring your own 3G connections if you can. If you’ve volunteered to give a talk, I’ll be in touch separately about the logistics for that (thanks to so many kind volunteers, I’m afraid we’ll have to be a bit ruthless on timings and slots).

If you know you won’t be able to make the event, please drop me a line back so we can adjust our numbers for catering.

Finally, a big thanks to our generous sponsors: GovDelivery, Campaign Monitor , MoreOpen and hosts, Communities & Local Government.

If you didn’t register: sorry, it’s fully-booked now. We’re hoping to have a live blog or at least a wrap up of the presentations and discussions published here shortly after the event.

Govcamping is a team effort, so on the day itself, we’re going to need a few helpers:

• A small crew to join me picking up essential Camping supplies (biscuits, beer, munchies for the gluten-free crew, plates, plastic cutlery, bin bags) from Sainsbury’s down the road at around 2.45pm, and bring them to/smuggle them through CLG reception
• A couple of folk to run a registration desk as people arrive from around 3pm, and to help as ushers
• A live-blogger or two for the duration (and if you can take some pictures, that would be fabulous) to cover the event for people who can’t make it and extend the reach via a simple Cover It Live widget on this site
• A couple of helpers to put out the pizzas when they arrive, and stay to the end (8.30ish) to help with tidying up

If you can help, please drop me a line and I’ll tell you more about what’s needed. Thanks a million in advance!

I’ll be sending out an email later this week with a few more details and asking people to confirm their place at next Thursday’s event.

I’m also delighted to announce the fabulous Campaign Monitor as our beer sponsor, who are also helping us with some free credits to run the UKGovcamp mailing list. Campaign Monitor is an awesome tool for webbies looking to integrate email marketing into their sites, and I’m hoping to talk about how I use it at the event.

Finally, a plea to be brave: this is a show & tell event, and that format only really works if people have the courage to share their problems and challenges as well as their triumphs. So even if you’re just starting out and have more questions than answers, or you want to talk about great email newsletters you’ve been on the receiving end of, we’d love to hear from you. Talks will be much shorter than regular UKGovcamp sessions – probably just 5 or 10 minutes each – so we’ll be looking to hear from lots of different people.

Photo credit: Alalsacienne

It’s shaping up to a fascinating afternoon of show+tell, pizzas and conversation about what works in the crucial field of public sector email marketing, newsletters and alerts. I’m hoping that we’ll hear from people doing it well, people struggling with knotty challenges, and people with tools and ideas both technical and content-related.

If you’re interested, register your interest here and pop over to the MailCamp group where we’ll be talking about logistics and topics.