Spice up your CiviCRM - This was the CiviCamp 2023 in Leipzig

120 users and interested people from about 70 organisations gathered on Monday, September 11, 2023 in the venerable building of the Volkshochschule Leipzig (adult education centre) for the CiviCamp organised by Software für Engagierte e.V.. In this historical ambience, located in Leipzig's city centre, there were not only sufficient opportunities to exchange ideas and network, but also presentations and application examples on various modules around CiviCRM.

We started the day with keynotes by Greenpeace in Central & Eastern Europe and online fundraising coach Jona Hölderle on the topic of "Fundraising with CiviCRM", which was the main focus of this year's CiviCamp as well as the subsequent 2-day CiviSprint in Zeitz.

Already during the longer lunch break, it was noticeable in numerous small and deep talks how many organisations were not only represented by one person this year, but appeared with several people and very different competences. The great thing about it was that exchange took place on many different levels and with views from different perspectives, very stimulating!

The upcoming chilli pepper harvest will certainly be stimulating for many participants. Like, what, harvesting chilies? Exactly! This year, there were real chilli plants as a small give-away instead of just a pen. The background to the campaign: to give orientation as to which lecture is suitable for newcomers, advanced learners or professionals, these were marked with up to 3 chillies, whereby one pod stood for level mild, 2 for level spicy and three chillies for level hot.

CiviCamps are traditionally a great opportunity to get to know CiviCRM or to get a taste of one of the numerous modules or plug-ins that one has not used at all so far or in a different context - inspiration, ideas, application examples and new contacts included. There were introductions to newer developments such as SearchKit/FormBuilder or CiviOffice, but also insights into the practical implementation of processes with tried and tested tools such as CiviMember or Mosaico.

The many positive feedbacks confirm our impression and exceeded the expectations of us organisers. This is exactly how exciting, varied, informative and spicy a CiviCamp should be. A big thank you to everyone who made this day such a successful community event!

Last but not least, many thanks to the speakers and sponsors: Thanks to your help, we were able to keep the participation fees low and make it possible for smaller organisations to participate.

After the camp is before the camp: Software für Engagierte e.V. will also organise a CiviCamp in Germany in 2024. So anybody there - would you like to join us and organise the camp together with your local user organisation? Then contact us and bring the camp to your city: info@software-fuer-engagierte.