[Board] Polling charter members

[Steven Feldman]

I agree with Michael

The economics of running a big event (certainly over 500 and probably over 2/300) mean that costs per delegate will be higher than the smaller events even if we offset some of those cost with sponsorship. For a larger event we need a proper conference venue rather than some free university spaces, we need more network for streaming and wifi for delegates, catering costs tend to go up when you use a larger venue etc. 

If we want FOSS4G global (and potentially other FOSS4G events) to be a contributor to OSGeo’s funding then that should be understood by the community when we consider the pricing. FOSS4G 2013 returned about $150k to OSGeo, that was a bit less than the amount that we raised from sponsorship i.e. delegates covered most of their costs from the fees and sponsorship was the contribution to OSGeo but another way to look at it was that each delegate contributed about $175 with part of their costs being contributed by sponsors (I have grossly simplified for this mail). This is a key policy decision that needs to be discussed before seeking proposals for FOSS4G 2016 and it connects with a bigger topic regarding the purpose of OSGeo, how much funding it needs and how it should be raised.

Surely we want the big gala event for as many people as possible AND the cosy intimate gatherings of communities in a country or region?
Surely we want outreach to new geographies outside of NA and EU AND a big event that attracts business and government in our two largest regions and grows the pot?
Surely we want an event that generates funding for OSGeo AND uses those funds to support code sprints, projects, outreach and education

There is no reason why our FOSS4G program cannot embrace all of these aspirations and objectives.
______
Steven


On 19 Sep 2014, at 14:38, board-request at lists.osgeo.org wrote:

> From: Michael Smith <michael.smith.erdc at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Board] Polling charter members
> Date: 19 September 2014 14:38:39 BST
> To: Jeff McKenna <jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com>, <board at lists.osgeo.org>
> 
> 
> This is a bit of a false choice isn¹t it? One does not preclude the other,
> that¹s why we have both international and regional events.
> 
> But if you are just referting to the international event, for size, for
> the most part, that ship has sailed. We are going to get 800+ for the
> international event and that sets limits on venue, which affects
> everything else. We aren¹t going to be able to do a 100 person university
> based event anymore. The size/costs etc do not scale linearly.

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