Kevin,<div><br></div><div>As the proposed chair of the Denver LOC bidding to host FOSS4G 2011, I would like to thank you and ConferenceDirect for your offer to assist us. However, we are already partnered with GITA (the Geospatial Information & Technology Association) as our professional conference organizers. </div>
<div><br></div><div>GITA provides some significant advantages to our bid over working with ConferenceDirect. GITA is an international professional association for geospatial professionals that has been around for over 25 years. GITA is able to provide the Denver LOC with access to their members to market FOSS4G 2011. While GITA's members are not typically focused on free and open source geospatial solutions, they do represent a great potential area to expand the use and support of free and open source software. GITA has been expanding their conference-organizing activities beyond their own branded-conferences (like the 2010 Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference being held right now in Phoenix, AZ <a href="http://gita.org/gis/">http://gita.org/gis/</a>) to providing organizing services to other geospatially-oriented conferences (like the GeoWeb 2010 conference held in Vancouver, BC <a href="http://geowebconference.org/">http://geowebconference.org/</a>). Finally, the GITA headquarters happen to be here in Denver, Colorado, and have extensive experience dealing with local conference venues.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Thank you again for your offer. And thank you for addressing some of Venka Raghavan's questions. Your response was very similar to how the Denver LOC is planning to respond. We are hoping to provide information we have gleaned talking to local non-commercial venues to better allay concerns about working with a commercial venue.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Sincerely on behalf of the Denver LOC,</div><div><br></div><div>Eric B. Wolf</div><div><br></div><div>-=--=---=----=----=---=--=-=--=---=----=---=--=-=-<br>Eric B. Wolf New! 720-334-7734<br>
USGS Geographer<br>Center of Excellence in GIScience<br>PhD Student <br>CU-Boulder - Geography<br><br>GPG Public Key: <a href="http://www.h4h.net/ebwolf.public.key.txt">http://www.h4h.net/ebwolf.public.key.txt</a><br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 3:16 PM, Kevin Bell <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kevin.bell@conferencedirect.com">kevin.bell@conferencedirect.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Good
Afternoon Venka and All-</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">ConferenceDirect
is offering to provide venue procurement services for FOSS4G 2011 in either
Denver or Bogota. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The
Bogota Corpocentros Center or <span style="color:black">Corferias Convention
Center, and the Colorado Convention Center all offer expansive facilities and
state-of-the-art technology. These types of venues will likely require
significant facility rental, but could be considered prospective options, if
the host organization could offset this expense with some type of sponsorship
subsidy. A Convention Center facility like Denver is usually best
utilized for “city-wide” groups that attracts attendance of 2,500
to 10,000 or more conferees, and has the need to utilize two or more primary
hotels for housing.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">Free Standing facilities such as Educational/University and
Government Agency venues often collaborate with NPOs, and can offer their
facilities to you at little or no cost. These venues can also offer
Catering and Audio Visual Services at a lower cost than a traditional
hotel. The biggest drawbacks of free standing facilities like these are:
1) Availability. Universities and government institutions have limited
availability during time periods where they regularly schedule their own
sessions. 2) Transportation. When utilizing a free standing
facility, it is still advised that you separately contract housing (a hotel or
hotels) for the Conference attendees. This being the case - an added cost
for transportation service arrangements may be required in order to shuttle
attendees between the conference venue and host hotel(s).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Downtown
or Larger Convention Hotels are a good option for groups of 250 to about 1500
people. Facility/Meeting room rental at hotels can often be negotiated
and even WAIVED – if the group’s “number of attendee to hotel
room block” ratio is no more than about 3:1. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Group
rates for lodging at convention hotels may be less than you think.
Through ConferenceDirect’s proprietary purchasing system – I have
access to actual group rates that have been quoted at many hotels/resorts (see
attached sample). </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As
for a Registration Fee estimate: If your 2011 Conference program is going to be
similar to past events, it is probably wise to establish your Registration Fee
budget based on what is now in place in Barcelona. Or by using the
“constant” values suggested within the osgeo-conference-budget-template.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">I
do believe that ConferenceDirect could help exceed FOSS4G’s 2011
“best case” $44K surplus scenario projected in the template - if
you are able to control, offset or eliminate meeting room rental charges, and
attract 900 to 1000 total attendees who will book a minimum of 300 peak night
hotel rooms.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">Kevin</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">Kevin G. Bell</span><b><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Pristina;color:black"></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">Global Account Executive</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#00375A">Conference</span></b><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#4D725C">Direct®</span></b><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">Mesa, Arizona</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">phone: 480-380-7678</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">fax: 480-302-7872</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">cell: 602-740-0839</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black"> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black"><a href="http://www.conferencedirect.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color:black">conferencedirect.com</span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black"> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">ConferenceDirect is a worldwide provider of outsourced meeting
planning solutions. The portfolio of offerings includes: Site Selection &
Contract Negotiation, Conference Management Services, Housing &
Registration. ConferenceDirect is pleased to provide these services on an
individual or "all inclusive" basis.<b></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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