Thanks Paul!<div><br></div><div>Henry Rosales and I are working on the budget. We want to get some preliminary estimates based on my attendance predictions from venues before sharing what we are doing. I'm going to try to go back through my email and address as many questions as possible as well.</div>
<div><br></div><div>That said, we are taking a "big rocks first" approach. There are a number of items under $30K that could be worked on but at this point are insignificant compared to the $100K+ numbers. I am also putting the squeeze on the registration fee to get it under $400. That causes all the other big rocks to shift. Compared to what we shared with the proposal, the catering budget has been slashed and we are trying to pump up the workshop revenue.</div>
<div><br></div><div>-Eric</div><div><br clear="all">-=--=---=----=----=---=--=-=--=---=----=---=--=-=-<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 Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 11:22 AM, Paul Ramsey <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:pramsey@opengeo.org">pramsey@opengeo.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
Eric,<br>
<br>
It would be helpful to see the working budget when talking about this.<br>
There were some big line-items I had questions about that I didn't see<br>
answers to in the end...<br>
<div class="im"><br>
On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 9:49 AM, Eric Wolf <<a href="mailto:ebwolf@gmail.com">ebwolf@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> 1. Workshops - we are exploring an "ala carte" workshop menu where different<br>
> workshops have different costs (based, typically, on whether equipment needs<br>
> to be rented). What has workshop revenue (not expenses) been like in the<br>
> past?<br>
<br>
</div>2009 will have the best unified workshops budget. I had *about* $200<br>
per person for workshops and 240 registrations, that was slightly<br>
below the actual expenses.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> 2. Gala Dinner - should this be included in the registration?<br>
<br>
</div>No, it should be an optional line item and should fully cost-recover<br>
the dinner. You can plan it as a 100% standalone item.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> considering a closing plenary with lunch on the final day that would be<br>
> included in the registration. The cost for the lunch would be $55/head<br>
> whereas the Gala Dinner is estimated at $79/head. My thought was to make the<br>
> less-expensive lunch a less-formal wrap up meeting and the Gala dinner a<br>
> more formal, extra cost item.<br>
<br>
</div>You can probably alter your budget calculations by grossing down the<br>
expected closing lunch attendance. That is, only 65% (or whatever) of<br>
attendees will actually consume it, so your food costs will not be<br>
attendance*lunchprice.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> 3. What are thoughts on 1-day pass registrations? There are an astounding<br>
> number of GIS professionals in Denver and the Front Range. A large number of<br>
> them may not be interested in investing in the entire conference (either<br>
> time or cost) but would love to pay, say $150, to attend one day of the<br>
> conference. This is harder to budget for, but I think it could boost the<br>
> revenues of the conference.<br>
<br>
</div>1-day price should be 1.25 * total price / 3. Basically put a premium<br>
on it, but do offer it.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
<br>
P<br>
</font></blockquote></div><br></div>