<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 3:01 AM, Steven Feldman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:shfeldman@gmail.com" target="_blank">shfeldman@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word">When we bid we were concerned about regional events impacting attendance at the big one inn Nottingham this year. <div>
<br></div><div>this year we have a NA and CEE event as well as FOSS4G. Everyone has reassured us that they have little or no impact, I am not so confident in a time of economic pressure but only time will tell. </div><div>
<br></div><div>It is difficult to be precise about cannibalisation by regional events unless we survey the delegates at these two regional events and ask them whether they plan to also attend Nottingham and if not whether they would have considered Nottingham if there had not been a regional event. Is that worth doing?<br>
</div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div style><br></div><div style>Regarding regional events I would make a difference between events that are mainly in English language or some other language.</div><div style>For example the German FOSSGIS or the Japanese FOSS4G wouldn't really attract an audience, that doesn't speak German or Japanese. Same for regional events in Spanish or French. These local events are important, because lot of people prefer to hear (or give) presentations in their native language.</div>
<div style>A big regional event such as FOSS4G NA though might have an impact though. </div><div><br></div><div style>Daniel</div><div style><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div><div><br>
</div><div><div class="h5">
<br><div><div>On 17 Apr 2013, at 00:06, Cameron Shorter <<a href="mailto:cameron.shorter@gmail.com" target="_blank">cameron.shorter@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br><blockquote type="cite">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div>I'd like to hear thoughts from people
who organise FOSS4G regional events about the two year global /
regional / global rotation.<br>
<br>
In particular, would large regional conferences such as FOSS4G-NA
or FOSS4G-EU or FOSS4G-CEE be interested in only holding events
every second year?<br>
<br>
<br>
On 16/04/2013 9:46 PM, Bart van den Eijnden wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
I think Barend's suggestion of a two year scheme (regional in year
X, global in year Y) deserves some more discussion / attention.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Personally I can see the benefits of this scheme (no big
competition from large regional conferences in the global year).<br>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Also, does OsGeo currently get money out of the big
regional conferences (such as FOSS4G-CEE and FOSS4G-NA)?<br>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Best regards,</div>
<div>Bart</div>
<div><br>
<div>
<span style="border-collapse:separate;font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:-webkit-auto;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px;font-size:medium">-- <br>
Bart van den Eijnden<br>
OSGIS - <a href="http://osgis.nl/" target="_blank">http://osgis.nl</a></span>
</div>
<br>
<div>
<div>On Apr 15, 2013, at 11:34 AM, <a href="mailto:b.j.kobben@utwente.nl" target="_blank">b.j.kobben@utwente.nl</a>
wrote:</div>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">Hia ll,<br>
<br>
I am not a board member nor a conference committee
member, but I feel an<br>
urgent need to give my opinion here.<br>
<br>
I grow uncomfortable by some of the trends that seem to
"logically follow"<br>
(note the quotes, and yes I am exaggerating on purpose)
from this<br>
discussion:<br>
1)- FOSS4G events are there to make money<br>
2)- non NA/Europe events don't make (enough) money<br>
3)- non NA/Europe events get badly organized (see
Beijng)<br>
<br>
Proposition 1 already makes me feel itchy. How can you
'charge' FOSS4G<br>
main event organizers with being a cash cow ("expecting
a $50K profit") if<br>
at the same time encouraging (allowing?) other events to
be organised that<br>
almost certainly will cannabilise the main event
(Foss4G-NA, FOSS4g CEE)<br>
on which events you put no obligation to make money? I
think we need a<br>
two-year cycle: one year the main conference and other
years regional ones<br>
(i.e. ones actively supported by OSGEO "central", what
the regional<br>
chapters do on their own is their own responsibility).<br>
<br>
Proposition 2 is touching a nerve because I work at an
institute that is<br>
about capacity building for lesser developed countries.
I think part of<br>
OSGEO is promoting the use of FOSS, and bringing
knowledge and experience<br>
and enthousiasm about that to the places in the world
that would profit<br>
most from it is a good cause that is worth doing even if
it brings you<br>
less or no money. By all means subsidize the LDC
meetings with profits<br>
from the Europe/NA ones. Call me a specialist, but I
prefer some<br>
solidarity in this...<br>
<br>
Proposition 3 is plain not true. The South Africa FOSS4G
was excellent in<br>
my opinion, the Beijng one failed because of
insufficient control<br>
mechanisms (either in place or just not followed up on)
to check on a<br>
local organisation that chooses to do its own thing
completely independent<br>
of 'OSGEO central'. Could have happened with
self-centered stubborn Dutch<br>
organizers just as well, and certainly at least part of
the blame should<br>
be on the 'OSGEO central' shoulders...<br>
<br>
Yours truly,<br>
<br>
--<br>
Barend Köbben <br>
Senior Lecturer, ITC - University of Twente,<br>
Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation<br>
PO Box 217, 7500AE Enschede (The Netherlands)<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 13-04-13 14:30, "Cameron Shorter" <<a href="mailto:cameron.shorter@gmail.com" target="_blank">cameron.shorter@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">Frank,<br>
I agree that a compelling proposal should include
meeting foss4g<br>
financial expectations.<br>
<br>
For the record, the last board meeting discussed
changing guidelines for<br>
foss4g budgets from expecting a $20K profit under
conservative estimates,<br>
to a $50K profit. (This would typically result in a
$100K+ profit under<br>
expected conditions).<br>
<br>
David Bitner, pointed out that a $100K profit spread
across 1000<br>
attendees equates to $100 extra per delegate, which is
a good point, but<br>
should be tempered against the variability of FOSS4G
attendees, and the<br>
high impact on profits this has. Looking back at<br>
an old foss4g budget, I extrapolated some profit
figures:<br>
<br>
Attendees: Profit<br>
1000: $58K<br>
900: $35K<br>
800: $11K<br>
700: -$11K<br>
600: -$35K<br>
500: -$58K<br>
<br>
While I made some gross generalisations in my
extrapolation, the take<br>
home message is that fixed costs of a large conference
such as FOSS4G are<br>
very high, and consequently, a small percentage
increase or decrease in<br>
attendance has high impact on profitability.<br>
So if we want to ensure a worst case scenario of 500
delegates will break<br>
even, then we should expect to make a $110K profit for
an expected<br>
attendance of 1000.<br>
<br>
On 13/04/13 08:10, Frank Warmerdam wrote:<br>
<br>
<br>
Cameron,<br>
<br>
<br>
I feel this question ties into the expected revenue to
some degree. I'm<br>
personally fine with your suggestion with the caveat
that we should<br>
expect a "compelling proposal" to meet our revenue
generation guidelines<br>
which is (IMHO) going to be hard<br>
to do if aim for $50K revenue in the conservative
case.<br>
<br>
<br>
I'm also fairly flexible on this who issue, but I
*feel* like every time<br>
we have a revenue discussion we come up with one set
of conclusions, but<br>
somehow we fail to actually apply those conclusion
when setting<br>
requirements for the conference.<br>
<br>
<br>
Best regards,<br>
Frank<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 2:24 PM, Cameron Shorter<br>
<<a href="mailto:cameron.shorter@gmail.com" target="_blank">cameron.shorter@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
<br>
In the last board meeting, the question was raised
about global FOSS4G<br>
rotation.<br>
<br>
we currently have a 3 way rotation policy: Europe 2013
/ North America<br>
2014 / Rest of world 2015<br>
<br>
It has been suggested that we should revisit this
rotation policy, and<br>
consider:<br>
<br>
Europe / North America / Europe / North America<br>
<br>
Reasons:<br>
* Previous global FOSS4G events have attracted more
people and been more<br>
lucrative in Europe / North America<br>
* Europe/North America could be argued to be less
financially risky. Our<br>
one cancelled FOSS4G was in China in 2012.<br>
* FOSS4G (global and regional) events traditionally
draw half their<br>
attendance from the local region. Europe and North
America both have<br>
large populations with established OSGeo communities.<br>
<br>
I'm in favour of continuing our current 3 way
rotation, on the proviso<br>
that there are proven OSGeo communities outside of
NA/Europe. By proven,<br>
I'd suggest that we would consider regions which have
already<br>
successfully staged a FOSS4G regional event (or
similar)<br>
and who can put together a compelling justification
that they can<br>
attract comparable attendees and sponsors to
Europe/North America.<br>
<br>
Looking at: <br>
<a href="http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_History" target="_blank">http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_History</a><br>
<a href="http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_History" target="_blank"><http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_History></a><br>
I see that there have previously been regional FOSS4G
events in:<br>
Argentina<br>
India<br>
Korea<br>
Malaysia<br>
Japan<br>
<br>
So for 2015, I'd suggest that our FOSS4G pre
qualification should invite<br>
responses from "rest of the world" and Europe, but we
should give a<br>
preference to "rest of world" assuming they can
provide a compelling<br>
proposal which is likely to attract similar success<br>
to past European and North American conferences.<br>
<br>
Generalising the rule. Our rotation policy should be:<br>
<br>
* We give a strong preference to a region which hasn't
had FOSS4G for 2<br>
years<br>
* We next consider the region which had FOSS4G 2 years
ago<br>
* Only as a last resort would we consider a region
which had FOSS4G last<br>
year<br>
<br>
Regions are considered as: Europe / North America /
Other locations<br>
<br>
-- <br>
Cameron Shorter<br>
Geospatial Solutions Manager<br>
Tel: <br>
<a href="tel:%2B61%20%280%292%208570%205050" value="+61285705050" target="_blank">+61 (0)2 8570 5050</a>
<tel:%2B61%20%280%292%208570%205050><br>
Mob: <br>
<a href="tel:%2B61%20%280%29419%20142%20254" value="+61419142254" target="_blank">+61 (0)419 142 254</a>
<tel:%2B61%20%280%29419%20142%20254><br>
<br>
Think Globally, Fix Locally<br>
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and
Open Source<br>
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<br>
<br>
<br>
-- <br>
---------------------------------------+----------------------------------<br>
----<br>
I set the clouds in motion - turn up | Frank
Warmerdam,<br>
<a href="mailto:warmerdam@pobox.com" target="_blank">warmerdam@pobox.com</a> <a href="mailto:warmerdam@pobox.com" target="_blank"><mailto:warmerdam@pobox.com></a><br>
light and sound - activate the windows |<br>
<a href="http://pobox.com/~warmerdam" target="_blank">http://pobox.com/~warmerdam</a>
<a href="http://pobox.com/%7Ewarmerdam" target="_blank"><http://pobox.com/%7Ewarmerdam></a><br>
and watch the world go round - Rush | Geospatial
Software Developer<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
-- <br>
Cameron Shorter<br>
Geospatial Solutions Manager<br>
Tel: <a href="tel:%2B61%20%280%292%208570%205050" value="+61285705050" target="_blank">+61 (0)2 8570 5050</a><br>
Mob: <a href="tel:%2B61%20%280%29419%20142%20254" value="+61419142254" target="_blank">+61 (0)419 142 254</a><br>
<br>
Think Globally, Fix Locally<br>
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and
Open Source<br>
<a href="http://www.lisasoft.com/" target="_blank">http://www.lisasoft.com</a><br>
</blockquote>
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<pre cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Solutions Manager
Tel: <a href="tel:%2B61%20%280%292%208570%205050" value="+61285705050" target="_blank">+61 (0)2 8570 5050</a>
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