<div dir="ltr">Small, low-frills events held at academic venues may indeed be more financially accessible, but they also don't tend to throw off $100K in profits to fund the operations of their parent organizations. There is a whole other set of variables being ignore in this reductive discussion of admission fees.<div><br>P.</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Feb 9, 2017 at 8:58 AM, <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:b.j.kobben@utwente.nl" target="_blank">b.j.kobben@utwente.nl</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">One option not mentioned yet is to cap the conference attendance to max 500 or so, then you can find conference facilities in universities (and possibly even also accommodation there), making it possible to have very "accessible" conference fees.<br>
<br>
I am not saying I particularly favour this option, and there are many questions (eg. on how to cap -- first come first served?) but it is a possible way to bring costs down...<br>
<br>
--<br>
Barend Köbben<br>
<div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
On 09/02/17 17:48, "Conference_dev on behalf of Steven Feldman" <<a href="mailto:conference_dev-bounces@lists.osgeo.org">conference_dev-bounces@lists.<wbr>osgeo.org</a> on behalf of <a href="mailto:shfeldman@gmail.com">shfeldman@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Venka<br>
<br>
<br>
You and others often suggest that a lower fee would attract more participation - that will mainly apply to people travelling from within the region as based on your own numbers for an out of region delegate a saving of $180 represents a 7.5% reduction<br>
(in region it is likely to be about 15%)<br>
<br>
<br>
We go round and round on this subject of delegate fees - we can decide to set the limit for an early bird for 2019 in Europe at $500 and then determine<br>
1) whether any acceptable bids are forthcoming and<br>
2) subsequently whether the lower registration fee results in higher attendance from those who had been unable to attend at £650.<br>
<br>
<br>
Personally I doubt that we will get bids for anything that we would recognise as a FOSS4G Global at $500 registration unless the organisers can get a massive boost in sponsorship in advance of submitting a bid (as Dar es Salaam did with the World<br>
Bank sponsorship).<br>
<br>
<br>
The scope for an LOC to offer travel bursaries is likely to be reduced if they are working with smaller budgets due to lower delegate rates.<br>
<br>
<br>
The RfP for 2019 will start in September of this year, just after FOSS4G closes. I look forward to the discussion on pricing and ultimately the vote in the CC before we issue a revised RfP.<br>
______<br>
Steven<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 9 Feb 2017, at 14:29, Venkatesh Raghavan <<a href="mailto:venka.osgeo@gmail.com">venka.osgeo@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<br>
My<br>
trip to FOSS4G-Bonn cost me 1500USD for air-tickets, 630USD<br>
(early<br>
bird Including gala dinner) for registration and 250USD<br>
(for<br>
7 nights) for sharing a nice little house with Gerald and<br>
Nick.<br>
<br>
All<br>
this was paid through my project budget. For example, had the<br>
early<br>
registration been 180USD cheaper (450USD @150USD/day), I<br>
could<br>
have sent three of my students to make FOSS4G related presentation at local conferences.<br>
<br>
So<br>
I do not understand the logic that high registration<br>
fee<br>
is only a "small" fraction of the cost involved for<br>
participants.<br>
Also, lower registration fee may attract<br>
more<br>
participation and we may end-up generating same<br>
amount<br>
as surplus and also have more new faces attending<br>
the<br>
event. We do not know if that happen since we have not<br>
tried<br>
lowering the conference prices recently.<br>
<br>
Best<br>
<br>
Venka<br>
<br>
On<br>
2/7/2017 4:49 PM, Till Adams wrote:<br>
<br>
+1 - Paul hits 100% my opinion.<br>
<br>
Am 06.02.2017 um 18:15 schrieb Paul Ramsey:<br>
Regular reminder:<br>
No doubt a $100 drop on registration would be determinative for a few,<br>
but it will not do much to change the equation for even a backpacking<br>
overseas traveller, who will pay (from Vancouver) $1000 to get there<br>
and $600+ in accommodation and meals, depending on how long they stay<br>
(doing workshops? doing code sprint?)<br>
Using second-city sites (Victoria instead of Vancouver, Lausanne<br>
instead of Geneva) can shave registration dollars at the margins, but<br>
they'll get eaten up instead in travel costs.<br>
</div></div> Local regional conferences (Foss4g.nl <<a href="http://Foss4g.nl" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://Foss4g.nl</a>>) should probably aim to go low<br>
<div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"> and hyper-accessible, since they draw from a population that can<br>
economize on all aspects of the conference experience (stay at home,<br>
get up at 4am and walk to the venue from Haarlem, bring a bag lunch).<br>
Foss4g international is... international, there's going to be a<br>
minimum spend to get there and do it, no matter how few coffees are<br>
served, how spare the venue, or how much volunteers are used and abused.<br>
P.<br>
<br>
On Mon, Feb 6, 2017 at 7:54 AM, Steven Feldman <<a href="mailto:shfeldman@gmail.com">shfeldman@gmail.com</a><br>
<mailto:<a href="mailto:shfeldman@gmail.com">shfeldman@gmail.com</a>>> wrote:<br>
<br>
Reposting this from the board list as it may interest the CC.<br>
<br>
The current target in RfP is $650 including social activities but<br>
excluding workshops. The costs of travel and accommodation have<br>
equalled or, for out of region delegates, exceed the registration<br>
costs.<br>
<br>
To my knowledge no proposal has been received for the last 5 years<br>
that was able to support 800+ delegates at ca $500<br>
<br>
2019 will be a ‘European’ year, I am sure that the CC would<br>
welcome a $500 proposal from the Netherlands community<br>
<br>
______<br>
Steven<br>
<br>
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2017 09:38:47 +0000<br>
From: <<a href="mailto:l.g.j.boerboom@utwente.nl">l.g.j.boerboom@utwente.nl</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:l.g.j.boerboom@utwente.nl">l.g.j.boerboom@<wbr>utwente.nl</a>>><br>
To: <<a href="mailto:board@lists.osgeo.org">board@lists.osgeo.org</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:board@lists.osgeo.org">board@lists.osgeo.org</a>><wbr>><br>
Subject: [Board] Open open source, reduce registration fees.<br>
Message-ID:<br>
<<a href="mailto:62bfc24ab8c3406490757d8c14802bbe@EXMBX32.ad.utwente.nl">62bfc24ab8c3406490757d8c14802<wbr>bbe@EXMBX32.ad.utwente.nl</a><br>
<mailto:<a href="mailto:62bfc24ab8c3406490757d8c14802bbe@EXMBX32.ad.utwente.nl">62bfc24ab8c3406490757d<wbr>8c14802bbe@EXMBX32.ad.utwente.<wbr>nl</a>>><br>
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<br>
Dear board,<br>
<br>
Where is the cap on registration fees for FOSS4G? You have closed<br>
open source to me with these steep registration fees. You have to<br>
change this. A few years ago I could hardly convince my<br>
departmental management to pay for registration. Now it is<br>
impossible! Please open up the conference again. Open open source!<br>
Those who cannot organize a conference below $500 should not be<br>
allowed to organize. Scale down. No fancy stuff. Back to the<br>
basics! Back to the core!<br>
<br>
With kind regards,<br>
<br>
Luc Boerboom<br>
<br>
Dr. Ir. Luc Boerboom<br>
Assist. Prof Spatial Planning and Decision Support Systems and<br>
Infrastructures<br>
Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-information<br>
Management<br>
Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation<br>
(ITC), <a href="http://www.itc.nl/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.itc.nl/</a><br>
University of Twente, <a href="http://www.utwente.nl/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.utwente.nl/</a><br>
<br>
E: <a href="mailto:l.g.j.boerboom@utwente.nl">l.g.j.boerboom@utwente.nl</a><br>
<mailto:<a href="mailto:l.g.j.boerboom@utwente.nl">l.g.j.boerboom@<wbr>utwente.nl</a>><mailto:<a href="mailto:l.g.j.boerboom@utwente.nl">l.g.j.<wbr>boerboom@utwente.nl</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:l.g.j.boerboom@utwente.nl">l.g.j.boerboom@<wbr>utwente.nl</a>>><br>
T: <a href="tel:%2B31%20%280%2953%20487%2042%2047" value="+31534874247">+31 (0)53 487 42 47</a> or <a href="tel:%2B31%20%280%2953%20487%2044%2044" value="+31534874444">+31 (0)53 487 44 44</a><br>
Postal address<br>
PO Box 217<br>
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<br>
<br>
<br>
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