<div dir="ltr"><div>Dear Till,<br><br></div>We have been able to compile the answers sooner as expected. Thanks Paul, Steven and Till for the questions! <br><br><br>You can find your answers on the wiki too:<br><br><ul><li> <b>General remark: although I like the idea to write a story
around the proposal, nevertheless, for me it seems unnecessary difficult
to find single events and approach the structure. This maybe the cause
for some questions, you already answered in your proposal...</b></li></ul>
<p>The idea to relate the Magellan and Elcano voyage was done to
transmit the importance that the landmark of the first circumnavigation
can have to our tribes and the general feeling in Spain. We apologize
for any inconvenience on the easy reading of the document. Please do not
hesitate to ask everything you don’t see clearly expressed in our
proposal.
</p>
<ul><li> <b>the workshop fee of 110/160 seems slightly high (guess we had 80/100) or is it per day (w workshops)?</b></li></ul>
<p>It’s per workshop, but in our calculation, we assume that everybody
will pay 110€ (early bird) and we are offering additional 10% discount
for people registering to two sessions. It is true the price is higher
than in previous years, but we are providing a more complete service and
a good percentage of free fees to compensate those who will be in
disadvantage for this price change. Opposite to previous conferences, we
are providing computers to all attendees and lunch, so the real final price
will be cheaper for those who attend.
</p>
<ul><li> <b>the total calculation seems a bit risky to me (e. g. 1200
participants, 40k surplus) - where are the levers that reduce your risk
except to increase the participation fees?</b> </li></ul>
<p>As we have stated in other questions, we have tried to be quite
cautious with planning the expenses, and our intention is to negotiate
those prices to put the costs down. We think we can make a bigger
surplus for the same number of attendees. We think that it is safer to
calculate on higher costs and lower profits at the beginning and then
turn those numbers around.
</p><p>In fact, part of the risk is already calculated on the budget as
an added percentage per cost. Profit that came from lowering the costs
in the final price will be revenue
for OSGeo.
</p>
<ul><li> <b>Does Gala Dinner mean Gala Dinner or is it also somewhat
socializing (I think this is an important point. If x hundred people are
seperated by fixed seats on tables, socializing is difficult (I think
the Gala Dinner of the 2010 Barcelona event is an example for what I
fear, socializing took place in front of the door, not really inside)</b></li></ul>
<p>We fully agree with your thoughts about the need of socializing.
Intentionally the gala dinner is made in a format that allows exchange
and networking (cocktail). Although there will be many high tables and
stools or other type of chairs, (plus some contingency tables for people
who need it), there will always be people who have to stand. That
doesn’t mean that we’ll not enjoy very abundant and good quality food,
nicely prepared as we can expect from a Gala Dinner. The space we have
chosen it’s a perfect venue for this kind of dinner. The idea is to have
a dynamic dinner, where people moves around the food and beverage while
socializing.
</p><p>Please see also our previous answers regarding the dinner.
</p>
<ul><li> <b>In Bonn we shaped the Code Sprint around the conference. The
idea was, to give the people the opportunity to work together, once
they are in place anyhow. Do you see a chance for <a href="http://s.th">s.th</a>. similar for
2019?</b></li></ul>
<p>Having a CS during the whole week is not planned at this point, but
we see no reason not to do it. If there are enough developers interested
in a CodeSprint during the week, there is a building just in front of
the venue we can use for having a CodeSprint during the week. We have
negotiated the use of some of its rooms before for free for other
events, as long as it is something that contributes to the community and
has no fee entry (as it is the case). If the building is not available
during the whole week, we can try to look for other similar spaces close
to the venue (less than 30 minutes walking) that we can use for free,
as long as the CS is useful for the community and is free (which, again,
is the case).
</p><p>We were preparing some of the smaller rooms as rest rooms so
people can work with their laptops if they want during the conference.
And if the weather is nice (which statistically is very probable),
working on the tables under the trees is also a nice option for
developers who want to work. So maybe there is no need for a specific
room for the CS in a different building? If the Conference Committee or
the developers think it is useful, we can arrange it. If for this extra
space we want to add free food, beverages or something extra than
internet, a few tables and chairs, then we will have to rearrange the
budget to accomodate it (maybe some special sponsor for this?). But a
basic space for working could be arranged easily for free, if there is a
need for a specific space outside the venue, which at this point, we think it won't be necessary as there will be space on the same venue (although not explictly dedicated to the CS).
</p>
<ul><li><ul><li> <b>In chapt. 7.3. you write "We will try for students
to engage on the codesprint so that they can learn how a codesprint
works and interact with other developers [...]" - How will you do this,
especially if the CS is only one day (which at least is quite enough
for the people in the projects to say hello to each other)</b></li></ul></li></ul>
<p>Our base goal for students in the CodeSprint is just to make them see
how a CS works. Even if they just sit there, see the interactions and
learn how to report/test bugs, that will be a success from our
perspective.
</p><p>Depending on how many volunteers to mentor those students we get
(we will look for local mentors to let OSGeo developers free to do their
tasks), we will be able to introduce those students to more complex
tasks and even maybe make them interested enough to repeat the
experience themselves later.
</p><p>Our “hidden” goal here is to make students aware of FOSS4G, show
them how fun it is to collaborate and make them want to contribute later
(or even move their career paths to FOSS4G!).
</p><p>Of course, the idea is to interrupt as less as possible the work of current developers during the CodeSprint.
</p>
<ul><li> <b>Looking at your sponsor's list: I think it's kind of unfair
only to plan to mention the top level sponsors and let them present in
the plenum. My opinion: In the end the day is as follows: We are a
community of small to mid-sized companies, that are often willing to
sponsor our events. If we only give big visibility to the "big players",
none of the companies, that comes from our own community, that actualy
support our projects will be mentioned - in relation, 8k for Gold for a
small company is much more money, than 20k for google (e.g.). So my
question is: Are you planning to give also small/mid-sized companies,
that sponsor the event, more visibilit</b>y?</li></ul>
<p>This is something we can work further to make a very appealing
sponsorship deal. We agree with your considerations about SME’s. We
will, of course, give high visibility to all of our sponsors, each one
according to the level of sponsorship, be it through the logo in all of
the venues banners, electronic sites, through the programme, through our
media associates, etc.
</p><p>It is true that diamond, platinum and gold will have presence on
the plenary sessions, but we will allow silver and bronze to have
presence in the side tracks. This means we will allocate some time for
them to present their projects and goals.
</p><p>There will also be more visibility through the Business to
Business tracks. We will reach sponsors first to check what their
interests on B2B are to try to match and make the conference profitable
for them. One of our ideas is to have coffee-bar like sessions on one of
the smaller rooms (not one of the nine parallel track rooms), where our
sponsors can have a relaxed meeting with some of their potential
customers or partners or whatever focus group is interesting to them.
The details of each session will be arranged with each sponsor. This is
part of the "experimental gamification" we are trying to introduce in
FOSS4G to help people interact with each other and make it more
profitable for companies.
</p><p>We thank you for your comments and we’ll give it a second thought to make it attractive for all kind of sponsors.
</p></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Dec 11, 2017 at 4:11 PM, María Arias de Reyna <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:delawen@gmail.com" target="_blank">delawen@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Hi,<br>
<br>
We already started to answer the questions from Paul and Steven on the<br>
wiki page. Your questions will have to wait until tomorrow.<br>
<div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br>
On Mon, Dec 11, 2017 at 2:57 PM, Till Adams <<a href="mailto:till.adams@fossgis.de">till.adams@fossgis.de</a>> wrote:<br>
> Hi BLOC & SLOC,<br>
><br>
> I've added my questions also on the WIKI [1] [2] pages.<br>
><br>
> Please ensure to have your answers ready at least on Friday, 15th of<br>
> December! You might put them directly in place (which saves me a couple<br>
> of minutes in this fully packed week ;-))<br>
><br>
><br>
> Regards, Till<br>
><br>
> [1] <a href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G2019_Q%26A_Full_Proposal_Bucharest" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/<wbr>FOSS4G2019_Q%26A_Full_<wbr>Proposal_Bucharest</a><br>
><br>
> [2] <a href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G2019_Q%26A_Full_Proposal_Sevilla" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/<wbr>FOSS4G2019_Q%26A_Full_<wbr>Proposal_Sevilla</a><br>
><br>
> ______________________________<wbr>_________________<br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div>