<div dir="ltr">Hi John<div><br></div><div>I think your approach is a good one. I do think subsidising students is important, and $250 is very cheap for a two day conference, however you look at it. (Even for a student!)<br><br>I think if we're going to make this change, we need to do it quite soon, so +1 from me.</div><div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">On Sun, 22 Jul 2018 at 21:59 Cameron Shorter <<a href="mailto:cameron.shorter@gmail.com">cameron.shorter@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p>John, I'm in agreement with your suggestions, with the following
comments:<br>
</p>
<p>Looking at the conference from perspective of a
software/geospatial student profile perspective:<br>
* They have no spare cash<br>
* They are prepared to give their time and enthusiasm in exchange
for mentoring, experience, learning<br>
* We want to introduce and attract these students to future open
business models</p>
<p>To best help these students, lets help facilitate networking and
learning opportunities:<br>
* Encourage the students to contribute at the free community day<br>
* Encourage students to attend free birds-of-a-feather, georabble
and networking events (such as breakfasts) which need not be
exclusive to conference attendees<br>
* Get a roster of students to record every presentation - even if
just them recording with their mobile phone. This will be good for
us, and the student gets to listen in as well.<br>
* Aim to have committee members buddy with students to facilitate
mentoring and collaboration. I have a lot of respect for the
"can-do" commitment of our committee to date and expect that we
will all be mentoring and helping out with whatever work is
required on conference days. <br>
</p></div><div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<br>
<div class="m_-1482163800290641321moz-cite-prefix">On 22/7/18 7:58 pm, John Bryant wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">I *think* the original idea was that volunteers
would be expected to work a shift, and could opt to pay for a
discounted registration that would give them access to the rest
of the conference. But perhaps that's not ideal? Let's see if we
can work together here towards a better idea.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I'm hearing that volunteers shouldn't pay while they're
working, which makes sense to me. It has been suggested that
we can cover the costs of catering for our volunteers while
they're on shift... assuming we have a small volunteer
workforce of around 4 or 5 people (TBD of course!), Martin's
estimate of ~$1500 is probably in the ballpark. If we remove
the 15 'student volunteer' $200 tickets from the pool, and
re-release them as full price tickets, then this $1500 is more
than covered (presuming we can actually sell those additional
15 tickets).</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>However, it does leave the question of whether we provide
any student discounts at all for those who aren't
volunteering, but simply wish to attend the conference. We've
had a few approaches already on this count, and any adjustment
we make at this point should probably be our final decision on
this matter. Perhaps we shoot for an approximately
revenue/cost-neutral approach with this.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I will also point out, we have $2000 budgeted for paid
help, so should be able to have somebody helping to run
logistics on the conf days. Also have $2000 budgeted for
volunteer appreciation - so this could possibly be part of how
we reward volunteers. Maybe take them out for dinner after
everything's wrapped up?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><b>So, here's a proposal (estimated impact on budget in
parentheses):</b></div>
<div>- we source a volunteer workforce, require that they work
full days, we keep their workload light enough that they have
the chance to see parts of the conference on the days they're
working</div>
<div>- to be clear, volunteers would not be expected to pay on
the days they're working, but no access offered on days when
they're not working</div>
<div>- we feed the volunteers on the days they're working <b>(-$1500)</b></div>
<div>- remove 15 discounted volunteer tickets @ $200 each <b>(-$3000)</b></div>
<div>- for post-secondary students who wish to register, add 10
discounted student tickets @ $250 each <b>(+$2500)</b></div>
<div>- add 5 full price tickets @ $400 each <b>(+$2000)</b></div>
<div>- committee members will be asked to participate in the
execution of the conference, eg. hang out at our 'sponsor'
table, help out with the rego desk, chat with sponsors, odd
jobs as needed, so that it's not ALL on the volunteers</div>
<div>- conference code of conduct will apply to volunteers -
nothing additional required there</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>For students who simply can't afford to pay for rego, then
volunteering is an option. For students who can afford a bit,
they pay $250 to attend, which is slightly below the total
per-attendee cost of putting on the conference.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Sanity check? Does this make sense? Adjustments welcome.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>John</div>
</div>
<br>
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</blockquote>
<br>
</div><div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><pre class="m_-1482163800290641321moz-signature" cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier
Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
M <a href="tel:+61%20419%20142%20254" value="+61419142254" target="_blank">+61 (0) 419 142 254</a></pre>
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</blockquote></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><br></div>Alex Leith<div>0419 189 050</div></div></div>