[North America] OSGeo Board Meeting and NA Chapter

[Robert Hollingsworth]

Tyler,
I like your idea of focusing on business relationship building.  I strongly favor a highly interactive 'round table' approach over the traditional presentation model.  I'd like to put people who are 'wearing different hats' together in that circle and get them talking about topics of shared interest.  That was the strongest element of that GITA GECCO meeting I went to in the summer.  I've also felt that panel discussions are more energetic than fixed presentations.

I think any NA event in 2012 should be marketed as something significantly different in format from FOSS4G and other confs.  For one thing, we should not mention "North America" in the title at all.  And we should do everything to discourage direct comparisons to FOSS4G to avoid either of the following:

a) "Hey, I just went to FOSS4G in Denver a few months ago.  Why do something 
    smaller (in Denver) again so soon?"
b) "Hey, go to our regional conference so you don't have to bother with FOSS4G 2012 in China"

Robert




    
    
    

----- Original message -----

> Great - then let's get it done.

> 

> It's surely in everyone's interest -- so I have no doubt that everything

> can be resolved.



I'm with you.  At the end of the day it will depend on the volunteer commitment we have available and the value we can build from our relationships with others (conf service providers, co-host orgs, sponsors, etc.).



So, for my part, I'm keen to volunteer to help see something happen in late spring/early summer 2012.  Not to the scale of FOSS4G but I'm willing to put some of my time in to help coordinate an event.  



My personal focus will be on building business relationships that can help build business relationship for my new employer (Actian aka Ingres) and help show off related open source offerings.  A sort of business 'thought leaders' series in open source geo would also be of interest.



Naturally others will have additional areas of interest, but this is what I know I can bring to the table now that my employment situation dust is settling.



I'm happy to work with Mark and others (especially GITA) to make something happen.  Hope we can continue the discussion further this week.  I've started drafting a rough budget and operating manual that I'll share if desired.



Hope that helps toss down the gauntlet a bit... ;)



Tyler
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