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    <p>Hi,</p>
    <p>My quick 2 cents : I felt it weird too, and bring an
      unconfortable feeling. (It doesnt question the capacity to
      organize a great event thought)</p>
    <p>Have a lovely day all<br>
    </p>
    <p><br>
    </p>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">Le 20/11/2024 à 03:23, John Bryant via
      Oceania a écrit :<br>
    </div>
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cite="mid:CAHY5hn8Ar9ZBStnXHNJCK+7WLTi0sdSX0hszL3z5eJJcJev8DA@mail.gmail.com">
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      <div dir="ltr">Thanks for bringing it up Andrew J, it hasn't sat
        especially well with me either. It was a great event, but it
        seemed incongruous to have a vendor selling ArcGIS at a booth at
        a FOSS4G.
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div><br>
        </div>
      </div>
      <br>
      <div class="gmail_quote">
        <div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, 20 Nov 2024 at 21:02,
          Andrew Harvey via Oceania <<a
            href="mailto:oceania@lists.osgeo.org" moz-do-not-send="true"
            class="moz-txt-link-freetext">oceania@lists.osgeo.org</a>>
          wrote:<br>
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style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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            <div>
              <div>Hi Andrew,<br>
              </div>
              <div><br>
              </div>
              <div>Good on you for speaking up about your concerns! I'm
                sure you're not the only one who had this thought.</div>
              <div><br>
              </div>
              <div>Speaking from myself here, as far as I'm aware anyone
                can support the conference financially through
                sponsorship without any other requirements, but it would
                be up to the organising committee and board if they did
                want to add additional conditions for accepting
                sponsors.<br>
              </div>
              <div><br>
              </div>
              <div>However given ESRI's involvement with OpenStreetMap (<a
                  href="https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Esri"
                  target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
                  class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Esri</a>),
                in particular their "Esri World Imagery" which they
                provide to OpenStreetMap for tracing features, and their
                OpenStreetMap powered basemaps which help make it easier
                for people to consume OpenStreetMap data. I would say
                they are very much a positive part of the OpenStreetMap
                community and with FOSS4G SotM Oceania being a State of
                the Map conference the more financial support we have
                from entities who want to help OpenStreetMap the
                stronger OSGeo Oceania and the conference will be.<br>
              </div>
              <div><br>
              </div>
              <div>Andrew Harvey<br>
              </div>
              <div><br>
              </div>
              <div>On Wed, 20 Nov 2024, at 10:07 PM, Andrew Jeffrey via
                Oceania wrote:<br>
              </div>
              <blockquote type="cite" id="m_1047741083959032968qt">
                <div dir="ltr">
                  <div>Hi All,<br>
                  </div>
                  <div><br>
                  </div>
                  <div>I hope everyone that was able to attend the
                    FOSS4G SOTM Oceania Hobart conference had a great
                    time. I'm still very much bummed that I wasn't able
                    to make it down there and my only start at the OO
                    conference remains Melbourne in 2018. I plan on
                    improving my numbers as best I can into the future,
                    but from the outside looking in, it looked like all
                    those that attended had a blast - well done
                    conference committee and OO board.<br>
                  </div>
                  <div><br>
                  </div>
                  <div>I am writing to the list because I have a
                    question that has been bugging me ever since I
                    talked to a colleague who attended the event. That
                    question is "What's the deal with ESRI being
                    a sponsor?". I have genuine curiosity when it comes
                    to the decision process in having them on board. I
                    understand these things take money to put on and the
                    conference needs to turn a profit, a healthy
                    conference makes for a healthy OO which allows the
                    organisation to do many of the great things that
                    they do. However, I think this sponsorship from ESRI
                    should be reconsidered in the future.<br>
                  </div>
                  <div><br>
                  </div>
                  <div>Just to be clear, I am not opposed to speakers
                    who work for ESRI coming and talking, from all
                    reports the keynote from Kate Fickas was amazing (as
                    were all the keynotes from what I hear) and these
                    are the industry people that we all crave to hear
                    from - top job in landing that line up! But as for
                    sponsorship I feel that ESRI is putting their brand
                    on a community that a lot of us turned to when
                    looking for refuge from them.<br>
                  </div>
                  <div><br>
                  </div>
                  <div>I acknowledge that my opinion on this is biased
                    as a QGIS advocate and trainer. But something about
                    this just feels off! I don't see what's in it for
                    the FOSS4G community having ESRI involved in our
                    conferences, to me it looks more of a cheap way for
                    them to buy some good news without doing anything to
                    improve the relationship with the FOSS4G community. <br>
                  </div>
                  <div><br>
                  </div>
                  <div>However, I know I wasn't there, and I could be
                    wrong about the whole thing. Maybe the overwhelming
                    opinion is that it's a good thing and this is a step
                    in the right direction? I would be interested in
                    hearing what people think and even hearing from
                    someone on the conference organising committee that
                    has more knowledge about this. Is this something the
                    conference would do again? Is there a limit to their
                    involvement? What would have happened if they were a
                    platinum sponsor and got the primary logo
                    placement + verbal mention at opening and closing of
                    the event?<br>
                  </div>
                  <div><br>
                  </div>
                  <div>Thanks<br>
                  </div>
                  <div>Andrew<br>
                  </div>
                </div>
                <div>_______________________________________________<br>
                </div>
                <div>Oceania mailing list<br>
                </div>
                <div><a href="mailto:Oceania@lists.osgeo.org"
                    target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
                    class="moz-txt-link-freetext">Oceania@lists.osgeo.org</a><br>
                </div>
                <div><a
href="https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/oceania" target="_blank"
                    moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/oceania</a><br>
                </div>
                <div><br>
                </div>
              </blockquote>
              <div><br>
              </div>
            </div>
            _______________________________________________<br>
            Oceania mailing list<br>
            <a href="mailto:Oceania@lists.osgeo.org" target="_blank"
              moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">Oceania@lists.osgeo.org</a><br>
            <a href="https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/oceania"
              rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
              class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/oceania</a><br>
          </div>
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      <pre wrap="" class="moz-quote-pre">_______________________________________________
Oceania mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Oceania@lists.osgeo.org">Oceania@lists.osgeo.org</a>
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</pre>
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