[Aust-NZ] FOSS4G-SOTM-Oceania: conference length and dates

[Cameron Shorter]

My thoughts on the first regional FOSS4G conference (in a long while) is 
that the primary goal is to make sure it is successful. With FOSS4G 2009 
we over-estimated the number of attendees by close to a factor of 2. 
There were multiple reasons for this [1], but a key lesson was to make 
sure the conference goals are achievable and sustainable.

As such, I'd err on selecting shorter, lower cost, lower barrier to 
entry (which results in being more selective of presentations and 
providing less higher quality presentations rather than more). I'd 
prefer to be sold out rather than having a conference full of empty seats.

Lets see how many people we can attract into the conference in the first 
year before over-committing. We can build up numbers in following years.

Cheers, Cameron

[1] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2009_Lessons_Learned

On 13/12/17 8:24 am, John Bryant wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> At our upcoming committee meeting, we'll hopefully come to some kind 
> of decision on:
>
>   * conference length (for the 'conference' component, exclusive of
>     pre-conf workshops and post-conf code sprint/hackathon/mapathon)
>   * conference dates
>
> Discussion around length, so far, has focused on 2 options, either one 
> day or two (for a total event length of either 3 or 4 days).
>
> My personal preference would be to see two days for the conference 
> proper, as I think with both FOSS4G and SOTM components, and a broad 
> region (Oceania), there is the potential for a lot of content... I 
> think one day wouldn't be enough time to cover it without spreading 
> across too many competing streams/sessions.
>
> One argument for one day is that it would be less of an organisational 
> burden, which is a fair point.
>
> Surely there are other arguments for one or the other option, or 
> perhaps even additional options that haven't come up... it would be 
> great to have some input on this mailing list before we meet next week 
> to make a decision.
>
> Thoughts?
>
>
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-- 
Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier, Learnosity
Open Technologies Consultant

M +61 (0) 419 142 254

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