[Board] FOSS4G Pricing / Location

[Jeroen Ticheler]

Hi all,

I agree, I had the feeling at the AGM that this discussion did not  
bring us where we had to be unfortunately. But than time was short  
and there was some confusion, at least for me. This because we were  
discussing making a profit without clearly stating why such profit  
was required. Namely "to lay a sustainable financial basis under  
OSGeo that is less dependent on sponsors". Correct me if I'm wrong?

We could start such a discussion again on Discuss, but it probably  
creates a big discussion that's hard to moderate. Maybe better to do  
that after conference and board consensus.

Higher profit through cost savings and sponsorships is my preferred way.

A discussed increase in fees for the workshops is another interesting  
one that should be considered. It was not during the board meeting  
that workshops should not compete with existing business. This is  
true, it will depend on the location and on the number of workshops  
held. At the same time, they are held anyway, so why not use that  
aspect of the conference to increase revenue while other parts can be  
more budget neutral.

25 workshops (we had 12 + 16 labs if I remember well!?) of 30 to 40  
people each (I think most had more attendants!?) with a fee of about  
50$ per workshop generates some 40-50k revenue. I'm not sure on the  
cost aspect, but it could be tried to get that part sponsored and  
thus reduce costs to a minimum.

My 2cts, Ciao,
Jeroen

On Oct 16, 2007, at 11:46 PM, Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) wrote:

> On 16-Oct-07, at 1:29 PM, Arnulf Christl wrote:
>
>> If bidders are creative they will come up with something really  
>> cool, a
>> nice beach or some fat sponsor.
>
> It's easy to assume that higher revenues can only come from higher  
> ticket prices, but a lot can be done by lowering expenses and  
> increasing sponsorships.  It's easy to forget that local committees  
> can be creative on those fronts too.
>
> Tyler
>
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