[Board] FOSS4G Meeting Update

[Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)]

Last week I met with GITA, the conference organisers helping with FOSS4G.  I had specific meetings with their executive to review how things will be working after they had a recent reorg internally.  It was very important to make sure they would not "drop the ball" in their responsibilities to the FOSS4G event.  Peter Batty and I had several good discussions with them and also with their operations team.  These are the folks doing the background work on many critical aspects of FOSS4G - they will also be the first smiling faces everyone sees at the event registration desk.  Together with Peter, GITA and their associates, and representatives from the Sheraton Hotel we also met to review our requirements from the venue to see how best to manage the event on-the-ground - including a review of all rooms and meeting space.  This was very useful and brought out a lot of questions and discussion on making best use of the space and maximizing benefit for attendees.  IT and A/V staff also participated to ensure they clearly understood our needs.

Overall, I am comfortable with the outcome of all the discussions and glad they were able to take place at this early stage.  We discovered a few holes in our planning and have been able to adjust accordingly.  If you have any questions on these items, let me know.  I was also able to meet face-to-face with reps from a few of our FOSS4G sponsors, including RadiantBlue, which helped me to understand clearly what the benefit of the event is to their organisations.

More than ever, I'm encouraged that the event is going to be run well and has high potential for success.

Tyler


Tyler Mitchell
Executive Director, OSGeo
tmitchell at osgeo.org
See you in Denver @ FOSS4G 2011!
http://2011.foss4g.org