[Board] 2014 RFP

[Cameron Shorter]

I agree with Paul's suggestion, that the FOSS4G 2014 be targeted at a 
North America location.

My reasons:
* I feel it is important to help future conference planners by being 
consistent in our selection strategy.
* As Paul notes, we have in the past set in place a 3 way venue cycle: 
Europe / North America / Rest of the world, and we should continue with 
that strategy for 2014.
* For these reasons alone, (which are points for discussion with the 
conference committee), I'm +1 for FOSS4G 2014 being held in North America.

I understand that Paul is also suggesting another reason for holding 
FOSS4G in North America is that North American/European FOSS4G events 
are more lucrative than FOSS4G events in the rest of the world. That is 
correct, however, I expect that a FOSS4G-NA and other FOSS4G-Europe 
regional conferences will run in the same year as the global FOSS4G 
event, and most will return a profit back to OSGeo. So profit back to 
OSGeo hopefully should roughly even out.

Of note, for FOSS4G 2015, I think that it is important to select a city 
with an effective OSGeo community behind it - best demonstrated by 
successfully having run a regional FOSS4G event.

On 31/03/13 07:15, Paul Ramsey wrote:
> Hello Board,
>
> I've been asked by the President and the Treasurer, also known as Jeff
> and Daniel, to coordinate the RFP again this year.
>
> - The 2013 event was a "Europe year".
> - This year is a "North America" year.
>
> It is possible to make this year an "Americas" year, but that would
> have potential impacts on OSGeo revenue, now that FOSS4G is the
> primary revenue stream. Also note that *next* year is the "other"
> year, which is the year we dedicate to going to places we might not go
> out of purely mercenary motivations. So we could potentially end up
> with two events in a row far from the population centres of EUR/NA.
>
> This is just a pre-amble to asking whether to prepare the request for
> "North America" or "Americas". Given the financial implications, I
> feel this is a board question, not a conference question.
>
> The 2013 RFP closed on March 31, to give you an idea of scheduling.
> We're already 6 weeks behind, so a response with alacrity would be
> most appreciated.
>
> Yours,
>
> P.
> _______________________________________________
> Board mailing list
> Board at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board


-- 
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Solutions Manager
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
http://www.lisasoft.com