[Board] OSGeo Sponsorship Request for Pista ng Mapa (Festival of Maps) 2023 Conference on November 21-23 (Philippines)

Wed Nov 29 11:09:53 PST 2023

Dear OSGeo Board,

On behalf of the Pista ng Mapa 2023 organizing committee, I would like to
thank you for the support that you provided to the conference. We're happy
to share that the three-day event was a success and it would not have been
possible without your help. Thank you also to Astrid for helping us set up
the conference's pretalx instance (the feedback from the volunteers and
organizers were positive and we'd love to use it again for next year's
conference if possible) and to Mike for facilitating the transfer of funds.

With OSGeo's sponsorship, we were able to increase the number of travel
grantees from five to thirteen, increase the number of accepted
participants to 150, and added more stuff to the conference kits that our
participants received—e.g. tote bags and *OSGeo stickers
<https://mastodon.social/@benhur07b/111464369864574033>* (which was a
massive hit with everyone).

During the Plenary on Day 1, I gave a *short talk introducing OSGeo
<https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=341089558500525>* to the
participants and during the Community Day on Day 3, we had an impromptu BoF
meetup/discussion about future plans for formally being recognized as an
OSGeo local chapter in 2024. FOSS4G/OSGeo isn't as familiar to people here
compared to OSM but I got a lot of positive reception, feedback, and
interest from those I talked to.

For context, the *Philippine community has done local FOSS4G meetups and
events since late 2011 <https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Philippines>* and the
move to have its own local chapter was initiated more than a decade ago by
fellow Charter member, Maning <https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Maning>.
For a variety of reasons it never fully materialized but we're driven to
formally organize and establish the chapter next year. The local
OpenStreetMap community here in our country—which a lot of FOSS4G
advocates/enthusiasts are also part of—is very active, known, dynamic, and
vibrant and we'd love to do the same for FOSS4G/OSGeo in the Philippines
and within our region.

I also took the time to add a *Pista ng Mapa 2023 page
<https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Pista_ng_Mapa_2023>* on the OSGeo wiki as well
as other pages for *past Pista ng Mapa conferences
<https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Category:Pista_ng_Mapa>*.

Once again, thank you and we look forward to being more active locally,
regionally, and internationally in the coming years.

All the best,
Ben Hur

---
*Ben Hur Pintor*
mastodon.social/@benhur07b
Founder and Proprietor, *bnhr.xyz <https://fb.com/bnhr.xyz>* |
*BNHR: openness. data. geospatial.*
<https://mastodon.social/@benhur07b>
Co-founder and CTO, *civicliteraci.es* <http://civicliteraci.es> |
*Civic Literacy Initiative: capacity building with care*
Co-founder and CTO, *smartct.org <https://smartct.org> *| *SmartCT: making
smart cities open*

On Wed, Sep 27, 2023 at 5:40 AM Ben Hur Pintor <hi at bnhr.xyz> wrote:

> Dear OSGeo Board,
>
> My name is Ben Hur—a longtime FOSS4G user/advocate from the Philippines
> and a recent addition (2022) to the list of Charter Members (
> https://www.osgeo.org/member/ben-hur-pintor/).
>
> For the past five years, I've co-organized the *Pista ng Mapa (Festival
> of Maps) *conference here in my country (https://pistangmapa.org/2019/,
> https://www.osgeo.org/events/pista-ng-mapa/,
> https://www.osgeo.org/events/pista-ng-mapa-2021-philippines-online/,
> https://www.osgeo.org/events/pista-ng-mapa-state-of-the-map-asia-2022/).
>
> *PISTA NG MAPA*
> Pista ng Mapa is the pioneer and premier free (as to cost and as in
> freedom) open mapping and open geospatial conference in the Philippines. It
> is 100% volunteer-driven—made by and for our local open mapping and open
> geospatial communities—and traces its roots back to past FOSS4G Philippines
> events (since 2012), Maptime Diliman meetups (since 2015), and local
> OpenStreetMap activities (since late 2000s).
>
> *PISTA NG MAPA 2023*
> This year, we will be having the Pista ng Mapa on November 21-23 (
> https://www.osgeo.org/events/pista-ng-mapa-2023/). This iteration of the
> conference holds *special significance as it coincides with the 10th
> anniversary of the devastating Super Typhoon Yolanda*—more commonly known
> internationally as Super Typhoon Haiyan and one of the most powerful
> typhoons in human history—which resulted in the loss of thousands of lives
> and caused millions of damage to properties.* At that time, open mapping
> and open geospatial tools played a crucial role in facilitating
> rescue/relief operations* and since then, open geospatial and FOSS4G
> applications have become more commonly used in disaster risk reduction and
> management (DRRM) as well as climate action activities.
>
> This year's Pista is an opportunity for the local, regional, and
> international communities to come together, look back, share, and explore
> the importance of open geospatial data and tools especially in the context
> of disasters and climate change. As part of this commemoration, *we are
> holding the Pista in one of the cities most affected by ST Haiyan back in
> 2013—the beautiful city of Tacloban* (
> https://www.facebook.com/PistaNgMapaPH/videos/982702652968904/).
>
> *SPONSORSHIP INVITATION*
> As a 100% free and volunteer-driven conference, Pista ng Mapa is made
> possible by the support of our partners and sponsors. As such, on behalf of
> the conference organizing committee, I would like to extend an invitation
> for OSGeo to support and sponsor this year's Pista ng Mapa. You can find a
> sponsorship letter addressed to the Board at this link (
> https://drive.proton.me/urls/VM51DT6Z3R#GGqzvCKhQ6Ex) where you will see
> more detailed information about the conference and our sponsorship options.
>
> In general, we are expecting to have 100-150 participants and the venue
> will be at the Summit Hotel Tacloban. The sponsorship will be used to cover
> the cost of the participants' meals during the conference, the venue,
> support for volunteers and presenters, as well as conference SWAGs and
> freebies. We are also amenable if you would like to support a specific
> activity. For example, we've had sponsors in the past request that the
> funds be used to support travel grantees and conference scholars.
>
> The minimum budget we've allocated for the conference is USD12,000 and
> we've already secured USD5,000 from sponsors as well awaiting confirmation
> from others. We'd be honored to have OSGeo as a Co-Presenter (USD 5,000),
> Major Sponsor (USD 4,000), or Minor Sponsor (USD 3,000) of Pista ng Mapa
> 2023.
>
> Lastly, I would love to share about OSGeo during the conference via a
> presentation or giving out OSGeo-related materials. In the case of the
> latter, I'd appreciate it if you can point me to materials such as stickers
> and brochures that I can print. T-shirts and other SWAGs will also be great.
>
> I'd be happy to answer any questions and clarifications that you may have
> and share with you the details of our budget in case it's needed.
>
> Thank you and I look forward to your reply.
>
>
> All the best from the Philippines,
> Ben Hur
> ---
> *Ben Hur Pintor*
> mastodon.social/@benhur07b
> Founder and Proprietor, *bnhr.xyz <https://fb.com/bnhr.xyz>* |
> *BNHR: openness. data. geospatial.*
> <https://mastodon.social/@benhur07b>
> Co-founder and CTO, *civicliteraci.es* <http://civicliteraci.es> | *Civic
> Literacy Initiative: the interface to unlocking civic organisations'
> potential*
> Co-founder and CTO, *smartct.org <https://smartct.org> *| *SmartCT:
> making smart cities open*
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/attachments/20231130/16c30000/attachment-0001.htm>