[OSGeo-Conf] Re: FOSS4G

[Paul Ramsey]

Hi Guys,

On 2-Oct-07, at 8:53 PM, venka.osgeo wrote:

> a) Yes the "Welcome Reception" was not exactly a "reception" since
> one was expected to pay for food and drinks. Haven't been
> to many international conference where they have this
> kind of "reception".

Guilty as charged. I really should have called it an "Ice Breaker",  
since I didn't know if I would have enough money to do anything  
complimentary until it was too late to really arrange anything.

> c) I was also wondering what happened to the "Plaque" which
> Steve Lime was to receive.

He got it in the end :)  It was hiding in the lectern.

> d) To help in networking, I think list of participants and contact
> address could have been distributed.

Participants asked (85%) in the registration process that their  
contact info not be distributed.  Chalk this up to "don't ask a  
question if you are afraid you'll get the wrong answer".

> f) I wonder if we did, if we did not, then perhaps we could
> have sent an invitation to Sol Katz daughter to be at the
> closing ceremony and offered to pay for her trip.

Yes, that would be nice. Maybe next time we're in North America?

> g) FOSS4G at South Africa is going to get bigger and better, I am
> sure.

Ready for a scary picture?
Here's a 5000km radius around Victoria:  http://tinyurl.com/2hum7j
Here's a 5000km radius around Cape Town:  http://tinyurl.com/2d26cu

Marketing will be very important and early marketing in particular.   
My ideas are going into the Lessons Learned page for '07.

> We need to have an "International Committee" including all members of
> the OSGeo Conference Committee (and more) and not just some
> a few "OSGeo Representatives" as we did in FOSS4G2007.

I think that more cooks don't necessarily make a good meal,  
particularly if they aren't interested in cooking.  I think Gavin  
should call for volunteers from the International Committee and work  
closely with those who are actually willing and able to help him  
out.  Blanket adding members to the local committee won't help him.

> j) We also need to think of having a "Advisory Committee" with
> some big names from various organizations.

If these big names will actually help us promote the conference  
widely, that sounds great. What will they ask for in return?

> l) we also need to contact scientific societies to include the
> FOSS4G2008 event in their events calender and even think of
> putting an ad in some of the magazines about the upcoming event
> soon.

I did some of this early on, and we should do it again, since we have  
the dates in hand already. The trade-off on putting ads is the price/ 
performance.  I look forward to seeing the returns from our '07  
evaluation form on where people heard about the conference.

Paul