[OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G 2011 Proposal and Budget

[Gavin]

Hi Eric

Congratulations to you and the LOC for a thorough proposal and enticing
location and programme. Here are some of my thoughts:

PROPOSAL

-There isn't a precedent for OSGeo guranteeing any sponsorship so I
don't think you can rely on your expectation/hope of "OSGEO or another
party guaranteeing a portion of the budget for sponsorships"

- Promoting FOSS GIS by targeting ESRI users, newcomers , managers etc.
is a strong component that worked very well in 2008.

- you don't appear to have any labs or tutorials in your programme. They
are extra  effort to manage but have historically been very popular and
a defining feature of FOSS4G.

- I recommend you offer 'full conference' packages that include
workshops and promote those over separate workshop registration. 

- Building on Cameron's LiveDVD would surely be better than defining a
new DVD/USB product for 2011 workshops.

- have you considered building on the 2009 plugfest, which in turn
evolved from previous attempts to run workshops and exhibitors off a
common conference infrastructure. It's a mammoth task but if the concept
is built on each year I see it becoming a core attraction of FOSS4G. 

- you state: 
"We will also look at ways of using conference presenters or
presentation materials to produce
more written materials, including success stories, which can be
published on a conference (or
other OSGeo) Web site, and used as a resource to help in sales and
marketing of FOSS4G
systems."
This is a great idea but needs some more concrete commitment up front to
make sure it happens. 

- nice to see an academic track, that's becoming standard now. (btw the
full special issue of the South Africa Computer Journal dedicated to
FOSS4G 2008 is available for download from the home page of
www.foss4g2008.org)

- definitely include a poster 'track'. In 2008, posters were up in a
section of the exhibition hall all the time. One lunchtime, presenters
has to be at their posters to field questions. 

- A demo theatre was very popular in 2007 and 2008. It would be nice to
see in 2011.  

- identify cheap accommodation, e.g youth hostels. everything you can do
to make it easier for low budget attendees to get there will help.
(although wiki pages to facilitate room sharing haven't been that
successful). Youth, students, pay-your-own-wayers and attendees from
less affluent regions are a crucial part of our community. 

WORKSHOPS and PROGRAMME OVERVIEW

- I support the others' comments to add more workshops:

You could argue that in 2008 we had too many (18) at 3 locations, which
was a logistical headache, but if you have enough venues at the same
location then you can't have enough workshops. Almost all of ours filled
up in the end. 

We had workshops on Monday morning and all of Friday. Opening plenary
Monday afternoon followed by drinks evening. Then we had all Tues, Weds
and Thurs for programme, with closing plenary and OSGeo AGM in the last
session after tea on Thurs. This sort of format I think will give you
the space to lengthen rather than broaden your programme as Paul pointed
out. 

Put field trips parallel to workshops on Friday to maximise track time,
instead of on Thursday. Then there are also more things to do on the
Friday before the weekend ski packages or codesprint/unconference. We
managed to fill both workshops and field trips on the Friday. 

BUDGET

- Do you have the 2009 + 2010 lists of sponsors to approach? You mention
2006-2008 sponsors only. 

- Making gala dinner tickets separate cost items brings down the
registration cost. The majority of attendees will likely still buy
separate gala dinner tickets, as I believe was demonstrated by at least
2007 and 2008 numbers. 

- definitely increase price of workshop component. Your income mix is
radically different from 2008:

Income breakdown for 2008 (2011 at 950,600):
Registration  65% (80%,72%)
 -attributable to workshops: 18% (5%,5%)
 -attributable to normal programme: 47% (75%,67%)
Exhibitors 13% (9%,12%)
Sponsors 22% (11%,16%)

(This analysis could be applied to the other years and scenarios and put
on Cameron's Google spreadsheet perhaps). 

I would advise that you increase your sponsorship and workshop targets
as proportions of the total target. Then you will have a lower
registration breakeven threshold and you can focus on maximising
registrations beyond that. 

It would be helpful to have your budget accessible online, say in a
google spreadsheet, and merged into one so the 600, 950 and other
scenarios can be compared and varied more easily. And then actuals, as
they start coming in, can be reflected in the same spreadsheet for the
LOC and OSGeo conference committee to monitor against budget. That would
also mean that by the time the finances are wrapped up, most of the
report's already done.

Paul's given more atomic comments on the budget but I agree with hi in
general - it does need more detail, breakdowns and descriptions/notes. 


Gavin
 

On Fri, 2010-05-21 at 16:45 -0600, Eric Wolf wrote:

> Conference Committee members:
> 
> 
> 
> On behalf of the Denver Local Organizing Committee, I am pleased to
> submit the full proposal to host FOSS4G 2011 in Denver. I will email
> the sample budgets directly to Jeff McKenna.
> 
> 
> I look forward to your questions and anticipate your decision. I hope
> you'll find that Denver is a great place to make FOSS4G a success in
> 2011.
> 
> 
> On behalf of the Denver LOC
> 
> 
> -Eric Wolf
> 
> 
> -=--=---=----=----=---=--=-=--=---=----=---=--=-=-
> Eric B. Wolf                    New! 720-334-7734
> USGS Geographer
> Center of Excellence in GIScience
> PhD Student 
> CU-Boulder - Geography
> 
> GPG Public Key: http://www.h4h.net/ebwolf.public.key.txt
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Conference_dev mailing list
> Conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev




-- 
Gavin Fleming
t: 0218620670
c: 0845965680
f: 0866164820
Paarl
South Africa
18°59'18.8"E 33°44'40.2"S
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