[OSGeo-Conf] Costs in Letter of Intent

[Seven (aka Arnulf)]

On 03/28/2012 04:43 PM, Peter Batty wrote:
> Yes, that's what we did last year (based on precedent from previous
> years). Regular speakers paid the same as anyone else, we offered one
> free registration for workshop leaders and a half price registration for
> a second workshop presenter. Full details on discounts and comps at 
> 
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2011_Discounts
> 
> One other thing to think about in terms of cost is what you do for
> social events. Historically there has been a fairly fancy and relatively
> expensive conference dinner, which has been charged for separately from
> conference registration. 
> 
> In Denver we did a casual social on the opening night, at the Wynkoop
> Brewing Company, which was open to everyone who was registered. We paid
> for heavy appetizers and the first two drinks (people could buy their
> own after that). This event was the highest rated item out of everything
> in our post-conference survey at 4.53 out of 5.
> 
> We also did the traditional big gala event at the Denver Art Museum,
> which people had to pay extra for, and it was attended by 37% of the
> total attendees. This got a rating of 3.19 in the post conference survey.
> 
> If I was doing it again, I would lean strongly towards doing two more
> casual (lower cost) social events that were open to everybody. I think
> the social aspect of the conference is really important, and was
> something that overall we had good feedback on in Denver (where the
> venue was more centralized than in some previous events I think, which
> helped too). Obviously this means you might be looking at a slightly
> higher registration fee unless you can find somewhere else to cut costs,
> but hopefully not by too much.
> 
> I don't think you need this level of detail in your LOI, but just
> mention it as it is quite a big factor in the costs, so worth keeping in
> mind what your approach will be even at this early stage.
> 
> Cheers,
>     Peter.

I absolutely support Peter's suggestions to have two more informal
meetings open to all attendees (and friends or spouses) instead of one
big ballroom event at extra cost.

In my opinion it is also better to suggest a great new idea in the
letter of intent instead of slavishly sticking to the CfL. The hard
facts of the CfL have to be considered but FOSS4G also lives off the
LOC's ingenuity.

Cheers,
Arnulf

> On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 7:56 AM, Bart van den Eijnden <bartvde at osgis.nl
> <mailto:bartvde at osgis.nl>> wrote:
> 
>     Speakers don't attend for free normally, but workshop presenters do.
> 
>     Bart
> 
>     Sent from my iPhone
> 
>     On Mar 28, 2012, at 6:45 AM, Jo Cook <jocook at astuntechnology.com
>     <mailto:jocook at astuntechnology.com>> wrote:
> 
>>     Dear Conference Committee,
>>
>>     We're currently putting together our Letter of Intent for holding
>>     FOSS4G 2013 in the UK, and have some questions around costings. We
>>     can easily provide information on the range of prices
>>     for accommodation, but we can have a stab at rough overall costs
>>     for the event too. Is it traditional for speakers to attend for
>>     free? (I can't remember from previous events)
>>
>>     Thanks
>>
>>     Jo
>>
>>     -- 
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