[OSGeo-Conf] Costs in Letter of Intent

Wed Mar 28 15:31:35 EDT 2012

After saying I think Peter's suggestion is good, I'm going to run off 
topic a bit.
In planning foss4g conferences, one of the hard things to do is find 
time to fit everything in to the schedule.

One thing that I think that I think would benefit from more air time are 
the birds-of-a-feather sessions, as many people want to go to many of 
the bof sessions, but having them all at the same time makes it hard.

As such, I suggest encouraging people to set up BOF sessions over 
breakfast. I personally set up a number of very successful bof sessions 
at foss4g 2009, many of which were over breakfast.

On 29/03/2012 4:02 AM, Seven (aka Arnulf) wrote:
> 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
>>>
>>>      --
>>>      ***Jo Cook*
>>>      Astun Technology Ltd, The Coach House, 17 West Street, Epsom,
>>>      Surrey, KT18 7RL, UK
>>>      t:+44 750 095 8167<tel:%2B44%20750%20095%208167>
>>>      iShare - Data integration and publishing platform
>>>      <http://www.isharemaps.com/>
>>>      See the new Helpdesk and Customer portal
>>>      <http://support.astuntechnology.com/home>
>>>      *****************************************
>>>      Over 35% of the 4 star council websites use iShare - SOCITM Better
>>>      Connected 2010
>>>
>>>      See our customer commendations and awards
>>>      <http://astuntechnology.com/customers/awards-and-commendations/>
>>>
>>>      Company registration no. 5410695. Registered in England and Wales.
>>>      Registered office: 120 Manor Green Road, Epsom, Surrey, KT19 8LN
>>>      VAT no. 864201149.
>>>
>>>      _______________________________________________
>>>      Conference_dev mailing list
>>>      Conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:Conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org>
>>>      http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev
>>      _______________________________________________
>>      Conference_dev mailing list
>>      Conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:Conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org>
>>      http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Conference_dev mailing list
>> Conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev
>

-- 
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