[OSGeo-Conf] OSGeo branding at FOSS4G

Cameron Shorter cameron.shorter at gmail.com
Sat Jul 6 15:45:13 PDT 2013 

David,
You have highlighted that there are multiple contributing factors 
required to ensure an action is successfully completed, and it appears 
in the FOSS4G-NA case, the LOC were not sufficiently supported.

What is required:

1. An expectation needs to be set. This often hasn't been clear in the 
past, and I'm hoping that our collective ideas will consolidate and be 
captured in the FOSS4G Cookbook. (Peter Batty, David and others, I 
invite you to add your ideas as <draft> sections into the cookbook as 
you think of them. We can get group review later.)

2. Marketing material needs to be available. We are in pretty good shape 
in this regard, with an OSGeo Exhibition Pack, and the OSGeo-Live material.

3. Volunteers at conferences: We can usually source volunteers to man a 
booth by asking, and tapping into our OSGeo Advocates page, or other 
OSGeo members.

4. Funding. This can either be sourced from an expectations from 
conferences to cover expenses, or from OSGeo Board funds. The OSGeo 
Board has allocated $10K to the marketing committee, but there is 
insufficient volunteer time available to allocate these funds. (Lack of 
process and active volunteers in the OSGeo Marketing committee is 
probably our weakest link at the moment).


On 07/07/13 07:29, David William Bitner wrote:
> I feel that I need to respond to this on list as I did when this was 
> brought up at the OSGeo Board meeting. While I whole-heartedly agree 
> with both having a strong OSGeo presence as well as having a strong 
> presence of the Live Distro, I think that this discussion is really 
> putting the onus in the wrong place. Local Organizing Committees 
> already have a lot on their plate and need to keep their focus on 
> providing a great program and a great venue for their event.
>
> In the case of the FOSS4G-NA event -- we did not include any money in 
> our budget (that went through the Board and Conference Committee for 
> review) for the creation of Live DVDs or USB sticks (I will reserve 
> comment on my opinion on the waste of resources in the creation and 
> default giving out of things like this to *all* attendees). By the 
> time it was brought up, we had set our budget and our pricing at which 
> time I was unwilling to add any outside-of-budget costs. Bob Basques 
> had brought a request to the OSGeo marketing committee to provide 
> funds to print a run of these and as far as I know was denied.
>
> Further with regards to an OSGeo booth. There was never any request or 
> anyone volunteering to staff a booth and arrange for display 
> materials. We had plenty of space available and would have been 
> excited to have had a stronger OSGeo presence and would have done 
> everything in my power to make that happen. Again, I think the 
> critical thing missing here was movement from "central" OSGeo to help 
> make this happen.
>
> If we want things like this to be consistent across different events 
> (FOSS4G or even presence at non-OSGeo/FOSS4G events) we really need a 
> budget and centralized effort from OSGeo to help make sure it happens. 
> LOCs have more than enough on their plates to deal with without adding 
> more items like these. If we need these events to have higher OSGeo 
> profit targets to make this happen, then we should include that in the 
> cookbook (along with OSGeo Marketing/Board or whatever contacts that 
> LOCs should coordinate with to make these connections happen).
>
> FOSS4G-NA has received very mixed messages from the inception by the 
> DC group with regards to expectations and even how much the Board and 
> Conference Committees want to have to do with them (direction to the 
> DC group was "go, do -- OSGeo will give advice and support but this is 
> a regional event put on by the local community"). Regional events 
> really need much clearer direction if there are any expectations that 
> folks are going to have of them.
>
> Simply put -- if there are expectations of these regional conferences 
> -- they need to be made crystal clear. Furthermore, with regards to 
> OSGeo branding and presence at these conferences, there better be 
> significant support from OSGeo Marketing to help make that happen. I 
> strongly feel this should not be the responsibility of the LOCs if we 
> have any chance of providing a consistent message.
>
> David (FOSS4G-NA 2013 Chair)
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jul 5, 2013 at 10:06 PM, Cameron Shorter 
> <cameron.shorter at gmail.com <mailto:cameron.shorter at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Portland and Washington teams,
>
>     A concern was raised at the June OSGeo Board meeting [1] about the
>     lack of OSGeo branding at the FOSS4G-NA event, especially in
>     comparison with other brands visible at the event. (I think there
>     was a public email thread discussing this, but I can't find it).
>
>     I have also heard a few private concerns (in relation to
>     OSGeo-Live not being visible at FOSS4G-NA, while it plays a
>     prominent role in FOSS4G events in other parts of the world).
>
>     To address these concerns, I invite both Portland and Washington
>     teams to make a brief statement about OSGeo branding at FOSS4G
>     2014.  Eg: Will there be an OSGeo booth? Do you expect that the
>     OSGeo-Live USB (or DVD) will be handed out to all delegates as has
>     been done at prior events?
>
>     [1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2013-06-13
>
>     -- 
>     Cameron Shorter
>     Geospatial Solutions Manager
>     Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050 <tel:%2B61%20%280%292%208570%205050>
>     Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254 <tel:%2B61%20%280%29419%20142%20254>
>
>     Think Globally, Fix Locally
>     Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
>     http://www.lisasoft.com
>
>     _______________________________________________
>     Conference_dev mailing list
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>
>
>
>
> -- 
> ************************************
> David William Bitner
> dbSpatial LLC
> 612-424-9932


-- 
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

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