[OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G Discount for Charter Members proposal

Wed Aug 13 23:11:48 PDT 2014

Hi,

the idea sounds agoood to me. I would support it.

Jachym

2014-08-14 5:10 GMT+02:00 Darrell Fuhriman <darrell at garnix.org>:
> I'm trying to formulate a response to this, but it ties into an e-mail that
> I owe this list, but haven't had time to send because I've been busy
> finalizing the conference preparations.  Also, I'm well into my third pint
> this evening, so it's probably not the best time. :)
>
> While I agree the early bird discount is important for the reasons you
> state, there actually aren't that many commitments that can be avoided after
> the deadline. Frankly, the only significant contracts unsigned by our early
> bird deadline of June 15th were the catering contracts. Though admittedly,
> that's a substantial portion of the budget - if we were on that red line,
> we'd be jettisoning coffee breaks like ballast in a sinking ship.
>
> I think right now the quickest thing I can say is that OSGeo has so far
> shown minimal interest in actually taking responsibility for FOSS4G. If
> OSGeo is going to increase the demands made on the committee, OSGeo needs to
> be stepping up and taking a more hands-on approach to conference
> organization.
>
> For the record, I believe OSGeo needs to step up and take such a more hands
> on approach. I'd love a chance to talk about in person at the board meeting.
>
> SotM.us runs very different, and I know from talking with the organizers
> that it was a challenge to break-even this year. The difficulty is that as
> conferences get bigger, they get more expensive to put on (primarily because
> the supply of possible venues shrinks very rapidly, and the per attendee
> costs go up substantially). They also get logistically more challenging, and
> having dedicated resources, either employee or outsourced, can vastly
> decrease the workload on the LOC. Frankly, unless something changes on this
> front, it's just a matter of time until there's another 2012.  To be honest,
> I'm not sure SotM.us would have been a success if Mapbox hadn't devoted
> significant employee resources to making sure it was (as they have for the
> past three SotM.us conferences). Conferences take huge numbers of hours to
> organize. The inefficiency introduced by having someone re-learn the job
> every year is substantial, wasteful, and incredibly risky.
>
> Anyway, I'm supposed to be on vacation.
>
> Greetings from Yellowstone,
>
> Darrell
>
>
> On Aug 13, 2014, at 13:41, Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> I'm open to the idea of providing benefits to osgeo charter members, but
> suggest having an early bird discount apply to all ticket categories. I'd
> suggest something like a 5% discount for charter member tickets instead.
>
> Note: conferences organisors need to decide whether they will also give such
> a discount to professional bodies as well (such as professional institute of
> surveyors). Such organisations often aggressively request a discount for
> their members in return for publicising foss4g to their membership.
>
> There is a very important reason conferences have a early bird discount. It
> means that conference organisors get an early indication of the number of
> attendees coming to the conference. This helps significantly with regards to
> making financial decisions about the conference. In particular, it enables
> organisors to decide to cancel the conference before having to lock into key
> financial commitments and potentially sending OSGeo bankrupt. This was very
> important for us in FOSS4G 2009, the year of the global financial crisis,
> when registrations were much lower than expected. At the early bird
> deadline, we were aware that we had enough people  attending that we would
> loose less money by going ahead than if we cancelled, so we went ahead.
> Without that confidence, we likely would have decided to cancel the
> conference. (In the end more people did register, and we were just able to
> make a modest profit.)
>
> On 14/08/2014 4:56 am, Kate Chapman wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> I think the comparison between the SotM model and the FOSS4G model is
> interesting, but it is important to think about the financial objectives of
> each conference. My understanding was that FOSS4G provides most of the
> funding for OSGEO over the year, this isn't the case for SotM. Though
> successful sponsorship programs could possibly make up the difference
> between the discounted tickets.
>
> One note, I've worked for a few organizations that have paid my ticket for
> SotM. I've also paid the mapper price myself previously as well. I would
> have not been able to get them to pay for FOSS4G though. Some of you may
> have noticed I have given a workshop every year I've attended FOSS4G. I
> would not be able to attend otherwise. Not that it is conceivable for
> everyone to give a workshop to be able to attend.
>
> Best,
>
> -Kate
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 11:46 AM, Daniel Kastl <daniel at georepublic.de>
> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> SotM finances are based on the expectation that most people attending
>>> will be 'mappers' who pay the lower rate, I doubt they make much money from
>>> the business tickets.
>>>
>>
>> Hi Steven,
>>
>> I agree that SotM is a bit extreme in the price difference. It doesn't
>> need to be that much. But I can speak for SotM Tokyo, where I was involved,
>> and there were more business tickets sold than I expected and they made up a
>> large share of the total revenue through ticket sales.
>>
>> My main point is, that for delegates, who get paid the conference by their
>> employer, a slightly higher price doesn't really matter (it's just a
>> fraction of the total cost anyway), because they just pass the costs to the
>> employer. For the employer it has a value, if one can see the company name
>> on the badge.
>> But someone from nearby for example or tries to keep the travel costs low
>> and takes a holiday to attend FOSS4G, such a discounted community ticket
>> makes a difference, whether the person is a charter member or not.
>> I think we should strengthen the value of the community, not the "club" of
>> charter members. ;-)
>>
>> Daniel
>>
>> --
>> Georepublic UG & Georepublic Japan
>> eMail: daniel.kastl at georepublic.de
>> Web: http://georepublic.info
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev
>
>
>
>
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>
> --
> Cameron Shorter,
> Software and Data Solutions Manager
> LISAsoft
> Suite 112, Jones Bay Wharf,
> 26 - 32 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont NSW 2009
>
> P +61 2 9009 5000,  W www.lisasoft.com,  F +61 2 9009 5099
>
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-- 
Jachym Cepicky
e-mail: jachym.cepicky gmail com
URL: http://les-ejk.cz
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