[OSGeo-Conf] Final proposal for hosting FOSS4G 2015 in Seoul, Korea

[Cameron Shorter]

Hi Sanghee,
Thank you for your proposal, and I'm delighted to see Korea submitting a 
proposal for FOSS4G. There are a few areas that makes me feel positive 
about a response from Korea:

1. I have been impressed with you Sanghee personally, with regards to 
your commitment and initiative. Chairing a FOSS4G is a significant 
amount of work, and requires some hard decisions. You will need to be 
strong enough to say "NO" to a lot of people who will have valid reasons 
as to why they should have a discount or something for free.

2. Korea has run regional foss4g events before, and that will provide 
valuable experience and contacts.

However, having said that, I'm concerned about assumptions of attendee 
profile, which will have an impact on the budget.

In particular, In your organisor minds, I suggest that you should 
consider "FOSS4G Korea" to be a Regional Conference, which has the added 
prestige of holding the OSGeo board meeting, and attracts a handful of 
international attendees, rather than an International conference which 
attracts lots of local attendees.

We learned this lesson the hard way at FOSS4G - Sydney, where we 
discovered that less than half our attendees were international. In 
particular, the majority of attendees we expected to come from Europe 
didn't turn up. Anecdotally, we heard that Europeans were saving their 
money for FOSS4G Barcelona the following year. And that was before the 
successful FOSS4G-NA and FOSS4G-Europe to compete with.

Also, be very mindful of the lessons learned from FOSS4G Beijing [1], 
which was cancelled.

I suggest that your conservative break even version of the budget should 
assume that you will only get a few attendees from Europe / North 
America - maybe 30 to 50.  I'd assume that 80% to 90% of attendees come 
from Asia, and as such, you should make sure that these attendees can 
cover the costs of the conference.
I am very nervous of the "Half price for low income countries" clause, 
as I suspect that these half price tickets would constitute the majority 
of attendees. If you do indeed want to keep the price down, I suggest 
considering:
a. Cut costs (use a cheap venue such as a University)
b. Profile where you expect attendees to come from, and make sure the 
local Asian attendees (say 80%) will cover conference costs.
c. Make sure any half price clauses, if included, will result in a 
profit if 80% of attendees are paying half price.

Note also, there will be a perception from rich countries that they are 
paying to subsidize local attendees, as well as paying international air 
fairs, which will leave a bad taste, and may result in even less 
international attendance.

I'm not sure how many people an Asian conference would attract, but I 
wouldn't be surprised if it were 300 instead of 450. I'd suggest 
considering a revised budget which considers a very conservative number 
of attendees.

[1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2012_Lessons_Learned

On 29/04/2014 3:45 am, Sanghee Shin wrote:
> Dear FOSS4G Selection Committee,
>
> On behalf of LOC, it's my great honor and pleasure to submit this final proposal for hosting FOSS4G 2015 in Seoul, Korea.
>
> Please note that some major changes has been made including venue, dates and co-organizer from our first LOI.
>
> I attached final proposals and budget estimation here. However I'd like to give you an executive summary as follows:
>
> 1. Venue : Seoul COEX
> 2. Preferred Dates : 14th Sep to 19th Sep, 2015.
> 3. Regular registration fee : KRW 500,000(USD 455) including VAT
> 4. Will organize 'FOSS4G Asia Special Session'
> 5. Want to introduce 'Half for low-income countries scheme'. For details, see page 24 in the proposal. Need talks with OSGeo board.
>
> We are ready to answer to your questions about our proposal. Let's start the talks.
>
> Thanks and regards,
>
> Sanghee
> ---
> Shin, Sanghee
> Gaia3D, Inc. - Helping Earth Sustainable
> http://www.gaia3d.com
> Tel : +82-(0)2-3397-3475
> Fax : +82-(0)2-3397-3478
>
>
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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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