[OSGeo-Conf] [Board] FOSS4G Discount for Charter Members proposal [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

[Bruce Bannerman]

I'm concerned as to the direction that this thread is going. I've avoided comment until now.

As to FOSS4G:

I've read a number of arguments that pre-suppose that only Europe and North America can run successful FOSS4G Conferences.

- for those of us in other parts of the world who have run successful FOSS4G events, e.g. Australia and South Africa, this argument is insulting and divisive. 

- I also have every reason to believe that the upcoming Korean event will also be a success, given the passion that I'm seeing from the LOC.


As to a single Professional Conference Organiser (PCO) for all FOSS4G:

- this is counter productive. From my experiences with FOSS4G-2009, we needed a local PCO who knew what buttons to push to get 'things' done quickly and efficiently, often at short notice. I can't see a foreign PCO being able to do that effectively.

- to any reputable PCO, FOSS4G is just another conference. This is their bread and butter work. They should be able to do it effectively.

- a PCO is required as it frees up the LOC to concentrate on planning a good event. However with the number of competing local FOSS4G branded events, I can see that organising a good international event is just getting much, much harder. 


As to LocationTech:

- I have not had much to do with this group before, apart from the confusion over the OGC CITE 'project'.

- the way that it is trying to bulldoze itself into taking over the successful FOSS4G conference 'brand' does not impress me.


Bruce





________________________________________
From: conference_dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [conference_dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Paul Ramsey [pramsey at cleverelephant.ca]
Sent: Saturday, 6 September 2014 3:27 AM
To: David Percy
Cc: conference
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Conf] [Board] FOSS4G Discount for Charter Members   proposal

The problem I see with the "one PCO" idea is that the PCO's that we
enjoy working with and who can "get" us (as I also felt my 2007 PCO
did) tend to be small and scrappy, like us. So they can't necessarily
effectively globe-trot (though being ambitious they will often assert
that sure, they really could!). For FOSS4G-NA it would make a lot of
sense to just settle on a single PCO for a longer commitment.

P

On Fri, Sep 5, 2014 at 9:28 AM, David Percy <percyd at pdx.edu> wrote:
> When we chose VTM Group as our PCO for the PDX event next week one of
> my compelling reasons for voting for them is that they do
> international conferences and their clientele is similar to OSGeo [1].
>
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