[OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G 2017 - Questions for LoI cities

[Michael Terner]

Steve:
Thanks for the good and important question on "affordability" and "cost
control" that you posted on Friday. At this juncture, it would be very
difficult to provide an "all in" cost for attending the show; that level of
planning comes with the "proposal", should we have the opportunity to
present one. That said, we 100% agree that affordability is an important
driver and we want the largest and most diverse attendee pool possible. We
are working very hard on this issue and are prepared to be focused and
creative to keep costs down for the attendees.

While Boston cannot be considered a "lowest cost" city, we believe that an
attractive and popular city like Boston affords many benefits that will
help us keep costs down and make the conference a good value for everyone:

   - As registration is a key piece of the "all in" cost, our overall goal
   will be to have conference registration costs be no higher, and if possible
   less than the previous global FOSS4G events.
   - We believe that Boston will be a very strong draw and that will result
   in very strong attendance. Strong attendance provides the economies of
   scale that can help keep costs down. We will be aiming to have an
   attendance that well exceeds 1,000.
   - We believe that the Boston area with our deep technology economy will
   be able to attract a very strong lineup of sponsors and that heightened
   sponsorship will also help to defray participant costs. We expect to be
   extremely vigorous and creative in our sponsorship recruitment.
   - The strong participation of the local academic community - several of
   whom are already represented on our LOC - will provide unique, cost
   saving venue opportunities that will help provide the workshops at a
   minimum cost.
   - The Greater Boston area maintains a diversity of hotel, dining and
   entertainment options and our downtown airport and public transportation
   system makes traveling across the region easy and affordable.
   - In addition to hotels, the region supports many alternative lodging
   options like hostels and Airbnb.

Ultimately, Boston has a very large student population and there are many
options aimed at that "limited budget" demographic. In short, we believe
there will be great choices for people at all budget levels.

MT

PS: Many thanks for all the committee member's efforts in this processes
and special thanks to Jeff and Steve for their insight, suggestions and
good questions.

----

On Fri, Aug 14, 2015 at 7:11 AM, Steven Feldman <shfeldman at gmail.com> wrote:

> A question for all 3 cities:
>
> I am worried about the cost for a delegate to attend including hotels,
> food, workshops and conference fee. We know from past experiences that this
> can be an issue for people who are not sponsored by large organisations. We
> want to make FOSS4G accessible to as many people as possible and a few
> bursaries aren’t sufficient.
>
> Can you provide some estimates of all in cost for a delegate on a budget.
>
> OSGeo Board needs to give a clear steer on ‘surplus objectives’ to the
> bidding teams before they finalise their budgets in the next round
>
> To Ottawa:
>
> I agree with Jeff re co-chairs, for 2013 we had a single chair and 2 very
> strong vice-chairs who took on large portfolios of responsibility.
>
>
> ______
> Steven
>
>
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-- 
*Michael Terner*
*Executive Vice President*
617-447-2468 Direct | 617-447-2400 Main
Applied Geographics, Inc.
24 School Street, Suite 500
Boston, MA 02108
www.AppGeo.com

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