[OSGeo-Conf] Some hints for 2017-teams

[Jeff McKenna]

Hi Till, as you know these e-mails will be long lost and forgotten, so 
please add your hints and advice to your "Lessons Learned" page for 
2016: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2016_Lessons_Learned

-jeff



On 2015-10-30 3:18 PM, till.adams at fossgis.de wrote:
> Hi FOSS4G-2017-bidders!
>
> I am not part of the "official conference committee", but perhaps some
> up-to-date hints we, the 2016-team, just thought of might be helpful to
> you, also now in the question period. Read it or not ;-)
>
>
> 1.
> (If not done already) Make kind of a risk analysis, that lists the costs
> you have 6,3,2,1 month before the event - this shows clearly, which
> costs you have in the very unlikely case, you have to cancel. Comparing
> these costs with the number of already registered attendees will help
> you to sleep better ;-)
>
>
> 2.
> We've done a very, very conservative calculation and only calculated 40k
> sponsoring money. Of course, the more, the better, but doing that will
> give you a more robust view on what attendees must bring in return.
> Might be you should adapt your break even points or even have to rise
> your fees.
>
>
> 3.
> Also keep in mind, that offering special rates for students (and other
> groups) might cause problems for your general calculation!
>
>
> 4.
> Might be think of seperating exhibition and sponsorship - I've just seen
> some empty big booths from Gold Sponsors in Seoul... manned booth are
> much more attractive for all attendees and so in general for all
> exhibitors ;-)
>
>
> 5.
> @Philadelphia / @Ottawa: Arnulf just told me, that the 1500$ supporter
> package was especially created "as is", means with conference pass and
> is used by smaller companies - which are the ground deposit and so
> important for spreading the word! That's the reason, why we didn't touch
> it...
>
>
> 6.
> @Philadelphia / @Ottawa: About Early Birdies - I just talked to Sanghee,
> chair of the 2015 event. In Seoul 25% of all attendees registered few
> days before online registration closed or did it on-site! And that's why
> we thought about how we can attract Early Birders with more than just a
> smaller price. I like the early plans from Boston attracting Early
> Birdies especially!
>
>
> 7.
> @Ottawa: We plan a two day codesprint before and a two day cs after the
> conference (to be honest, we wanted to have 4 days before, but that did
> not work because of room avalability issues). There was a very, very
> positive feedback from various OSGeo-projects in doing so. So think of
> extending the Code Sprint Saturday somehow
> @Boston, I didn't see anything about Code Sprint in your proposal?
>
>
>
> So far, Till
>