[OSGeo-Conf] Exhibiting costs at FOSS4G

[till.adams at fossgis.de]

Dear Conference committee,

I suggested Jonathan to make this a topic in the CC. Before that, I 
clearly explained that we (FOSS4G 2016) can't change our terms,
because a lot of sponsors already accepted our terms and prices and 
that we can't make difference for companies depending on where they come 
from.

Just wanted to add, that also on former FOSS4G conferences you never 
had the chance to hire a booth without being a sponsor. The only thing 
we changed was, that
sponsorship and exhibition was decoupled. We did so because we didn't 
want to waste sparse room for exhibition for sponsors that don't man 
their booth anyway.

Perhaps the issue is more: "How could we enable also small companies to 
present themselves on a FOSS4G?"

For us, as said, looks like that it's too late for Jonathan, I only can 
hint on the demo-theatre we want to revive.

Regards, Till


Am 2016-04-14 13:35, schrieb Jonathan Moules:
> Hi List,
>  I was interested in potentially exhibiting at Bonn, but it seems 
> that
> this is only available to >= Bronze sponsors, maybe opening up to
> Supporter level in the future if spaces remain empty.
>
>  While Till was explained clearly why this was, this seems to me to 
> be
> somewhat exclusionary for smaller organisations given the sponsorship
> costs for Bronze level isn't cheap - it's 5-10% of the annual income
> of a one-man band. For an organisation that's not from a high-GDP
> country these sums would be even more prohibitive.
>
>  Till also pointed out this was still quite cheap and competative, 
> but
> it doesn't seem to be. Assuming I'm reading it right, compare this to
> GeoBusiness for instance
> 
> (http://geobusinessshow.com/wp-content/uploads/GEO16_ExhibitorBro.pdf)
> - £350/m2 (so about the same as the €500/m2 as Bonn) - but no
> sponsorship requirement *and* a potentially much larger audience
> (albeit not OpenSource focused) who themselves also get free
> attendance.
>
>  I'd like to suggest it may be worth considering how to facilitate
> exhibitions at FOSS4G from smaller organisations, and organisations
> from lower-GDP countries.
>
> Cheers,
> Jonathan