[OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G 2018 Dar es Salaam Submission - Questions

[till.adams at fossgis.de]

Dear Dar-LOC!

I have some questions too. Some of my points were already covered by 
earlier questions. So I concentrate mainly on things we did (I am still 
under impact of the 2016 conference ;-))


1. I would encourage you to make kind of "financial risk analysis": 
This needs to play around with some numbers as number of participants, 
little more complicated for you, as you plan to have massively different 
fees. But also inherits the question: What do we have to pay, if we 
cancel (worst case scenario) the event 12, 6, 3, 1 month before? This is 
of course due to contracts you likely are going to sign in the future...


2. Sponsorship: I miss bronze and supporter sponsors - keep in mind, 
that we have a landscape of many SME's with a stress on the "S" - so 
many of our OSG-Companies may like to have a smaller sponsor package. 
The "supporter package" which was created for one/two-man companies, 
that allows them to "donate" smaller amount of money by paying a more 
expensive ticket (in Bonn this package was 1.500.- instead of 790.- reg. 
fee).
See our sponsorship page at 
http://2016.foss4g.org/sponsoring.html#sponsor-packages
This package was created because there was a need for this, so I would 
encourage you to offer this as well.

Just to make that point clear: From our ~100k of sponsorship, we 
created nearly 50% from bronze/supporter sponsors!


3. The PCO cost calculation looks quite high for me as well, but I do 
not know,. what they exactly will do for you. We calculated much more, 
than we used, because we did a lot of things on our own. No need to do 
this, but if the team wants to, do not restrict them. So perhaps you may 
aim on a kind of support contract with the PCO and the concrete payment 
is connected to the ToDo's they do for you. For us that worked quite 
well.


4. I am honest: Our B2B meeting happened more by coincidence, but the 
feedback was overwhelming and I guess especially for your region, a 
possibility to get people in possible contact with business partners is 
a good idea. See http://2016.foss4g.org/programme.html#b2b-meeting for 
details.
The fact, that this was a de-coupled event inherited some chances to 
this. Perhaps that's an opportunity for Dar as well.


5. Perhaps think about extending the code sprint - developers attend on 
a F4G anyhow, so why not creating the frame for them to work together? I 
guess in Dar s.th. like our basecamp could be open air ;-)
For codesprints you might also request for extra funding, that helps 
you to de-couple this from regular conference budget (we had FOSSGIS and 
OSGeo as Code Sprint sponsors).


6. I know, we in Bonn started the early scheduling and let the 
conference take place in August, but I know, that this caused problems 
for many potential attendees. Boston in 2017 is even earlier.
How fixed are your dates or would a later time period still be 
possible? If so, please consider this.


7. In my eyes social events are a vibrant part of a FOSS4G. We put a 
lot of effort in giving attendees the possibility to meet, also outside 
the official happenings such as Ice Breaker and Gala Evening. If 
possible, I'd encourage you to describe more briefly (and more than the 
short article on p.20) what you plan and also what is possible in Dar.


8. Same direction: In Bonn we coupled the Gala Evening with the 
attendance fee, that led to having nearly 700 people on the boat, which 
was a phantastic event and created a special spirit on the conference. 
How do you proceed here?


Hope that helps!

Till