[OSGeo-Conf] More Questions to Bucharest & Sevilla LOC's

[María Arias de Reyna]

Dear Till,

After talking with the POC, they reassured me that the budget estimation
has been done with a generous estimation for costs, which they expect
should be lower in the end.

The economic situation should also be better in 2019 than it is right now,
therefore the goals should be even easier to get then. The POC estimated
also a low sponsorship for public administrations, who in Spain usually
spend more money in this kind of events (specially considering the
attention we have already received just by saying we intend to get the
conference in Sevilla). We also didn't do a full round on all the possible
companies that can sponsor, we just stopped when we saw the estimation had
enough income.

In the case of getting less than 900 attendees also the costs will be
reduced, so we will have less expenses only by lowering the catering and
presents. Same happens if we get less sponsors (we have to spend less in
their free tickets, for example).

About the workshops we will study if we can get a lower price below 100€,
which may be possible once we start signing contracts. We understand the
importance of having a low price, but at the same time, we wanted to make
sure we provide a realistic budget that will not cause economic problems
later. We will have time to lower the prices of workshops after we see some
of the final costs and before we start selling them.

Regards,
María.

On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 1:26 PM, Till Adams <till.adams at fossgis.de> wrote:

> Hi Maria,
>
> no problem, all is well ;-) -- I played a little on my own to asnwer my
> questions
>
> Till
>
>
>
> Am 13.12.2017 um 15:56 schrieb María Arias de Reyna:
>
> Dear Till,
>
> Playing with the spreadsheet you can see that if we get 25% less on
> sponsorship, we will still be over budget except on the 900 attendees case.
> On that case will have like 25 000€ less but we still have like 33 000€ in
> the unforeseen incidentals costs, so we will still be inside the expected
> budget.
>
> The problem is going further than that before the Q&A time finishes,
> looking for cheaper options or trying to accommodate other costs to be less
> expensive. There are expensive things like the streaming we can cut costs
> if needed. There are other things we can try to do with volunteers instead
> of a professional company (at least partly). But I am confident we have
> enough margin to either cut costs or invest more efforts in looking for
> sponsors if we run into economic problems.
>
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 13, 2017 at 3:30 PM, Till Adams <till.adams at fossgis.de> wrote:
>
>> Dear Maria,
>>
>> no worries, I know, that this may cause some work - maybe some things to
>> consider, if SLOC wins the competition...
>>
>> (although the calculation sheet delivered should help you to to this
>> within some minutes ;-))
>>
>> Till
>>
>> Am 13.12.2017 um 15:14 schrieb María Arias de Reyna:
>>
>> Dear Till,
>>
>> I passed the questions to the PCO, but I am not sure we will be able to
>> elaborate another budget in such a short notice. The current budget
>> already considers a margin of error in our favor and several costs that
>> are optional, but we understand your worries. We are aware of your
>> concern and, if chosen, we will work on it.
>>
>> On Wed, Dec 13, 2017 at 2:54 PM, Till Adams <till.adams at fossgis.de>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Maria,
>>>
>>> thanks for your quick answers. I added two comments on your answers into
>>> the WIKI. If possible, you might find some time to work on these as well.. ?
>>>
>>> Till
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Am 11.12.2017 um 19:57 schrieb María Arias de Reyna:
>>>
>>> Dear Till,
>>>
>>> We have been able to compile the answers sooner as expected. Thanks
>>> Paul, Steven and Till for the questions!
>>>
>>>
>>> You can find your answers on the wiki too:
>>>
>>>
>>>    - *General remark: although I like the idea to write a story around
>>>    the proposal, nevertheless, for me it seems unnecessary difficult to find
>>>    single events and approach the structure. This maybe the cause for some
>>>    questions, you already answered in your proposal...*
>>>
>>> The idea to relate the Magellan and Elcano voyage was done to transmit
>>> the importance that the landmark of the first circumnavigation can have to
>>> our tribes and the general feeling in Spain. We apologize for any
>>> inconvenience on the easy reading of the document. Please do not hesitate
>>> to ask everything you don’t see clearly expressed in our proposal.
>>>
>>>    - *the workshop fee of 110/160 seems slightly high (guess we had
>>>    80/100) or is it per day (w workshops)?*
>>>
>>> It’s per workshop, but in our calculation, we assume that everybody will
>>> pay 110€ (early bird) and we are offering additional 10% discount for
>>> people registering to two sessions. It is true the price is higher than in
>>> previous years, but we are providing a more complete service and a good
>>> percentage of free fees to compensate those who will be in disadvantage for
>>> this price change. Opposite to previous conferences, we are providing
>>> computers to all attendees and lunch, so the real final price will be
>>> cheaper for those who attend.
>>>
>>>    - *the total calculation seems a bit risky to me (e. g. 1200
>>>    participants, 40k surplus) - where are the levers that reduce your risk
>>>    except to increase the participation fees?*
>>>
>>> As we have stated in other questions, we have tried to be quite cautious
>>> with planning the expenses, and our intention is to negotiate those prices
>>> to put the costs down. We think we can make a bigger surplus for the same
>>> number of attendees. We think that it is safer to calculate on higher costs
>>> and lower profits at the beginning and then turn those numbers around.
>>>
>>> In fact, part of the risk is already calculated on the budget as an
>>> added percentage per cost. Profit that came from lowering the costs in the
>>> final price will be revenue for OSGeo.
>>>
>>>    - *Does Gala Dinner mean Gala Dinner or is it also somewhat
>>>    socializing (I think this is an important point. If x hundred people are
>>>    seperated by fixed seats on tables, socializing is difficult (I think the
>>>    Gala Dinner of the 2010 Barcelona event is an example for what I fear,
>>>    socializing took place in front of the door, not really inside)*
>>>
>>> We fully agree with your thoughts about the need of socializing.
>>> Intentionally the gala dinner is made in a format that allows exchange and
>>> networking (cocktail). Although there will be many high tables and stools
>>> or other type of chairs, (plus some contingency tables for people who need
>>> it), there will always be people who have to stand. That doesn’t mean that
>>> we’ll not enjoy very abundant and good quality food, nicely prepared as we
>>> can expect from a Gala Dinner. The space we have chosen it’s a perfect
>>> venue for this kind of dinner. The idea is to have a dynamic dinner, where
>>> people moves around the food and beverage while socializing.
>>>
>>> Please see also our previous answers regarding the dinner.
>>>
>>>    - *In Bonn we shaped the Code Sprint around the conference. The idea
>>>    was, to give the people the opportunity to work together, once they are in
>>>    place anyhow. Do you see a chance for s.th <http://s.th>. similar for 2019?*
>>>
>>> Having a CS during the whole week is not planned at this point, but we
>>> see no reason not to do it. If there are enough developers interested in a
>>> CodeSprint during the week, there is a building just in front of the venue
>>> we can use for having a CodeSprint during the week. We have negotiated the
>>> use of some of its rooms before for free for other events, as long as it is
>>> something that contributes to the community and has no fee entry (as it is
>>> the case). If the building is not available during the whole week, we can
>>> try to look for other similar spaces close to the venue (less than 30
>>> minutes walking) that we can use for free, as long as the CS is useful for
>>> the community and is free (which, again, is the case).
>>>
>>> We were preparing some of the smaller rooms as rest rooms so people can
>>> work with their laptops if they want during the conference. And if the
>>> weather is nice (which statistically is very probable), working on the
>>> tables under the trees is also a nice option for developers who want to
>>> work. So maybe there is no need for a specific room for the CS in a
>>> different building? If the Conference Committee or the developers think it
>>> is useful, we can arrange it. If for this extra space we want to add free
>>> food, beverages or something extra than internet, a few tables and chairs,
>>> then we will have to rearrange the budget to accomodate it (maybe some
>>> special sponsor for this?). But a basic space for working could be arranged
>>> easily for free, if there is a need for a specific space outside the venue,
>>> which at this point, we think it won't be necessary as there will be space
>>> on the same venue (although not explictly dedicated to the CS).
>>>
>>>    -
>>>       - *In chapt. 7.3. you write "We will try for students to engage
>>>       on the codesprint so that they can learn how a codesprint works and
>>>       interact with other developers [...]" - How will you do this, especially if
>>>       the CS is only one day (which at least is quite enough for the people in
>>>       the projects to say hello to each other)*
>>>
>>> Our base goal for students in the CodeSprint is just to make them see
>>> how a CS works. Even if they just sit there, see the interactions and learn
>>> how to report/test bugs, that will be a success from our perspective.
>>>
>>> Depending on how many volunteers to mentor those students we get (we
>>> will look for local mentors to let OSGeo developers free to do their
>>> tasks), we will be able to introduce those students to more complex tasks
>>> and even maybe make them interested enough to repeat the experience
>>> themselves later.
>>>
>>> Our “hidden” goal here is to make students aware of FOSS4G, show them
>>> how fun it is to collaborate and make them want to contribute later (or
>>> even move their career paths to FOSS4G!).
>>>
>>> Of course, the idea is to interrupt as less as possible the work of
>>> current developers during the CodeSprint.
>>>
>>>    - *Looking at your sponsor's list: I think it's kind of unfair only
>>>    to plan to mention the top level sponsors and let them present in the
>>>    plenum. My opinion: In the end the day is as follows: We are a community of
>>>    small to mid-sized companies, that are often willing to sponsor our events.
>>>    If we only give big visibility to the "big players", none of the companies,
>>>    that comes from our own community, that actualy support our projects will
>>>    be mentioned - in relation, 8k for Gold for a small company is much more
>>>    money, than 20k for google (e.g.). So my question is: Are you planning to
>>>    give also small/mid-sized companies, that sponsor the event, more visibilit*
>>>    y?
>>>
>>> This is something we can work further to make a very appealing
>>> sponsorship deal. We agree with your considerations about SME’s. We will,
>>> of course, give high visibility to all of our sponsors, each one according
>>> to the level of sponsorship, be it through the logo in all of the venues
>>> banners, electronic sites, through the programme, through our media
>>> associates, etc.
>>>
>>> It is true that diamond, platinum and gold will have presence on the
>>> plenary sessions, but we will allow silver and bronze to have presence in
>>> the side tracks. This means we will allocate some time for them to present
>>> their projects and goals.
>>>
>>> There will also be more visibility through the Business to Business
>>> tracks. We will reach sponsors first to check what their interests on B2B
>>> are to try to match and make the conference profitable for them. One of our
>>> ideas is to have coffee-bar like sessions on one of the smaller rooms (not
>>> one of the nine parallel track rooms), where our sponsors can have a
>>> relaxed meeting with some of their potential customers or partners or
>>> whatever focus group is interesting to them. The details of each session
>>> will be arranged with each sponsor. This is part of the "experimental
>>> gamification" we are trying to introduce in FOSS4G to help people interact
>>> with each other and make it more profitable for companies.
>>>
>>> We thank you for your comments and we’ll give it a second thought to
>>> make it attractive for all kind of sponsors.
>>>
>>> On Mon, Dec 11, 2017 at 4:11 PM, María Arias de Reyna <delawen at gmail.com
>>> > wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> We already started to answer the questions from Paul and Steven on the
>>>> wiki page. Your questions will have to wait until tomorrow.
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Dec 11, 2017 at 2:57 PM, Till Adams <till.adams at fossgis.de>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> > Hi BLOC & SLOC,
>>>> >
>>>> > I've added my questions also on the WIKI [1] [2] pages.
>>>> >
>>>> > Please ensure to have your answers ready at least on Friday, 15th of
>>>> > December! You might put them directly in place (which saves me a
>>>> couple
>>>> > of minutes in this fully packed week ;-))
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > Regards, Till
>>>> >
>>>> > [1]  https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G2019_Q%26A_Full_Proposal_B
>>>> ucharest
>>>> >
>>>> > [2] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G2019_Q%26A_Full_Proposal_S
>>>> evilla
>>>> >
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>
>
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