[OSGeo-Conf] Open open source, reduce registration fees.

Thu Feb 9 08:58:03 PST 2017

One option not mentioned yet is to cap the conference attendance to max 500 or so, then you can find conference facilities in universities (and possibly even also accommodation there), making it possible to have very "accessible" conference fees. 

 I am not saying I particularly favour this option, and there are many questions (eg. on how to cap -- first come first served?) but it is a possible way to bring costs down...

--
Barend Köbben

On 09/02/17 17:48, "Conference_dev on behalf of Steven Feldman" <conference_dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org on behalf of shfeldman at gmail.com> wrote:

    Venka

    You and others often suggest that a lower fee would attract more participation - that will mainly apply to people travelling from within the region as based on your own numbers for an out of region delegate a saving of $180 represents a 7.5% reduction
     (in region it is likely to be about 15%)

    We go round and round on this subject of delegate fees - we can decide to set the limit for an early bird for 2019 in Europe at $500 and then determine 
    1) whether any acceptable bids are forthcoming and 
    2) subsequently whether the lower registration fee results in higher attendance from those who had been unable to attend at £650.

    Personally I doubt that we will get bids for anything that we would recognise as a FOSS4G Global at $500 registration unless the organisers can get a massive boost in sponsorship in advance of submitting a bid (as Dar es Salaam did with the World
     Bank sponsorship). 

    The scope for an LOC to offer travel bursaries is likely to be reduced if they are working with smaller budgets due to lower delegate rates.

    The RfP for 2019 will start in September of this year, just after FOSS4G closes. I look forward to the discussion on pricing and ultimately the vote in the CC before we issue a revised RfP.
    ______
    Steven

    On 9 Feb 2017, at 14:29, Venkatesh Raghavan <venka.osgeo at gmail.com> wrote:

    My
     trip to FOSS4G-Bonn cost me 1500USD for air-tickets, 630USD
    (early
     bird Including gala dinner) for registration and 250USD
    (for
     7 nights) for sharing a nice little house with Gerald and
    Nick.

    All
     this was paid through my project budget. For example, had the
    early
     registration been 180USD cheaper (450USD @150USD/day), I
    could
     have sent three of my students to make FOSS4G related presentation at local conferences.

    So
     I do not understand the logic that high registration
    fee
     is only a "small" fraction of the cost involved for
    participants.
     Also, lower registration fee may attract
    more
     participation and we may end-up generating same
    amount
     as surplus and also have more new faces attending
    the
     event. We do not know if that happen since we have not
    tried
     lowering the conference prices recently.

    Best

    Venka

    On
     2/7/2017 4:49 PM, Till Adams wrote:

    +1 - Paul hits 100% my opinion.

    Am 06.02.2017 um 18:15 schrieb Paul Ramsey:
    Regular reminder:
    No doubt a $100 drop on registration would be determinative for a few,
    but it will not do much to change the equation for even a backpacking
    overseas traveller, who will pay (from Vancouver) $1000 to get there
    and $600+ in accommodation and meals, depending on how long they stay
    (doing workshops? doing code sprint?)
    Using second-city sites (Victoria instead of Vancouver, Lausanne
    instead of Geneva) can shave registration dollars at the margins, but
    they'll get eaten up instead in travel costs.
    Local regional conferences (Foss4g.nl <http://Foss4g.nl>) should probably aim to go low
    and hyper-accessible, since they draw from a population that can
    economize on all aspects of the conference experience (stay at home,
    get up at 4am and walk to the venue from Haarlem, bring a bag lunch).
    Foss4g international is... international, there's going to be a
    minimum spend to get there and do it, no matter how few coffees are
    served, how spare the venue, or how much volunteers are used and abused.
    P.

    On Mon, Feb 6, 2017 at 7:54 AM, Steven Feldman <shfeldman at gmail.com
    <mailto:shfeldman at gmail.com>> wrote:

       Reposting this from the board list as it may interest the CC.

       The current target in RfP is $650 including social activities but
       excluding workshops. The costs of travel and accommodation have
       equalled or, for out of region delegates, exceed the registration
       costs.

       To my knowledge no proposal has been received for the last 5 years
       that was able to support 800+ delegates at ca $500

       2019 will be a ‘European’ year, I am sure that the CC would
       welcome a $500 proposal from the Netherlands community

       ______
       Steven

       Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2017 09:38:47 +0000
       From: <l.g.j.boerboom at utwente.nl <mailto:l.g.j.boerboom at utwente.nl>>
       To: <board at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:board at lists.osgeo.org>>
       Subject: [Board] Open open source, reduce registration fees.
       Message-ID:
       <62bfc24ab8c3406490757d8c14802bbe at EXMBX32.ad.utwente.nl
       <mailto:62bfc24ab8c3406490757d8c14802bbe at EXMBX32.ad.utwente.nl>>
       Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

       Dear board,

       Where is the cap on registration fees for FOSS4G? You have closed
       open source to me with these steep registration fees. You have to
       change this. A few years ago I could hardly convince my
       departmental management to pay for registration. Now it is
       impossible! Please open up the conference again. Open open source!
       Those who cannot organize a conference below $500 should not be
       allowed to organize. Scale down. No fancy stuff. Back to the
       basics! Back to the core!

       With kind regards,

       Luc Boerboom

       Dr. Ir. Luc Boerboom
       Assist. Prof Spatial Planning and Decision Support Systems and
       Infrastructures
       Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-information
       Management
       Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation
       (ITC), http://www.itc.nl/
       University of Twente, http://www.utwente.nl/

       E: l.g.j.boerboom at utwente.nl
       <mailto:l.g.j.boerboom at utwente.nl><mailto:l.g.j.boerboom at utwente.nl <mailto:l.g.j.boerboom at utwente.nl>>
       T: +31 (0)53 487 42 47 or +31 (0)53 487 44 44
       Postal address
       PO Box 217
       7500 AE  Enschede
       The Netherlands

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