[OSGeo-Conf] [RfP FOSS4G2019] My questions to the Bucarest Team

[Vasile Craciunescu]

Dear Till,

Thank you for your questions!
Please find the answers inline.

- Can you please give some hints on dates when the conference will take 
place and also on the weather-conditions at that time?

Due to various considerations, we have 2 time intervals in mind:

(1) end of August for the wonderful National Theater of Bucharest “I.L. 
Caragiale”.

(2) mid-September for the House of Parliament / Conference Center Romexpo.

The final decision will also take into consideration major events that 
take place in Bucharest in that timeframe, such as the biggest classical 
music festival and classical international competition of Eastern 
Europe, the George Enescu Festival.
Weather wise, Romania has a temperate continental climate, with warm 
late summers, thus FOSS4G participants should expect around 25 - 28C 
with occasional summer showers, perfect for terrace talks.

- Do you have plans to involve other neighbouring countries and/or their 
local chapters (if there any?)

Definitely, yes. We have good connections developed through various 
collaborations over the years with neighbouring countries, such as: 
Hungary (you probably already know Zoltan Siki), rep. Of Moldova, 
Serbia, Ukraine. Furthermore, we emphasize on the great opportunity to 
build and strengthen the community is this part of the world by offering 
the honour of hosting a global FOSS4G to Bucharest, a close city with 
affordable prices.

- Do you expect, that you can attract your supporting organisations also 
to sponsor the event?

We are confident that all supporting organizations will sponsor FOSS4G 
2019 Bucharest,  at least in kind (people, rooms, printing, drivers etc. 
etc.). We are a very active OSGeo Local Chapter and have been for over 
10 years now. Numerous professional connections were established through 
geo-spatial.org seminars, meetings and mailing list discussions. Seniors 
professionals today grew with the community and found new colleagues 
among community members. These members are today spread through various 
institutions, academia and companies that understand the importance and 
visibility of such an event.

- There was a big discussion about how we can open the conference for as 
many attendees as possible.  Of course, this also is a function of the 
whole package price (travel, accommodation, conference fee). Could you 
please line out, what your plans are in order to make a travel to FOSS4G 
2019 possible for as many people (especially students,  people from 
3rd-world countries) as possible?

We are very well aware of this situation, if not for anything else, but 
for the fact that, generally, FOSS4G is an expensive conference for the 
average Romanian / Bucharest SME/ Romanian public institution. Thus, we 
are keen in making FOSS4G 2019 as accessible as possible and for that we 
have a number of decisions made. We will offer a 50% discount for 
students and low-income economies (according to the World Bank ranking 
https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519 ) in 
the limit of 100. The criterion will be first come first served basis. 
We will continue the Travel Grant program that we consider very valuable 
for the OSGeo community. The selection criteria will most probably 
follow the FOSS4G 2016 one.

Please, also keep in mind that Romania has a low index of cost of living 
(take a look here! 
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/gmaps.jsp?indexToShow=getCpiIndex). 
Hence, the conference costs with venue, catering etc. will follow that 
line.  Furthermore, the additional expenses for FOSS4G participants will 
be considerable acceptable: 1 beer = 1.6-2 EUR, 1 cocktail = 3-5 EUR, 1 
bottle of good wine = 15-20 EUR; decent meal = 8-12 EUR, all considered 
downtown Bucharest. Taxi services are also quite cheap: around 0.30 
EUR/km. Of course, Uber and Taxify are quite popular in the Romanian 
capital.
Another considerable aspect closely related to participants’ additional 
expenses is the flight price. Bucharest is an important flight hub, 
where among national flight companies, numerous low cost companies  also 
operate (Blue Air, Wizz Air, Ryanair, etc).

We hope these answers clarify our LOI, but if not, we are happily 
available for further inquires.

Best regards,
Vasile, in the name of BLOC (yes, BLOC again :)


On 10/5/17 10:26 AM, Till Adams wrote:
> Dear Bucarest-LOC (BLOC again?)
> 
> After reading carefully your great LoI, I'd like to ask the following
> questons:
> 
> - Can you please give some hints on dates when the conference will take
> place and also on the weather-conditions at that time?
> 
> - Do you have plans to involve other neighboured countries and/or their
> local chapters (if there any?)
> 
> - Do you expect, that you can attract your supporting organisations also
> to sponsor the event?
> 
> - There was a big discussion about how we can open the conference for as
> many attendees as possible.
>   Of course, this also is a function of the whole package price (travel,
> accommodation, conference fee).
>   Could you please line out, what your plans are in order to make a
> travel to FOSS4G 2019 possible for as
>   many people (especially students,  people from 3rd-world countries) as
> possible?
> 
> FYI: I also put the questions in the WIKI [1]. You might direct edit
> there and inform the list via email.
> 
> Till
> 
> 
> [1] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G2019_Q%26A_Bucarest
> 
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