[OSGeo-Discuss] [location-iwg] 2015 North American conference

[Alex Mandel]

Yes and no. I was at the DC Fossg4NA. Location did matter for the set of
attendees there, but choice of location also prevents attendance. If the
goal is penetration into the Federal market, DC is important. If the
goal is to foster Foss4g around North America then it needs to move
around so that people in small non-profits, state agencies, tech
start-ups can also make it. Also it's not just travel restrictions but
price - DC isn't the cheapest place to fly or stay depending on dates.

Basically, there are some states with plenty of Federal employees
(regional staff) and plenty of State employees who also face travel
restrictions. There's almost 0% chance a state employee from California
can get to DC for a conference. Not sure what the situation for New
York,Texas, Colorado, Oregon, Washington are either. That's a huge chunk
of potential missing. That doesn't even cover Canada or Mexico, which I
can't really speak for at all.

Thanks,
Alex


On 04/04/2014 02:31 PM, Jody Garnett wrote:
> The travel restrictions offer quite a strong direction don't they? Do we
> have anyone who can speak about the previous FOSS4G-NA event?
> --
> Jody
> 
> Jody Garnett
> 
> 
> On Sat, Apr 5, 2014 at 8:02 AM, Andrew Ross <andrew.ross at eclipse.org> wrote:
> 
>>  Hello Everyone,
>>
>> Please excuse the cross post between OSGeo's discuss & conference_dev
>> lists as well as LocationTech's discussion list. I'm hoping to enable
>> inclusive discussion about an idea.
>>
>> Bit of background, this coming May (19-21), LocationTech Summit is
>> co-hosted with Location Intelligence in Washington D.C.<http://www.locationintelligence.net/>.
>> Travel restrictions for Federal Government employees for instance meant
>> holding this in D.C. was important in 2014.
>>
>> We have started planning for 2015, and I wanted to reach out and see if an
>> idea might be of interest to the greater community.
>>
>> The idea is to co-host LocationTech Summit, FOSS4G North America, and
>> EclipseCon next year in the spring.
>>
>> For those that haven't been:
>>
>>    - EclipseCon is a great  developer conference & covers topics that I
>>    feel may be a really nice complement such as Science, Internet of Things,
>>    Automotive, Software development best practice, and more. While there are
>>    some awesome talks in the area, it's not just about the IDE. :-)
>>    - FOSS4G NA is the regional sibling of FOSS4G Global, also a great
>>    developer conference, and focused on geospatial technologies. It is a must
>>    attend event if you're into web mapping or looking for open source GIS
>>    solutions.
>>    - LocationTech Summit is new (first one this May), similar to FOSS4G
>>    however perhaps has a stronger focus on high performance geoprocessing
>>    technologies and new technologies like GeoGit for instance.
>>     - My feeble attempt at contrast aside, I think these last two will
>>    see a lot of the same speakers & audience.
>>
>> A few thoughts:
>>
>>    - We believe a combined event could likely be done to prioritize
>>    camaraderie which is so important for open source projects & community.
>>    i.e. avoid anyone feeling lost in a huge event.
>>    - We feel the mutual outreach to people across communities would be
>>    really useful, interesting, and spark wonderful ideas we can't predict.
>>    - The logistical work can be done by full time conference organizers
>>    who organize EclipseCon each year. The program is up to the communities to
>>    set.
>>    - For those seeking suppliers, partners, & customers, this should make
>>    for more opportunities.
>>     - Profit sharing with significant participating groups is doable.
>>    We're glad to help figure out a fair and amicable solution.
>>     - Ensuring each group are well served is a priority of course. We
>>    think this combined event might attract people who might not otherwise come
>>    to any of them. But we'll have to try and see.
>>
>> Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Is this a good idea? Interested?
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> Andrew
>>