[FOSS4G-Oceania] CFW & registration timing - workshops

[John Bryant]

Just having a discussion off-list with Daniel and Alex, and we were
pondering the timing of workshop selections & registration. Currently we
have it so the selection of workshops coincides with the selection of the
general stream presentations, to be finalised around the 21st of September.

One problem with this, though: it's quite late for prospective participants
to register, being <2 months away from the conference date. For some, the
workshops may be what makes or breaks their decision to attend, and it
feels like it could be unnecessarily late to present them with this
decision. Also, it feels like we may be stacking up a lot of work for
ourselves into the final stretch of the organising period, with a number of
important processes playing out at the same time.

A proposal: we adjust some of the dates by doing the following:
- remove the workshops from the community voting process, scheduled for
1-15 Sept
- change the close of the call for workshops from 31 Aug to 31 July
- select the workshops by 10 Aug
- confirm with the presenters, and finalise workshop program by 17 Aug
- open workshop registration on 17 Aug

Currently our early bird registration is scheduled to end on 27 August, so
by moving these dates as proposed, we would be able to have workshop regos
bundled with conference regos by that time. This would have the added
benefit of allowing attendees to register for the conference & workshops at
the same time; convenient for them and probably better workshop sales for
us.

The only downsides I see: 1) no community vote on workshops and 2) the
schedule of dates becomes slightly more complex, requiring a little more
diligence in communicating it to our attendees.

The proposed dates above are provisional, but the motion on the table here
is that we adopt these changes in principle. I'd be especially keen to hear
from Trisha (as workshops lead) about how this affects her plans.

Cheers
John
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