[FOSS4G-Oceania] Should Oceania pitch to host the international FOSS4G 2021?

[Cameron Shorter]

The international FOSS4G 2021 is due to be run in "the rest of the 
world" (not Europe or North America). [1]

If we decide to bid for it, I think that our Oceania community would 
have a good chance of attracting the conference. Note, running an 
international conference (of 400 to 600 people) will be minimal extra 
effort to running our regional conference (of 200 to 300 people).

Reasons:

* We have demonstrated that we have a very robust OSGeo community, by:

** Exceeding our FOSS4G Melbourne attendance expectations,

** Having a large and very engaged organising committee

** By playing a lead role internationally in a few conference areas, 
such as our approach to the travel grant program

* We have held a successful FOSS4G conference in Sydney in 2009, over a 
decade ago, reinforcing our ability to run a successful regional event, 
and also being long enough ago that it is time for our region to be 
considered again.

Timing:

Assuming there will be a similar timeframe to last year [2], key dates 
will be:

* Oct 2019: Submit 2 page letter of intent

* Nov 2019 : Submit full proposal (timing being right before our 
regional event, which will be a challenge).

I think putting the proposal together won't be a major problem, so long 
as we have a community willing to run the conference. We can copy 
template material from Professional Conference Organisors and/or City 
tourist organisations (as we did in 2009), along with material from 
prior conferences.

What next:

* We need to work out if we have people willing to commit to this. Two 
people willing to step up as chair/co-chair. 5 to 10 people willing to 
commit to joining the 2021 conference committee.

So, who is interested?

[1] 
https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_Handbook#International_FOSS4G_Rotation

[2] 
https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/foss4g/rfp/2020/FOSS4G2020-request-for-proposal.pdf

-- 
Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier
Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant

M +61 (0) 419 142 254