[Foss4g2008loc] From an Event Management Point of View - please read. Urgent

Tue May 13 03:44:17 EDT 2008

Dear All ,

>From an event management point of view PeopleSA Events have a few
concerns:

We note that the abstract submission deadline might be moved for the second
time. We are not part of the accepting or rejecting process ,so from that
point of view it has no bearing on our job or on our effectiveness .

Our concern is that the website should have been tested on all levels before
we went live in March. All emails that get generated from the website get
sent to the foss4g2008 at peoplesa.co.za mail box , which we monitor. Our brief
was to answer the delegate/ user with the information that we have authority
over and any queries that are sent to this email address that do not involve
the event management process (e.g technical problems / marketing etc ) be
forwarded to the relevant person/s.

Yesterday was meant to be the deadline for submissions. We received in the
Foss4g2008 mail box approx 25 emails from irate people (from all over the
world) because they were unable to submit their papers. Another problem was
that they were receiving blank messages , with  Karryn Gracey as the author.
(obviously generated from the website) We are assuming this is a
notification of some sort - however if this is so, is it notifying the
person that their submission went through or did not go through ? If
PeopleSA received all these emails - how many more people have we lost
because the website has not been user friendly or for any other technical
reason. (that we not aware of) - I have no doubt many would have just given
up without sending a complaint email.

Back to the deadline's . Many delegates need to know the outcome of their
submissions before they register as delegates or make any payments.
As far as preferred accommodation packages go , South Africa enters its peak
tourism season from the end of September. The hotels / guest houses etc are
not willing to keep block bookings after 20 June 2008 - unless the room has
been paid for. So delegates will need to make personal enquiries about any
accommodation after the cut off date.(they can send their requirements to
the FOSS4G2008 email address , however, PeopleSA cannot guarantee the
package deals or prices quoted on the website as it will be subject to
availability.

Another concern is that although there are over 340 users on the website we
have only 31 registered delegates. Once we receive notification that a
person has registered as a delegate , a letter explaining the way forward is
sent to the new registrant as well as an attachment form that needs to be
completed and emailed back to us. (the information that the website
generates is insufficient to allow us to execute our event management role
efficiently and professionally). PeopleSA drafted this attachment as a
temporary measure until the website was able to generate all the information
that we required. This has now become a standard form that is sent to all
registered delegates.
Of the 31 registered delegates only 5 forms have been completed and returned
to us.

One delegate is an LOC member. We await confirmation of discounts available.
To date PeopleSA have not received notification that this has happened. We
are unable to invoice any persons that qualify for a discount until we have
the discounted codes and discount fees. ( we did receive the wiki page
information , however were advised that until we get a notification that
these amounts are correct we are not to proceed with invoicing the people
who qualify for a discount. We were also told that the codes and discount
fees would be available on the website, so people can see who qualifies for
a discount and the amount that they qualify for. We have not seen it
advertised on the website as yet. (Are we looking in the wrong place - if so
please advise us where to find them)

Two delegates have submitted papers and before we can invoice them we need
to await the outcome of their submissions.

Two delegates have been invoiced . One has paid in full and we await payment
for the second. 

Registrant notification emails : PeopleSA  has on numerous occasions
requested that these notifications contain the delegates name and email
address at the very least .(Ideally it would help that everytime we get
notification - we do not have to enter the website and find the details for
each new registrant.) At present the notification email has the user name
and the registrants name and surname. On the 5 March 2008 , shortly after
the website went live we called for a meeting and this issue was addressed
and acknowledged - we were assured that within two weeks (19 March)it would
be rectified. We were told that in the meantime we would only ever need to
use the registration page to get the registrants info and we would not need
to look through the reams of user pages. To date this has not been
rectified. (Registrants page = 1 and a bit)
User pages exceed 16 . This process is a huge inconvenience and a waste of
precious time. Should the volumes increase we will be faced with unnecessary
problems.  

PeopleSA has a reputation to uphold with the local community as well as any
contact we have with international companies/organisations/people.
As we are event managing this conference we are the first point of contact
for the delegates and it is our company that is looking incompetent and
unprofessional. 

At present the bulk of our time is spent putting out fires on the conference
behalf and many of our emails are apology letters. 

We urge all concerned to give our concerns urgent attention .  

Regards
Karryn Gracey
PeopleSA

-----Original Message-----
From: foss4g2008loc-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:foss4g2008loc-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Serena Coetzee
Sent: 12 May 2008 9:26 pm
To: 'Daina Mudimbu'; 'FOSS4G2008 local organising committee'
Subject: RE: [Foss4g2008loc] RE: paper submissions & ALL other deadlines

Daina,

I support your idea of looking at all the deadlines, rather than pushing
them on one by one.  Below my comments on your suggested deadlines:

1. 12 May 2008: Deadline for submission of abstracts ..... proposal to
extend to 23 May
--> I am on leave from 20 May to 23 May, and then at ISO meetings in Denmark
until 31 May.  From the number of e-mails I got today of people struggling
to submit their abstracts, I would prefer to be here at my desk on the last
day of submissions. Therefore I would prefer that the deadline for
submission of academic abstracts does not move further than 19 May. There
are 30-35 academic abstracts, which is more than enough to fill one day with
12 presentations.  If we keep the call open for another week, maybe we will
be able to fill two days with 12 academic presentations each.

2. 17 June 2008: Notification of acceptance of abstracts..... unknown,
please advise on new date ... 6 June/11 June??
--> I'm not sure why you want to move this date earlier?  It is impossible
for me to finish by then, especially now that the submission deadline might
be moved later.  I will have to finish the academic notifications by 17
June, I cannot do it later than that.

3. Note also that the deadline on the website (on the right hand side) is
currently displayed as 14 May???

Regards,
Serena

-----Original Message-----
From: foss4g2008loc-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:foss4g2008loc-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Daina Mudimbu
Sent: 12 May 2008 05:30 PM
To: foss4g2008loc at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: [Foss4g2008loc] RE: paper submissions & ALL other deadlines

Dear All,

May I propose that we relook all the deadlines we had below and advise
accordingly on all the others that will change other than those already
indicated.  Perhaps we can then be proactive and not wait for the
deadline to pass before we announce the extension or we try not to make
a final call and then have to recall and extend but rather just extend
on the announcement originally planned as final call... it may confuse
those who want to submit.

As you check the deadlines please advise on the new dates of
notification so that we have an accurate and updated announcement with
relevant deadlines. may I propose we have all our dates in order before
we make further announcements. 

SUMMARY OF ALL IMPORTANT DATES FOR FOSS4G2008:

30 April 2008: Deadline for submission of proposals for workshops and
labs .... now extended to 23 May 2008
16 May 2008: Notification of acceptance of workshop/lab proposal .....
unknown... please advise if 6 June/11 June will be appropriate

12 May 2008: Deadline for submission of abstracts ..... proposal to
extend to 23 May
17 June 2008: Notification of acceptance of abstracts..... unknown,
please advise on new date ... 6 June/11 June??
18 August 2008: Deadline for submission of presentation / papers for
the proceedings .... will this remain???
1 September 2008:Deadline for submission of posters.... will this
remain???

Sponsors & Exhibitors: registration now open

Important dates for registrations: 
Early bird registrations: closes June 15, 2008 .. in light of extended
workshop/lab, paper submission... program will be later so will this now
change????
Online registration: closes September 15 2008 .... impact of above on
this???

Late registration opens September 16 - September 29 2008 ..... if above
changes then new date ?????

On-site registration opens September 29 2008 

Conference Dates September 29 - October 3 2008

Thanks
Regards,

Daina

Daina Mudimbu
Deputy Manager GIS 
Ehlanzeni District Municipality
P.O. BOX 3333, Nelspruit 1200, South Africa
Tel: Direct line +27 (0)13 759 8616
Tel: Switchboard +27 (0)13 759 8500 extn. 8616
Mobile: +27 (0)71 604 8906/ +27 (0)82880 7571
Fax Number : 0866954056	
Email: dmudimbu at ledc.co.za 

GISSA Mpumalanga
www.gissa.org.za 

>>> GavinF at mintek.co.za 05/12/08 11:35 AM >>>
That's great news.

We do plan to extend workshop and paper submissions till 23rd May for
various reasons including the fact that Where 2.0 is on this week and
would have interfered with our current deadline. 

I'll announce this and Graeme will set the website up to reflect this
tomorrow. Any objections or comments from the LOC by the end of today
please. 

By my count we need minimum 80 presentations to fill the programme so
we
want many more than that to select from. If we split some venues I
think
we can fit up to 120 presentations. 

Inge and Serena please send me a short paragraph giving a feel for the
topics submitted so far that we can send out as a taster in the
announcement and post on the website. 

Gavin 

________________________________

From: Inge Netterberg [mailto:INetterberg at sahainternational.co.za] 
Sent: 12 May 2008 11:18 AM
To: FOSS4G2008 local organising committee
Cc: Gavin Fleming; Serena Coetzee
Subject: paper submissions

Dear All,

At my count just now we have:

26     Academic submissions

34     General submissions

2    Poster submissions

I suspect we will extent the deadline as Gavin has already mentioned
but
it is much better than on Friday. I will monitor it again this
afternoon. 

Regards

Inge

Inge Netterberg
Senior Manager

SAHA International (SA) (Pty) Ltd
Office:  +27 21 526-2700
Fax:     +27 21 552-0440
Cel:     +27 82 418 8712 
 e-mail: inetterberg at sahainternational.co.za 
<mailto:inetterberg at sahainternational.co.za> 

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