[Viscom-dev] Conference branding advice

[Milton Lofberg]

Guys,

I have been necessarily standing off from promoting "ADSK the vendor" as
is our policy. We in Autodesk ANZ (and Asia Pacific, where communities
are growing e.g. Japan and Korea) are glad to help and in a personal,
professional capacity it's more than gratifying to see the same thing
happening in geospatial as has happened in the wider open source
communities for years.

Cameron and I did discuss the working principle of "Vendor as Supporter
of OSgeo" rather than the other way around, which is always a
risk/temptation for some. (BTW 'vendor' may be services or product').

If there is general informal agreement with this principle then I think
that gives us a good platform to approach this year's events.

Looking forward to any other comments.

Cheers

-----Original Message-----
From: Tyler Mitchell (External) 
Sent: Wednesday, 21 February 2007 07:38
To: Visibility Committee Discussion List
Cc: australia at lists.osgeo.org; Milton Lofberg
Subject: Re: [Viscom-dev] Conference branding advice

On 19-Feb-07, at 5:28 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote:

> Funding/Branding
> ============
> I've been talking with Milton Lofberg from Autodesk about how best to 
> man and fund stands for both our companies and OSGeo.
> We would like to create an OSGeo stand and promote OSGeo, and at the 
> same time promote our own companies, which include proprietary 
> products.
> A couple of options open to us are:
> 1. Buy 3 booths. A Lisasoft, Autodesk and OSGeo booth.
> Problem: We might not have enough people to man all booths.
> Problem: An extra booth will cost ~ $US3000.
>
> 2. Buy 2 booths, Lisasoft, and Autodesk (probably next to each other).

> Create signs which say "We support OSGeo projects", along with an 
> OSGeo logo.
> Problem: We would need to ensure our company supports OSGeo, not the 
> other way around.
> Problem: The OSGeo community might not approve of this "watering down"

> of the OSGeo brand.
>
> 3. Buy 1 booth. Same as 2), but we share space.

Hi guys,
Thanks for thinking through this.  Any or all of these options sounds
fine to me.  Cross-promotion in a context like this is always mutually
beneficial in my opinion.  Unless OSGeo funds and manages a separate
booth, it would be quite natural and beneficial for companies and
individuals to represent the projects and make the contacts.  Especially
if you've made the effort or investment to make sure OSGeo is
represented!

In terms of watering down the brand, the only place that I think you
need to be careful is to not come across as an "OSGeo Sponsor" unless
you are one, like Autodesk.  Though we may eventually need to discuss
how companies can provide in-kind sponsorship by donating booth space to
OSGeo.

Would you also consider having/inviting other members-at-large come and
help with the OSGeo side of things?  That would help buffer any concerns
about self-promotion you may have.

My two bits,
Tyler