[VisCom] Geospatial Events calendar?

[Tim Bowden]

On Wed, 2007-01-10 at 11:17 -0800, Tyler Mitchell wrote:
> On 10-Jan-07, at 9:22 AM, Tim Bowden wrote:
> 
> > Ok, I've just had a look at those links and the first question I  
> > have to
> > ask is where does that leave us with our stand at the lca open day?
> > (http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Australia#LCA_Open_Day)  We haven't
> > gone through any of the process outined; I guess we just assumed we
> > could do an OSGeo promotion; probably because it's all been a rush job
> > on short notice.  Given Frank and Tyler's positive response so far I
> > assume that's not too much of a problem ;-)  Whatever we do, we  
> > have to
> > be quick as we have only 1 week till the open day to get organised.
> 
> I think we're all happy to see you organising something and that  
> Arnulf's comments may be more focused on larger, more formal events  
> that need more OSGeo official help (i.e. funding, volunteer  
> enticement, etc).  At least I am happy to see a local group  
> organising a presence at this event.  As part of VisCom, I'm happy to  
> help with getting your event going.  Though it hasn't been on our  
> radar before now, I see it as a great opportunity to help give the  
> Australian chapter some momentum to get organised.  Do you have  
> sponsorships already or enough volunteer funding to help get the  
> stand and brochure printing?

Yes, it has helped to give us some momentum.  It would have been nice
have a bit more time, but we work with what we have.  Only cost is
printing & T-shirts. Looks like Milton is going to take the $ side of
things under his wing for now.  Thanks Milton.

> 
> > Practical matters; We will need to get our brochures printed.  I'm
> > thinking about 300 of each.  (Cameron / Milton any better estimate?
> > There are expected to be 300-400 through the gates.  I can't
> > see /everyone/ wanting a brochure)  That should leave us with some  
> > over
> > for the next event.  What brochures or posters are available please?
> 
> The brochures are available at:
> http://osgeo.org/files/viscom/OSGeo_Brochures_v1_PDF.zip
> and a double-sided (or two page) overview sheet is here:
> http://osgeo.org/files/viscom/OSGeo_Overview.pdf
> 
> And a openoffice presentation file I pulled together (nothing fancy!)  
> is here:
> http://osgeo.org/files/viscom/au2006_slideshow.odp - you should be  
> able to run it and walk away.
> 

Thanks, getting them now.

> There are single PDF files, one for each project (excluding  
> OpenLayers and GeoNetworks, unfortunately).  There is also one PDF in  
> there that has all these projects as separate pages - so you can  
> easily print all of them quickly and/or use them in a slideshow.   
> There are 10 altogether and they are starting to show their age, but  
> it's all we've got right now.
> 
> As an aside, if anyone wants to try out their graphic layout skills  
> using http://scribus.net software - I have source files for all the  
> brochures.  They need some updating (logo) and we need a couple more  
> to be produced.
> 
> > T-shirts.  The Event management page recomends OSGeo T-shirts.  We  
> > would
> > only need 4 (I think) however there probably isn't enough time to get
> > that sorted.
> 
> Tell us what sizes you could use - if we have them in stock, we might  
> be able to ship them.  Otherwise I agree it is too quick to get them  
> organised.  If you find a local vendor that could rush some  
> silkscreening or something, you could grab our logo and try it out.
> 

Looks like Milton will oversee getting some local shirts done.

> > Publication. Once we know what we are doing we need to get the word  
> > out
> > on the street in Sydney.  Not sure yet where.  What GIS blogs can  
> > we get
> > a mention on?
> 
> What does the rest of VisCom think - would we want to do a press  
> release?  We usually reserve those for large organisation-wide  
> announcements though.  I'd at least target DirectionsMag and Slashgeo.
> 

A formal press release is probably overkill, but it would be nice to get
the word out is some of the OSGeo friendly blogs around.  I see two
target audiences for what we are doing; FOSS developers doing GIS (or on
the fringe of GIS) who are unaware of OSGeo, and the technical/business
GIS crowd who are curious or ignorant about GeoFOSS.

The first can be targeted at the open day and the lca lightning talk
which is for conference delegates only (dev centric crowd).

The second can be targeted at the open day which is free for anybody to
attend.  We need to let them know it's on and what they can get from it
as they probably won't be at the open day otherwise.  Given the
timeframe, a plug on some GIS blogs is about the best resource available
for reaching them.  I've listed a few GIS blogs on
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/LCA_Open_Day but the list is far from
complete.

> I'm keen to see you get into this conference and will do whatever I  
> can to help.  Especially if you say hi for me to Wayne Piekarski who  
> also has a stand on some great augmented reality stuff.  (Bonus  
> points if you find some common ground for us to work with him ;-) )
> 

Will do, Wayne is a great bloke.  If we can't find common ground there,
it's time to change career.

> Best wishes!  I'm on/offline during moving this week but will still  
> be doing work.
> 
> Tyler

Happy moving!  I've done it too many times to think it's anything but a
big headache.

Regards,
Tim Bowden