[Marketing] Event Owner for FOSS4G

[Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)]

As discussed a while back at one of our last meetings, I was trying  
to line up someone to help be the event owner for FOSS4G - to help  
organise and coordinate OSGeo's marketing through the booth, etc.   
Everyone I talk to who is going to be at the event only has limited  
amount of time to commit, or cannot help organise before the event.

So I started to talk to a few people who I have worked with at  
previous events and who might be more likely to attend if they had a  
free conference pass and a small budget to offset some of their  
costs.  The free pass wasn't really enough for anyone I spoke to.   
Since it looks like I won't be able to attend, it will be critical to  
have someone who can do the planning and delivery of the event, but  
still have some support from me when needed.  Some of my own travel  
budget could be used to help cover some of the costs but ultimately  
it would be general marketing costs for OSGeo. [1]

This is the one event that I believe is important enough to make sure  
we have a full time booth staffer and planner/coordinator available.   
Volunteers certainly are still needed to do it right, but unless  
there is one person to go to, the whole effort can fall apart.   
Ideally there'd be two people, but I won't push it this year ;-)

I would like to propose a budget of $3500 to cover our presence there:

* $1000 - handouts, collateral, shirts, banners, table cover, etc.   
With new branding where possible.
* $500 - on-site booth costs for maintenance, upgrades, equip  
rentals, etc.  Like video displays, extra chairs, cleaning...
* $1500 - costs for staffing, travel and food costs, etc.
* $500 - miscellaneous - some buffer room for unexpected items.

Think of it as a delegation exercise for me, I would easily spend  
that in my own staff time, travel costs and merchandise, etc. if I  
was going.
Sound reasonable?

Tyler

[1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Marketing_Budget_2008