[Marketing] Event Owner for FOSS4G - please vote

[Cameron Shorter]

Ok, lets get the ball rolling.

Following on from on and off list emails:

I propose that $3K US is set aside to cover costs of sending Tim Bowden 
to FOSS4G 2008 where Tim will coordinate the running of the OSGeo Booth.

As a bonus, Tim will look for potential sponsors for FOSS4G2009 and talk 
up FOSS4G2009 to potential delegates. (Another marketing activity).

+1

Tim Bowden wrote:
> Arnulf,
>
> I'm willing and able, but obviously a decision would be need to be made
> very soon.  Just for the record, I've responded off list to Tyler, Frank
> and Cameron S. with a few personal concerns I have, but otherwise no
> problems from my side.
>
> Regards,
> Tim Bowden
>
> On Wed, 2008-09-03 at 16:41 +0200, Arnulf Christl wrote:
>   
>> Cameron Shorter wrote:
>>     
>>> Tyler,
>>> I'd like to strongly recommend Tim Bowden for the OSGeo Booth 
>>> coordinator role.
>>>       
>> Tim,
>> what do you say? 
>>
>> If you are interested I will talk to OSGeo Finance and see whether we
>>  can bend Tyler's travel costs to your name and make you the official
>>  OSGeo Event Owner for FOSS4G 2008. This would mean that you are sort
>>  of hired by OSGeo to represent, man and manage the booth. I say "sort
>>  of hired" because I think OSGeo never did this before so we are
>>  creating a precedence here. But I think it is a good one as we are
>>  running short on staff everywhere and volunteers are cool but they are
>>  even better if you can pay them - at least a bit. 
>>
>> But before I continue down that road please confirm whether you are
>>  actually available and would be willing to do what Cameron suggested. 
>>
>> Best regards, 
>> Arnulf. 
>>
>>     
>>> He did a very good job setting up the OSGeo stand at the WALIS 
>>> conference in Western Australia last year and he is an entertaining and 
>>> passionate OSGeo salesman.
>>>
>>> Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to scrape funds together for 
>>> FOSS4G2008 (he is a 1 man company and can't justify the expense). But 
>>> with elementary expenses paid, he would be there like a shot.
>>>
>>> Financially, he doesn't cost much. Perth is not far from South Africa, 
>>> so flights should be less than for others, and a few beer boxes are 
>>> sufficient for accommodation.  (He'd drink the beer first).
>>>
>>> And most importantly from my point of view, we would really like to have 
>>> someone from the Australian FOSS4G2009 committee on the stand, so that 
>>> we can promote FOSS4G 2009, and Tim is just the man for the job.
>>>
>>>
>>> Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) wrote:
>>>       
>>>> 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
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Marketing mailing list
>>>> Marketing at lists.osgeo.org
>>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing
>>>>         
>>>       


-- 
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Systems Architect
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

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