[OSGeo Oceania] Considering future Open Geospatial conferences in Oceania

[John Bryant]

Hi all, please see the following message below:

“What should we do about upcoming conferences for Free and Open Source
Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) and State of the Map (SotM) within our
Oceania region?”

Image by @mapmakerdavid
<https://twitter.com/mapmakerdavid/status/1151068594438123520>

We didn’t have an answer to this question at the last OSGeo Oceania board
meeting. At the moment, no one is volunteering to chair. No one is backing
a city with commitment, and that is a problem we hope to solve.

Pertinent is that the international FOSS4G will be held somewhere outside
of Europe or North America in 2021 and a call for a two-page Expression Of
Interest is coming in September
<https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2021_Bid_Process>. We have a very
compelling
case <https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/foss4g-oceania/2019-May/001399.html>
for bringing the international community to our region, if we try.

Are you keen to see FOSS4G & SotM continue in our region? Do you have ideas
about where and how? Would you like to help make it happen? Are you
interested in mentoring or being mentored by a bunch of committed
volunteers who have worked on prior FOSS4G events? If so, why don’t you
talk to us? Come join our email list
<https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g-oceania> and introduce
yourself. We particularly want to hear ideas about what we should do about
FOSS4G in the next two years.

Some history:

   -

   2009: FOSS4G-International in Sydney. During the global financial
   crisis, we had lower attendance than expected, but managed to stay
   profitable when similar conferences were losing money.
   -

   2018: FOSS4G SotM Oceania in Melbourne. Exceeded expectations for size,
   sponsorship, activities, and engagement.
   -

   2019: FOSS4G SotM Oceania Wellington <https://2019.foss4g-oceania.org/>:
   Has already exceeded sponsorship targets and sold out early bird tickets
   within a week.
   -

   *2020: FOSS4G SotM Oceania: Where?*
   -

   *2021: FOSS4G-International Should we bid for it?*


We are looking forward to hearing from you,

John Bryant (OSGeo Oceania president) and Cameron Shorter (scribe).
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