[intl-discuss] How we make FOSS4G successful

[Cameron Shorter]

Venka Raghavan recently asked, "What can local chapters do to help 
FOSS4G?". It took me a while to answer, because there are so many things 
involved in staging a successful conference, and FOSS4G's success 
derives from the breath of skill-sets from the people who step up to help.


    What defines a successful conference?

A successful conference is one where:

    * Delegates find people, products and techniques to solve their
      business problems, which they take home and implement.
    * Delegates have an enjoyable time, see the sights of the hosting
      country and catch up with friends in the industry.
    * Sector Sponsors (like government departments, OSGeo and the OGC)
      increase the effectiveness of the Geospatial sector, by training
      delegates in the techniques, case studies and tools presented at
      the conference.
    * Industry Sponsors reach targeted customers which results in future
      work.
    * The conference is financially successful, by attracting sufficient
      sponsors and delegates.


    Local Networking & Viral Marketing to our Target Market

We need marketing to reach potential delegates, presenters and sponsors.

The best way to reach delegates is to have the conference personally 
recommended from someone they trust. Community leaders have proven to be 
very effective in this regard, by forwarding FOSS4G press releases along 
with a personal recommendation explaining why FOSS4G worth attending for 
a particular community. A personal, one-on-one invitation for key people 
is even better.

Identify relevant email lists, newsletters and magazines and either 
write an article for these, or organise for one of these existing 
articles to be written.

Magazines like good stories. If you plan to present at the conference, 
write an article on the topic of your presentation, completing the 
article with "Joe Blow will be presenting at the FOSS4G conference, 
along with many other presentations about Business Cases and latest 
technologies associated with Geospatial Open Standards and Open Source".

Translating press releases to different languages also demonstrates a 
commitment to these communities too.

If you wish to introduce a potential sponsor, help with translations, 
write an article, or add someone to the community leaders and media 
press release list, please let me know:

name: Cameron Shorter, FOSS4G 2009 chair

phone: +61 2 8570-5050

email: c a m e r o n . s h o r t e r AT lisasoft.com


    Make FOSS4G better

FOSS4G initiatives work best when they are prepared for, publicised, 
supported, and then successfully and smoothly executed during the 
conference.

Which initiative best suites you?


      Live DVD

A Live DVD will be given to all FOSS4G delegates. It can be booted into 
Linux with pre-installed Geospatial Open Source software. In also 
contains windows installers, sample datasets, and probably a few other 
things that you may want to throw in for free.

This Live DVD will be significantly more valuable than a conference 
handout. It will live on to be used at future conference, and be used as 
a teaching tool.

We need a number of technical people to bring this Live DVD up to the 
latest version of Software, provide latest documentation, and generally 
polish the live DVD.

http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Disc


      Climate Challenge Integration Plugfest

The OGC are leading an initiative to install a suite of Standards based 
geospatial software (both Open Source and Proprietary) and demonstrate 
integration through a Climate Change scenario. Many of the conference 
workshops, tutorials and presentations will use this CCIP as their basis.

Again, this initiative will be rolled out by the OGC at future 
conferences and events, ensuring the CCIP is more valuable than just the 
FOSS4G conference.

If you are technically minded, please help install and tweak packages in 
the CCIP, or create presentations that use it.

If you are organising a future conference, please commit to 
incorporating the CCIP in your conference. Knowing that the CCIP will 
live on will attract more sponsors and developers to the CCIP. (We 
already have commitment from FOSS4G 2010, and strong interest from some 
others).

http://external.opengis.org/twiki_public/bin/view/ClimateChallenge2009/WebHome 



      Workshops, Tutorials, Presentations, etc

FOSS4G needs to attract good presenters and topics and promote them to 
delegates and sponsors. Maybe you have a worthy presentation to give, 
can help attract good presenters, or can coordinate one of the 
presentation, tutorial or workshop streams.


      House Keeping

There are hundreds of small tasks which give FOSS4G a professional 
touch. We volunteer for them on the foss4g email list. 
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g2009


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

Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
http://www.lisasoft.com