re: "Indeed having multiple venues would be be a great thing, but might be
hard to organize..."
Absolutely, totally and 100% agree with you Peter. Except I would not say
'difficult' but would say 'complex'... tho hasten to add that I do not mean
to quibble over words here but simply to openly communicate my own
perspective.
In that spirit, I've responded below point by point. And thanks for raising
such excellent points of discussion:
Indeed having multiple venues would be be a great thing, but might be hard
to organize. It would surely mean a larger budget...
I cannot comment on this pertinent to OOo without having some idea about
what costs were in the past, ideally in some sort cost/ratio per attendee,
how the money was spent (ie: advertising/promotions, travel stipends,
accommodations, etc.). However, what is more important no matter the budget
is how did attendees (including exhibitors/presenters) 'feel' about the
quality of the gathering?
From what has been said elsewhere on this thread, I would say that everyone
who has attended an OOo conference has very much enjoyed it. Still, I have
not personally participated in any face-to-face gathering of OS/ODF/OOo
enthusiasts, so I will take you at your word <grin>.
Also from what I've observed there is an ongoing 'lament' about there not
being as large a turn out as optimally desired... yes?
If this is true, then I would ask: What is the ideal number of people we
would like to have in attendance at an (annual, semi-annual or virtual) OOo
conference? Putting environmental issues and carbon footprints aside just
for a moment, think only about what you (each of you) see as 'the ideal'
conference, noticing how many people are in attendance...
our sponsors would be willing to donate for e.g. five different locations
at the same time.
Cost is always a major factor... however this is where my
(professional/marketing) thinking takes a whole different twist of
symantics. That is, in terms of organizational development, while sponsors
do most certainly pay the costs of event production, said sponsors are not
'donating' (as one would 'donate' to a hurricane victum), but are
'investing' in high-quality (promotional) brand name recognition throughout
a strategically identified 'niche' marketplace.
Of course to accomplish this, the qualities and characteristics of this
'niche' must be clearly defined... which (again) raises the question: 'Who
do we wish to attract?' -- ie: what % Sun engineers and other technology
professionals, what % educators, what % business professionals, what %
government administrators do we (and our sponsors) see as the 'ideal mix'?
You also need several teams, usually volunteers, who can manage having free
bandwidth on a specific time frame.
I don't know anything about managing bandwith, but I do know that the
coordination of any conference (or just about anything else <smile>)
requires the cohesive collaboration of multiple teams; that each team has an
area of specialized expertise and regarded authority; that all teams work to
accomplish (their own respective part of) a cooperatively developed action
plan... pretty much just as things are already being done in the OOo
Community... and thus we have a 'head start' <grin>.
There are also some effects to consider that result from bank holidays and
local vacation seasons.
Yes -- once the 'demographics of the desired attendees' are determined --
timing and location (most convenient to those we wish to attend) are the top
two considerations. And with the aggregate number of events on people's
calendars today, finding 'the right date' can be the biggest challenge of
all and doing substantive preliminary research in a must. That is why most
'major events' have the date set (at least) a full year in advance... so
that by the time the pre-event marketing blitz starts (90 days before the
event) 90% of the 'hard work' of staging a conference is complete... or at
least it *should be* <grin>...
The OOoCon 2008 in Beijing got for example postponed, because the first
dates we have been choosing were during German spring school holidays,
which would have meant very poor attendance of Sun engineers.
Thus again, the importance of us (OOo-marketing) 'knowing our customer' --
in this case, the people we wish to serve (with information about our
product) and invite (to share our community camraderie) and to sponsor (to
give them the best 'Return On Investment') -- so that event staging may be
engineered from inception to maximize all these desired effects...
Peaceful journies and other pleasant blessings to all... ~Christine
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