On Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 5:08 AM, Steven Feldman <shfeld...@gmail.com> wrote: > If there are regional events in every continent except for the continent > where the global event is being run we may risk diluting interest in the > global event. > > We will have the global FOSS4G in Europe in 2013 (either UK or Finland will > host) we would expect to see less delegates from outside of Europe if there > are North American, Asian and other regional events. > > Perhaps a compromise would be to ensure that the timing of regional events > is as close as possible to 6 months away from the global event?
That's always a risk, but the reality is that the vast majority of FOSS4G attendees are from the local region, and only a small slice are international. So we really are effectively serving a much larger population with regional events. In some ways (watch this rhetorical bend) dilution is actually a net positive, because it keeps the same-old-same-old highly rated software talks from clogging up the agenda leaving little space for quirky local topics. But I digress. I've been encouraging the regional organizers to try and keep as much schedule space between their event and mid-September as possible. This I think helps the international travellers make schedule time to potentially attend two events in a year. It does lead to some awkward moments though, like FOSS4GNA this year coming just 6 months *after* the last event in NA, the Denver conference. All in all though, because we were serving a market (DC) that itself couldn't all get even so far away as Denver, we ended up serving a wider group. So I think on balance the regional thing is serving us very well. It pains me to say it, but we might be better off de-emphasizing FOSS4G-the-international-event and trying instead of space regional events regularly around the calendar so it's possible for some in-demand speakers to hit 2-3 regional events, while still allowing more travel-constrained local delegates the option of having a regular event. So many options, but unfortunately there's no slam dunk way of knowing what is "best". P. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss