[OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G Organizing

[Paul Ramsey]

I have two contradictory positions wrt LocationTech and event organizing, and 
I’ll start with this one, since it’s easier: as long as the organizations are 
separate, I think that OSGeo should maintain its own brand and use a 
professional organizer that is 100% dedicated to OSGeo without any conflicts of 
interest, perceived or otherwise.

There are a number of places to start in finding such a corporate partner for 
event planning. An obvious thing to do would be to look at other successful 
international technology events in our space and who organizes them.

 
http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/organizers/conference_organizer_contacts.html
 https://us.pycon.org/2014/about/staff/
 http://events.linuxfoundation.org/#event-services

If nothing else, folks at those organizations could refer us to other companies 
we may not have heard to so we could run a real competition for our business.

Since getting involved in a commercial relationship like this is a big, 
existential decision for the organization, I think it falls to the board to 
decide

(a) if moving to a single professional event organizer for all major foss4g 
events (international, na, eu) is warranted
(b) if so, assigning a small team to speak with the alternatives, and bring a 
concrete decision in the form of a recommended company and contract terms to 
the board

It is important to get a decision on (a) as quickly as possible, as the venue 
decision for 2016 will have to be made and which organizing principle it falls 
under is important to establish sooner than later.

P.

-- 
Paul Ramsey
http://cleverelephant.ca
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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G Organizing

[Dave Patton]

On 2014/09/15 13:32, Paul Ramsey wrote:


There are a number of places to start in finding such a corporate
partner for event planning.



Since getting involved in a commercial relationship like this is a
big, existential decision for the organization, I think it falls to
the board to decide

(a) if moving to a single professional event organizer for all major
foss4g events (international, na, eu) is warranted (b) if so,
assigning a small team to speak with the alternatives, and bring a
concrete decision in the form of a recommended company and contract
terms to the board

It is important to get a decision on (a) as quickly as possible


I'd suggest a couple of slight modifications:
- slightly different wording for the first item
- add a new second item

1)
The OSGeo Board decides whether moving to a single professional
event organizer for all major foss4g events is warranted and
practical at this time (international, na, eu).

2)
If the answer to (1) is Yes, then what are the broad terms of
reference that the board is willing to consider for potential
candidates? For example, do potential candidates have to have
established offices in various parts of the world? Do they
have to have a track record organizing open source events?
Do they have to have multilingual staff? Is the board OK with
the notion of a conference organizer who does all the 'back
office' tasks, including pre-conference registration, but who
does not provide any boots on the ground staff at the actual
conference (i.e. that staffing would be handled by the LOC,
perhaps with a mix of local paid and volunteer staff)?
What about minimum/maximum length of contract? Etc.

3)
If the answer to (1) is Yes, then assign a small team to speak
with potential candidates, and bring a concrete decision in the
form of a recommended company and contract terms to the board.

P.S.
Item (3) could be broken down into two steps, and if done
properly may not introduce too much extra delay:
- the small team brings a shortlist to the board, and the
  board ratifies/amends the shortlist and raises any
  questions or concerns
- the small team re-engages with the shortlisted candidates
  to arrive at a final recommendation for the board

--
Dave Patton
Victoria, B.C.

Degree Confluence Project:
Canadian Coordinator
Technical Coordinator
http://www.confluence.org/

Personal website:
http://members.shaw.ca/davepatton/
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