2 to 4 ground team and 1 must live or be frequently in the venue area itself, from my experience of helping 3 sotm. 4 would be the optimum, I'd say. That assumes another 2 or 3+ active folks as part of the sotm team but living anywhere in the world, hello Holland.
At Limerick, we had 2 folks in Eire which was just enough. The main logistical problem there was that neither where in Limerick itself and arranging evening eating proved difficult. The main things the ground team needs to do is get sponsorship, arrange eating venues, catering lunches and breaks, find key hotels and accommodation preferably with discounts, travel FAQs, and organise the venue itself. I put venue last as that will have already been organised in principle when you make the bid. The international (non ground team) provides know-how from previous years, money (I.e good to get the OSMF treasurer involved!) and can handle speaker programme. It is also very important to have folks who are prepared to attend weekly telephone conferences on a fairly regular basis to provide continuity and progress on all the admin items like getting printing done, goody bag prep, logo, arranging audio and video coverage etc ... they don't have to be all local but it helps. At Amsterdam, we had 4 very active and engaged ground team, if I recall. This manifested itself in a big, big jump in the professionality of the conference presentation. Girona was pretty much run by the Amsterdam team and 1? pre-event ground team, with more local volunteers at the event itself. Of course, the more ground folks you can get involved the better, particularly on the prep day(s) and conference itself as the superb Japanese hospitality and arrangement showed at Tokyo this year. Mike On 28 Sep 2012, at 18:08, Jonathan Harley <[email protected]> wrote: > On 27/09/12 20:27, Tim Waters wrote: >> Hi >> >> On 17 September 2012 18:00, Jonathan Harley <[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >> >> >> Just to throw another venue idea into the mix, how about Warwick >> University? Advantages: it keeps winning awards as one of the best >> conference venues in the UK, and can offer a very full-service >> event where the venue will provide all the materials needed for >> the organisers as well as things like extra people to help do the >> running around (putting up signs etc). I work within walking >> distance and could act as venue liaison. Coventry isn't far from >> Nottingham which will host FOSS4G. Takes just over an hour on the >> train from London and is in the centre of the motorway network too. >> >> Traditionally SOTMs have been run by us, the volunteers, versus >> professional organizers. (In comparison the larger FOSS4G is run by >> professionals). I think this keeps costs down and in my opinion makes it a >> more friendly affair. I'm not sure if this is set in stone, but I think we >> should be prepared to run everything ourselves. >> > > Hi Tim, I agree completely. On the other hand, having organised a con where a > couple of organisers dropped out at a late stage it is nice to have a > contingency plan. Or perhaps you'd argue that if we don't have a big enough > team that we would not be able to cope if a couple of people dropped out just > before the event, we shouldn't bid. > > All of which begs the question - just how many volunteers do we need to get a > credible bid together? > > Jonathan. > > > -- > Dr Jonathan Harley : Managing Director : SpiffyMap Ltd > > [email protected] Phone: 0845 313 8457 www.spiffymap.com > The Venture Centre, Sir William Lyons Road, Coventry CV4 7EZ, UK > > > _______________________________________________ > Talk-GB mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb _______________________________________________ Talk-GB mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb
