| 11:49:02 | CIA-30: | osgeo: umassproject * r1206 /education/ ( 4 files in 4 dirs ): |
| 11:50:07 | sigq: | osgeofeed: Changeset [1206]: -- <http://trac.osgeo.org/osgeo/changeset/1206> |
| 12:54:47 | CameronShorter: | Anyone here from the US? Would holding the OSGeo conference over Thanksgiving mean the US won't come to FOSS4G? |
| 12:55:50 | CameronShorter: | We are about to make decisions and this is probably a fairly important decision. |
| 13:02:39 | FrankW: | CameronShorter: It's a very important family holiday in the USA. |
| 13:04:28 | crschmidt: | CameronShorter: I would say that having it over that weekend is a mistake. |
| 13:06:19 | CameronShorter: | ok, thanks. I suspected that was the case. |
| 13:07:29 | CameronShorter: | I don't suppose anyone here has an idea about how many people are going to FOSS482008? |
| 13:08:06 | CameronShorter: | I'm starting to get nervous that we might not make the predicted 700 attendees in Sydney. |
| 13:08:30 | nhv: | as FrankW says Thanksgiving is a big 'family' holiday in the US |
| 13:08:39 | FrankW: | That does not seem like a very conserbative estimate. |
| 13:10:00 | CameronShorter: | FrankW, I'm thinking about the cost of fuel going up making traveling more expensive, and hence reducing attendance. |
| 13:10:35 | CameronShorter: | Also South Africa seems to be having problems getting numbers, and Sydney is similarly a long way for many attendees. |
| 13:11:46 | CameronShorter: | I might just be conservative, but if we are down 200 attendees from predicted, then OSGeo will be out of pocket $100K + |
| 13:11:57 | CameronShorter: | ( The reverse is also true ) |
| 13:12:39 | FrankW: | Agreed, we should be aiming for a modest profit based on conservative numbers. |
| 13:13:11 | FrankW: | For me, a conservative estimate would be more around 450 attendies. |
| 13:13:33 | CameronShorter: | I'm thinking we should aim for 500 delegates, with a capacity for 700, rather than aim for 700 with a capacity for 900. |
| 13:13:50 | CameronShorter: | Yes, ok. |
| 13:14:11 | crschmidt: | I would agree with the former estimate. |
| 13:14:31 | CameronShorter: | crschmidt, which estimate? |
| 13:14:43 | crschmidt: | Sorry, the 450/500 rather than the 700 |
| 13:14:51 | CameronShorter: | ok, thanks. |
| 13:14:53 | crschmidt: | The difference in those two isn't something I can usefully comment o. |
| 13:15:03 | crschmidt: | I think that Sydney is going to have similar problems to South Africa, with neither achieving the same level of popularity as Victoria |
| 13:15:13 | CameronShorter: | How many people attend workshops? and how many attend codesprints? |
| 13:16:52 | dpatton: | CameronShorter: are you asking about in Victoria? |
| 13:16:55 | crschmidt: | We had about 50 at the codesprint Victoria |
| 13:17:02 | crschmidt: | Maybe a bit more? |
| 13:17:15 | FrankW: | I think a bit more, but at most 100. |
| 13:17:25 | : | * crschmidt thinks; 15 at OL, 10 at GDAL, 4 other groups of 3-5? something like that |
| 13:17:27 | CameronShorter: | We will likely be able to reduce costs by moving codesprint and workshops to a seperate location. |
| 13:17:47 | CameronShorter: | And workshops? |
| 13:17:52 | bwoodall: | hmmm, coding on the beach |
| 13:17:57 | FrankW: | CameronShorter: I wouldn't think that codesprint numbers would be very important for you yet. They are not revenue producing. |
| 13:18:00 | bwoodall: | sounds nice |
| 13:18:14 | dpatton: | CameronShorter: did you not see my email where I provided those numbers already? |
| 13:18:35 | dpatton: | for workshops I mean |
| 13:18:46 | CameronShorter: | dpatton, I remember reading it, but couldn't remember where. |
| 13:19:42 | dpatton: | http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/foss4g2009/2008-August/000219.html |
| 13:19:43 | sigq: | Title: [Foss4g2009] Re: FOSS4G 2009 venue ( at lists.osgeo.org ) |
| 13:20:00 | CameronShorter: | We can house some/all of the codesprint at LISAsoft offices, which is on a wharf in Sydney harbour with luxury boats moored outside. |
| 13:20:33 | FrankW: | sweet |
| 13:20:51 | CameronShorter: | Thanks dpatton, sorry, I missed that email. |
| 13:21:51 | crschmidt: | FrankW: I would say that the existence of a code sprint *is* important to revenue generation ( It helps to draw people in ) and that depending on its placement, It could also be a larger cost ( planning for 100 people is harder than planning for 50 people ) |
| 13:22:18 | CameronShorter: | If anyone runs into Gavin or someone else on the FOSS4G08 committee, you might want to prod him for current foss4g08 figures. I'm very keen to get them asap to plan sydney. |
| 13:24:16 | CameronShorter: | If we have the codesprint on a weekend, we can house it at LISAsoft offices at the cost of hiring tables and chairs. We can handle 75 or so people. Possibly a few more. |
| 13:25:05 | CameronShorter: | And there is a sailing school next door for those wanting a team building activity. |
| 13:25:33 | CameronShorter: | thanks for feedback guys. Got to get kids ready for school now. |
| 13:26:33 | CameronShorter: | PS, anyone know when Paul Ramsey is back from holidays. We want to plan a budget meeting, and he is key to the meeting. |
| 13:27:25 | crschmidt: | CameronShorter: I expect that 75 people will be plenty of space for a code sprint. |
| 13:27:33 | dpatton: | the cost for the 2007 code sprint was about $3000 |
| 13:28:26 | crschmidt: | Could have used better internet *cough* |
| 13:28:32 | crschmidt: | : ) |
| 13:28:50 | dpatton: | Paul's last blog post was AUg 22nd, and his homepage indicates an upcoming week's holiday. Today is a holiday Monday, so maybe he might be back sometime today, but I have no idea. |
| 13:29:09 | crschmidt: | ( Getting 75 people in a single room and having working wireless for all of them is a Hard Problem if you don't have infrastructure for it... ) |
| 13:29:44 | dpatton: | or if you think you know what you are doing, and don't really have a handle on things |
| 13:29:53 | CameronShorter: | We have the Sydney linux users group on side, who reckon they have all the infrastructure for large scale networks. |
| 13:30:06 | CameronShorter: | ( They do conferences for 800 people ) |
| 13:30:44 | dpatton: | the problems at the conference center for 2007 were more about "people", and less about infrastructure |
| 13:31:19 | crschmidt: | dpatton: really? Okay |
| 13:31:37 | crschmidt: | My ( mis- )understanding was just that we had 70 people and only one router |
| 13:31:47 | dpatton: | they did deploy some additional wireless nodes, but that was only to try and deal with the already existing problems, which were all caused by administrative failures |
| 13:31:50 | crschmidt: | But it has been a year, I'm probably remembering wrong |
| 13:31:57 | crschmidt: | Gotcha |
| 13:33:00 | : | * dpatton notes that I'm referring to problems experienced by the attendees - exhibitors might have had different problems |
| 13:33:46 | crschmidt: | dpatton: er, I was talking about at code sprint... |
| 13:33:58 | FrankW: | I was an attendie, and gave up on the network after tuesday or so, though I understand at that point it actually started working well for others. |
| 13:34:09 | FrankW: | And yes, the code sprint also had pretty serious network problems. |
| 13:34:13 | dpatton: | yes, and that's why I said "at the conference center for 2007" :- ) |
| 13:34:28 | crschmidt: | dpatton: Both the places we were were conference centers to me : ) |
| 13:34:38 | crschmidt: | Though I suppose the latter was more accurately termed a ballroom or something |
| 13:34:42 | dpatton: | code sprint problems at the harbour towers were a different situation |
| 13:36:25 | dpatton: | one of the risks in having the workshops and/or code sprint at a different venue than the conference is the need to ensure 'everything works' at both locations |