FOSS4G 2016 Lessons Learned

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FOSS4G 2016 Lessons Learned

This is to document things that the local committee learned, for the benefit of future FOSS4Gs!!

Sponsorship

• Arnulf just told me, that the 1500$ supporter package was especially created "as is", means with conference pass and is used by smaller companies - which are the ground deposit and so important for spreading the word! That's the reason, why we didn't touch it...

• We've done a very, very conservative calculation and only calculated 40k sponsoring money. Of course, the more, the better, but doing that will give you a more robust view on what attendees must bring in return. Might be you should adapt your break even points or even have to rise your fees.

• Might be think of seperating exhibition and sponsorship - I've just seen some empty big booths from Gold Sponsors in Seoul... manned booth are much more attractive for all attendees and so in general for all exhibitors ;-)

• The Travel Grants Program should work more closely with the Sponsorship program. All inquiries to potential sponsors should include an option to sponsor the travel grants program.

Financial

• Make kind of a risk analysis, that lists the costs you have 6,3,2,1 month before the event - this shows clearly, which costs you have in the very unlikely case, you have to cancel. Comparing these costs with the number of already registered attendees will help you to sleep better ;-)

• About Early Birdies - I just talked to Sanghee, chair of the 2015 event. In Seoul 25% of all attendees registered few days before online registration closed or did it on-site! And that's why we thought about how we can attract Early Birders with more than just a smaller price. I like the early plans from Boston attracting Early Birdies especially!

Discounts

• Keep in mind, that offering special rates for students (and other groups) might cause problems for your general calculation!

Travel Grants

See FOSS4G 2016 Travel Grants

Code Sprint

• We plan a two day codesprint before and a two day codesprint after the conference (to be honest, we wanted to have 4 days before, but that did not work because of room avalability issues). There was a very, very positive feedback from various OSGeo-projects in doing so. So think of extending the traditional Code Sprint Saturday somehow

Food

• Provide the delegate's dietary requirements to the venues. Otherwise some delegates may not be able to eat which might make them grumpy. Especially if the food is made off-site (with no kitchen available, they can't create something off-the-cuff).