EGU Townhall 2015

Type of event
Townhalls are "power-networking events" hosted at the European Geosiences Union (EGU) General Assembly (GA) for up to 350 people.

EGU-wording: "Townhall Meetings are meetings open for all participants in the conference at which new initiatives or decisions are announced to a larger audience following an open discussion on the matter raised."

Townhalls are hosted in the evening following the conclusion of all scientific tracks. The events last one hour and usually have presentations / announcements taking up the first 20 minutes, to allow for an open discussion among the attendees. During this phase, refreshments are provided to ensure a lively and convivial atmosphere.

Expected Audience Size
100 - 150 people

Audience: Topical Background
Free Open Source Software from OSGeo projects affects most if not all EGU Divisions. Currently FOSS (OSGeo projects + R, GMT, etc.) is particularly strong in the Hydrology, Atnospheric Sciences, Earth and Space Sience Informatics and Tectonics Divisions.

Attendees are expected from the following fields (Academia, Research and Industry).


 * Atmospheric Sciences
 * Biogeosciences
 * Climate: Past, Present & Future
 * Cryospheric Sciences
 * Earth Magnetism & Rock Physics
 * Energy, Resources and the Environment
 * Earth and Space Science Informatics
 * Geodesy
 * Geodynamics
 * Geosciences Instrumentation and Data Systems
 * Geomorphology
 * Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology
 * Hydrological Sciences
 * Natural Hazards
 * Nonlinear Processes in Geosciences
 * Ocean Sciences
 * Planetary and Solar System Sciences
 * Seismology
 * Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology
 * Soil System Sciences
 * Solar-Terrestrial Sciences
 * Tectonics and Structural Geology

Audience: Professional Level

 * Doctorate Students, PostDocs, Researchers, Activists, Leaders, Visionaries, Decision Makers, Funding Agencies

Venue

 * EGU GA location at the Vienna International Conference Centre, Austria
 * Townhall location: The townhall will be hosted in a dedicated lecture hall on the conference premises. Room capacity: Most likely up to 150 people.
 * Preliminary date and time: April 14 2015, 19:00 - 20:00 hours. The date will be synchronized with the FOSS-themend topical sessions (Hydrology and Earth and Space Science Informatics)

Relevance for OSGeo
how will our participation help OSGeo
 * Continuation and expansion of the "topical bridge head" established within EGU by the first OSGeo Townhall in 2014.
 * Raise awareness at and reach-out to the European geoscience community by hosting a dedicated public OSGeo event at the largest European geoscience conference.
 * Reach out to young scientists starting their careers.
 * Meeting place for people already active in OSGeo ("meta-BoF") as a large number of people congregates every year at the EGU GA.
 * Reach out to decision makers/elders/scientific activists within the EGU Divisions.
 * Culmination of the "FOSS day" (a new concept @ EGU, to be introduced in 2015) at the EGU GA: The organizers are trying to schedule all FOSS / OSGeo - related events on the same day. This will ensure we have a large audience and niceties such as "FOSS flashmobs" can be arranged for poster sessions. The "FOSS day" could and should be finished off with the OSGeo townhall, as a "multiplier/bring them all together" event.
 * Peaceful und friendly coexistence: Propiertary platforms including Microsoft, Google and ESRI are also staging dedicated events during EGU GA.
 * Awareness on the decision maker level: Significance of OSGeo within the emerging Data Science / Open Science debate ("-> OSGeo-tailored research programmes ?")

Budget

 * Venue rental: none
 * Catering: 2000 USD (based on last years experience) [required]
 * Promotional material: 100 USD (Posters/flyers announcing the event) [required]
 * Give aways: 500 USD (production of OSGeo-live USB-drives) [optional] (this is a guestimate due to lack of lessons learned on this from FOSS4G2014)

Total requested budget: 2600 USD

Proposed Payment Method

 * No seed money required
 * Catering bill (ca. 2000 USD) can be charged on the OSGeo Credit Card (as in 2014) after the event.
 * Promotional material / give aways (600 USD max): Money transfer to german bank account ?

Support by OSGeo

 * Finacial support
 * Use of Logos
 * Volunteers: Preparation phase, event hosting, presentations during the event.


 * Markus Neteler ?
 * Yann Chemin ?
 * Edzer Pebesma?
 * Madi ?
 * GeoForAll folks ?
 * OSGeo-Live folks ?

Related Documents
Summary Report for the OSGeo Townhall at the EGU 2014 GA

EGU Board Request for funding
Board meeting 2015-02-05: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2015-02-05#Minutes

and the motions:

- approve past meeting's minutes

- allocate 10k USD in OSGeo 2015 budget for the ICA-OSGeo-ISPRS Students Awards initative. The funds will be requested by the award's committee with a detailed fund request.

- approve the funding request of 2600 USD for EGU OSGeo Townhall meeting

THE FUNDING REQUEST FOR 2600 USD WAS APPROVED BY THE BOARD on 2015-02-05.

Preparation Phase
tbd

Team

 * Peter Loewe
 * Margherita Di Leo
 * Volunteers ...

Townhall Venue Details
(Copernicus 2015-02-09): Room R8 has a capacity for 122 people.

Catering
Copernicus 2015-02-09): New caterer: egu@mottogroup.at

EGU-internal FOSS-related sessions
Monday: HS3.3 is scheduled on Monday afternoon

Tuesday: ESSI2.13/SSS1.8 Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for Geoinformatics and Geosciences (co-organized) 30  Abstracts Oral: TU3 (R14) TU4 (R14) Poster: TU5

EGU-internal public relations
(Copernicus 2015-02-09): To advertise your townhall meeting you can send us a DIN A3 poster (300 dpi) by the end of February at the very latest. C2: Katja Gaenger, Copernicus

Press / Media
To be considered: -Contact Östereichischer Rundfunk (national radio) in advance. Reference: Helli. -Contact FOSS-minded science bloggers.

Materials / Give-aways
tbd

Programme
20 Minutes of presentations + discussion.

Speakers
tbd

Execution Phase
tbd