Operate OSGeo Booth

Planning

 * Good reading: Running Conference Booths

Posters
There is a German language version of an OSGeo poster set for a booth available at the VisCom site. Please use, extend, modify and make better ones.

It is planned to operate an OSGeo booth at the Intergeo 2006. This is the bootstrapping event for a regular presentation environment. The OSGeo VisCom will operate the small scale forerunner of this booth at the LinuxTag 2006 exhibition.

Intergeo 2006
(move this section to its own page once it is stable) First contacts have been made with the organizing company of the Intergeo fair, congress and conference Hinte GmbH ot address the special needs of an OSGeo booth in the exhibition area. The organizers understand that the OS community has special needs regarding booth operation, connectivity and community interaction. Additionally they recognize the growing need of their attendees for a comprehensive representation of Open Source GIS development, services and business.

OSGeo Community, Member, Corporate Plan
It might be possible to request for a larger connected area where on one side (left in the plan) Open Source projects can be presented free of cost. The center area hosts a screen for presentations and a lounge. On the right hand side a central info counter displays OSGeo material and gives information on Foundation issues. The rest (right hand side) is populated by sponsoring companies that offer services around OSGeo software and projects.

____________________      ____________________________ |            osg     \      \       |     |      |      | |   osg              \      \__com | com |  com | com  | | osg         osg    / screen  \___|_____|      |      | |      osg          /               \   |_______|______| |             osg   \ presentation   \ info  |xxxxx|   | | OSGeo project booths\_          ___/__ ____|tech |com| |         osg           \_ lounge/      |    |xxxxx|___| |    osg         osg      \      \ com  | com |  com   | |___________________________\     \_____|_____|________|

Intergeo 2006 Planning
In Munich (location of the Intergeo 2006) the central diagonal prolongs throughout the hall connecting both ends. It would be left open for people to walk through, take a break, get some information or listen to a presentation. The Hinte Messe GmbH has kindly spent some thought on how a booth might look and came up with two versions, see some sketches below.

Theme "Beach"
The theme "Beach" would be a light (ie. not-heavy) construction with lots of light (ie: not-dark) and generous areas to sit and talk. The surrounding corners would be populated by paying service providers (companies). In the center area the OSGeo Projects (Software, Geodata, Edu, etc.) and committees can staff booths for free (for details Mr. OLaf Freier from the Hinte Messe will join discussion).





OSGeo Corporate Management
It will be possible to manage both .org and .com booths for this area with an exclusive service (registration, billing, connectivity, booth space) from the organizer (Hinte). The OSGeo Foundation will appear as the corporate managing framework.

Registration
Registration for a presence on the Open Source Park of the Intergeo is managed via a mailing list in Deutsch ((German language). This page coincides with the starting of the German language Local Chapter.

Funding
Corporate sponsorhip will finance the Open Source Park. The OSGeo will be present with a large booth area and as many InfoPoints as there are projects in the OSGeo and people to staff them. The LinuxTag 2006-experience highlights how this worked at a small scale.

At the current stage there will be no effective costs for the OSGeo except for printing information material etc. Fundraising is requested to raise funding printing posters, flyers and 100 t-shirts with a German tag line. They will be sold and given away according to how it was done at the Where 2.0. The money must be available in September 2006.