OSGeo - User contributions [en]

Q&A Stage 2 Bristol

2026-04-07T08:06:51Z

Dbauszus:

= Questions to the LOC from CC =

== Name ==

=== Paul Ramsey ===
* Q: On the budget I am little surprised to see almost no expense lines outside of the venue and A/V. And the A/V seems quite low given (as noted in the bid) the generally high cost of doing video capture at professional quality over multiple tracks of a conference like this.
* R: Please see the '''A/V''' item in the answers section.

* Q: I am please to see the discount registration fee is set above the fixed costs per delegate, but I do not see a student fee? They usually end up less than cost, so must be managed a little during registration (can’t have too many).
* R: Please see the '''Student Tickets / Late Registration''' item in the answers section.

* Q: The conference venue fee seems to include lunch, but not any morning/breakfast beverage service?
* R: Please see the '''Catering''' item in the answers section.

=== Alex Leith ===
I have a few suggestions:

* Q: From our experience, we have about 1/3 registrations in our early bird phase, 1/3 in our mid phase, and 1/3 late. That is also to say, that I strongly recommend three tiers of tickets, early (or super early), regular (early) and late (regular). Essentially, a strong incentive to register early
* R: Please see the '''Student Tickets / Late Registration''' item in the answers section.

* Q: We had two types of cheap tickets, "student" and also "community contributor". The first is self-explanatory, the second required a brief justification, but we didn't police it.
* R: Please see the '''Student Tickets / Late Registration''' item in the answers section.

* I agree with Paul that AV is important, and can be expensive, and that ensuring that recordings (and hybrid/broadcast) works well may cost extra
* R: Please see the '''A/V''' item in the answers section.

* Some expenses are missing, for example, the dinner, the icebreaker, geochicas, b2b, any breakfast events (women in geo, for example).
* R: Please see the '''Social Events''' items in the answers section.

* I think the budget needs more work. I would be happy to share our budget and actuals spreadsheets from Auckland, noting that our attendance was only 400, they should be still a good benchmark.
* R: We will provide an updated budget sheet to the conference_dev mailing list today 03/04/26.

=== Luca Delucchi ===
Dear Briston LOC, thanks a lot for the proposals, I have few questions mainly related to budget

* Q: Related to A/V you wrote 10000£, but for my experience usually they cost more, what is included in you proposals? All the rooms will be recorded?
* R: Please see the '''A/V''' item in the answers section.

* Q: There are no cost for the social events
* R: Please see the '''Social Events''' items in the answers section.

* Q: If I understood correctly the lunch price is included in the "Meeting room rental" record, this is including also coffee break at the mid morning/afternoon?
* R: Please see the '''Catering''' item in the answers section.

* Q: Do you plan to have conference T-Shirt? if yes there is no cost on the budget
* R: Please see the '''TShirts''' item in the answers section.

* Q: Cost for advertising is missing, but usually few thousands of euro are used (participating to conferences, some payed post or other activities)
* R: Please the '''Marketing''' item in the answers section.

So the proposal is good, but the budget needs a little more work for my point of view.

=== Dennis Bauszus ===
I will provide answers here since some of the questions are in regards to the same items.

* '''A/V''': We have a quote from Bluestone AV a local company specialised on A/V for events. The quote is for £5,432 which includes tax. Bluestone provide 9 cameras, microphones, mac books, and tripods, as well as 3 engineers over the 3 days of the conference. We can hire more engineers if required so we left the budget open to £10,000. We believe that we are able to cover every conference session with the engineers and volunteers. We can stream either to a private YouTube channel, or Zoom. All streams will be recorded to be published later via the OSGeo YouTube channel.

* '''TShirts''': Shirts will be a paid for extra. We are working with Spreadshirt and were able to produce printed shirts for as little as £12. Some delegates may opt for an organic premium shirts to be printed while others are not so keen on a shirt. We added [£720/£960/£1200] for [60/80/100] shirts for sponsors, volunteers, and Travel Grant recipients in the budget.

* '''Student Tickets / Late Registration''': We added student tickets at £180, and late registration at £450. Early bird registration is £250, and the regular registration is £370. We will cap the student tickets at 100, which is 10% of the best capacity [1000]. We distribute the registration for the budget as 10% for Student and Late each, and %40 for Early Bird and Regular each.

* '''Catering''': The venue catering includes three servings of tea and coffee throughout the day, mini pastries on arrival, homemade cookies mid morning, a fresh fruit selection in the afternoon, and two courses chef's choice lunch with fruit juice.

* '''Social Events''': The B2B event will be after the setup of the exhibition space on Tuesday. There will be a drinks reception for which budget [1200/1400/1600] dependent on the attendance scenario. We budget £2000 for the GeoChicas / Women+ in Geospatial event. We budget £2500 for the Icebreaker event. As for the Gala Dinner. We would like this to be a ticketed event [£80] and budget for 15% of the attendance for tickets given to sponsors / travel grant / volunteers. This adds [£7200/£9600/£12000] to the expenses.

* '''Marketing''': We would like to reduce print waste and only plan for digital advertisement. The idea is to have a large screen in the foyer which we can borrow. We added £1000 for digital marketing to the budget.

We have adjusted the budget in regards to the above mentioned items. We apply a multiplier to the expected sponsor revenue for the better and best attendence scenarios. We expect a surplus of [£24413 / £35084 / £45756] and would like to earmark £29450 for the Travel Grant.

Q&A Stage 2 Bristol

2026-04-03T15:27:16Z

Dbauszus: Provide Answers section in regards to questions and updated budget.

= Questions to the LOC from CC =

== Name ==

=== Paul Ramsey ===
* Q: On the budget I am little surprised to see almost no expense lines outside of the venue and A/V. And the A/V seems quite low given (as noted in the bid) the generally high cost of doing video capture at professional quality over multiple tracks of a conference like this.
* R: Please see the '''A/V''' item in the answers section.

* Q: I am please to see the discount registration fee is set above the fixed costs per delegate, but I do not see a student fee? They usually end up less than cost, so must be managed a little during registration (can’t have too many).
* R: Please see the '''Student Tickets / Late Registration''' item in the answers section.

* Q: The conference venue fee seems to include lunch, but not any morning/breakfast beverage service?
* R: Please see the '''Catering''' item in the answers section.

=== Alex Leith ===
I have a few suggestions:

* Q: From our experience, we have about 1/3 registrations in our early bird phase, 1/3 in our mid phase, and 1/3 late. That is also to say, that I strongly recommend three tiers of tickets, early (or super early), regular (early) and late (regular). Essentially, a strong incentive to register early
* R: Please see the '''Student Tickets / Late Registration''' item in the answers section.

* Q: We had two types of cheap tickets, "student" and also "community contributor". The first is self-explanatory, the second required a brief justification, but we didn't police it.
* R: Please see the '''Student Tickets / Late Registration''' item in the answers section.

* I agree with Paul that AV is important, and can be expensive, and that ensuring that recordings (and hybrid/broadcast) works well may cost extra
* R: Please see the '''A/V''' item in the answers section.

* Some expenses are missing, for example, the dinner, the icebreaker, geochicas, b2b, any breakfast events (women in geo, for example).
* R: Please see the '''Social Events''' items in the answers section.

* I think the budget needs more work. I would be happy to share our budget and actuals spreadsheets from Auckland, noting that our attendance was only 400, they should be still a good benchmark.
* R: We will provide an updated budget sheet to the conference_dev mailing list today 03/04/26.

=== Luca Delucchi ===
Dear Briston LOC, thanks a lot for the proposals, I have few questions mainly related to budget

* Q: Related to A/V you wrote 10000£, but for my experience usually they cost more, what is included in you proposals? All the rooms will be recorded?
* R: Please see the '''A/V''' item in the answers section.

* Q: There are no cost for the social events
* R: Please see the '''Social Events''' items in the answers section.

* Q: If I understood correctly the lunch price is included in the "Meeting room rental" record, this is including also coffee break at the mid morning/afternoon?
* R: Please see the '''Catering''' item in the answers section.

* Q: Do you plan to have conference T-Shirt? if yes there is no cost on the budget
* R: Please see the '''TShirts''' item in the answers section.

* Q: Cost for advertising is missing, but usually few thousands of euro are used (participating to conferences, some payed post or other activities)
* R: Please the '''Marketing''' item in the answers section.

So the proposal is good, but the budget needs a little more work for my point of view.

=== Dennis Bauszus ===
I will provide answers here since some of the questions are in regards to the same items.

* '''A/V''': We have a quote from Bluestone AV a local company specialised on A/V for events. The quote is for £5,4326 which includes tax. Bluestone provide 9 cameras, microphones, mac books, and tripods, as well as 3 engineers over the 3 days of the conference. We can hire more engineers if required so we left the budget open to £10,000. We believe that we are able to cover every conference session with the engineers and volunteers. We can stream either to a private YouTube channel, or Zoom. All streams will be recorded to be published later via the OSGeo YouTube channel.

* '''TShirts''': Shirts will be a paid for extra. We are working with Spreadshirt and were able to produce printed shirts for as little as £12. Some delegates may opt for an organic premium shirts to be printed while others are not so keen on a shirt. We added [£720/£960/£1200] for [60/80/100] shirts for sponsors, volunteers, and Travel Grant recipients in the budget.

* '''Student Tickets / Late Registration''': We added student tickets at £180, and late registration at £450. Early bird registration is £250, and the regular registration is £370. We will cap the student tickets at 100, which is 10% of the best capacity [1000]. We distribute the registration for the budget as 10% for Student and Late each, and %40 for Early Bird and Regular each.

* '''Catering''': The venue catering includes three servings of tea and coffee throughout the day, mini pastries on arrival, homemade cookies mid morning, a fresh fruit selection in the afternoon, and two courses chef's choice lunch with fruit juice.

* '''Social Events''': The B2B event will be after the setup of the exhibition space on Tuesday. There will be a drinks reception for which budget [1200/1400/1600] dependent on the attendance scenario. We budget £2000 for the GeoChicas / Women+ in Geospatial event. We budget £2500 for the Icebreaker event. As for the Gala Dinner. We would like this to be a ticketed event [£80] and budget for 15% of the attendance for tickets given to sponsors / travel grant / volunteers. This adds [£7200/£9600/£12000] to the expenses.

* '''Marketing''': We would like to reduce print waste and only plan for digital advertisement. The idea is to have a large screen in the foyer which we can borrow. We added £1000 for digital marketing to the budget.

We have adjusted the budget in regards to the above mentioned items. We apply a multiplier to the expected sponsor revenue for the better and best attendence scenarios. We expect a surplus of [£24413 / £35084 / £45756] and would like to earmark £29450 for the Travel Grant.

FOSS4G 2027 Bid Process

2025-12-20T11:31:37Z

Dbauszus: Change link type for FOSS4G 2027 Letter of Intent for Bristol

= Basics =

* FOSS4G bids are open for all countries in the world.
** [http://2019.foss4g.org FOSS4G 2019] was in Bucharest, Romania
** [http://2020.foss4g.org FOSS4G 2020] was planed for Calgary, Canada (canceled due to COVID-19)
** [http://2021.foss4g.org FOSS4G 2021] was in Buenos Aires, Argentina
** [http://2022.foss4g.org FOSS4G 2022] was in Florence, Italy
** [http://2023.foss4g.org FOSS4G 2023] was in Prizren, Kosovo
** [http://2024.foss4g.org FOSS4G 2024] was in Belém, Brazil
** [http://2025.foss4g.org FOSS4G 2025] was in Aukland, New Zealand
** [http://2026.foss4g.org FOSS4G 2026] will be in Hiroshima, Japan
** 2027 FOSS4G will be Worldwide

* "Letters of Intent" will be accepted from potential Local Organizing Committees (LOC) from all of the world.
* Regardless whether one or more letter(s) of intent are received, the Conference Committee members will vote. The vote procedure for 2027 is as follows: Every member of CC votes on every LoI. LoI's that receive more than 50% of "thumbs up"-votes will pass stage 1.
* Selected letters will be invited to prepare a full bid based on the usual RFP process.
* A proposal outlining budget, potential sponsors, LOC members, and venue costs will be required, even if only one letter is received.
* Based on experiences from the past years, we would like to stress the following tasks:
** OSGeo anticipates a Travel Grant program. There is a budget from OSGeo, but we expect the bidder to further collect money for TGP and to offer free or at least reduced passes for grantees.
** The bid should stress the alignment with OSGeo values as given in OSGeo's CoC and contain hints on a conference CoC

== Voters on RfP 2027 ==

# Maria Brovelli
# David Bitner
# David Fawcett
# Paul Ramsey
# Vasile Crăciunescu
# Michael Terner
# Peter Batty
# Mark Iliffe
# Darrell Fuhriman
# Gavin Fleming
# Claude Philipona
# Venkatesh Raghavan
# Msilikale Msilanga
# Guido Stein
# María Arias de Reyna
# Luca Delucchi
# Besfort Guri

== CRO's on RfP 2027 ==
CRO's will receive the votes for both stages and send the final results (but no counts!) to the chair of the committee. This year we are happy to have Till Adams and Codrina on board.

* [[User:Till Adams | Till Adams]]
* [[User:Codrina | Codrina Maria Ilie]]

= Summary of Important Dates ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anywhere_on_Earth AoE]) =

{|
|-
! Release RFP:
| 2025 November 21.
|-
! Letters of Intent (Stage 1) due:
| 2025 December 22.
|-
! Stage 1 question period:
| 2025 December 23. to 2025 December 31.
|-
! Stage 1 polling Period:
| 2026 January 01. to 2026 January 09.
|-
! Stage 1 decision announcement:
| 2026 January 09.
|-
! Proposals (Stage 2) due:
| 2026 March 10.
|-
! Stage 2 question period:
| 2026 March 11 to 2026 March 18.
|-
! Voting Period:
| 2026 March 19 to 2023 May 27.
|-
! Selection of host city announced
| 2026 March 29.
|}

= Letters of Intent =
* Accepted until December 22, 2025
* Limited to three pages
* Read the RFP document (below) and answer the following questions:
1. Who is your conference chair?

2. Who is on your local organizing committee (LOC)?

3. What is the experience of your committee members with similar events?

4. What is your proposed venue? (include access to Internet, room sizes, maximum attendees)

5. What are your provisional dates for the conference?

6. Early thoughts on prices of conference attendance? (indicative estimates)

7. What is the price range and general location of your proposed accommodations? (hotels)

8. Are you partnering with other organizations? (e.g. local entities or other events like HOT OSM Summit)

9. What makes FOSS4G in your proposed location and with your team compelling?

10. What are your safety plans? What is your financial strategy to make the event sustainable in this complex situation?

=== RFP Documents ===

* RFP containing updated process ([https://www.osgeo.org/wp-content/uploads/FOSS4G2027-request-for-proposal.pdf RFP])
* Budget template ([https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/foss4g/rfp/2021/osgeo-conference-budget-template.ods file])

= Letter of Intent Review =

* Letters of Intent were received from the following local committees:
** [https://wiki.osgeo.org/w/images/e/ee/FOSS4G2027_Bristol_LOI.pdf FOSS4G 2027 Letter of Intent for Bristol, UK]

* Questions will be asked of LOCs on conference_dev 2025 December 23 to 2025 December 31 - be prepared to answer the questions ASAP!
* Conference committee will vote and results announced on 2026 January 09.
** Letters with more than 50% thumbs up will be passed on to the proposal stage.

= Results Stage One =

== Bid Process Stage Two ==
Proposals were received from the following local committees:

= Result for Stage Two =

= Decision =

[[Category:Conference Committee]]
[[Category:FOSS4G]]
[[Category:FOSS4G2027]]

FOSS4G 2027 Bid Process

2025-12-20T11:29:22Z

Dbauszus: Add Letter of Intent for Bristol

= Basics =

* FOSS4G bids are open for all countries in the world.
** [http://2019.foss4g.org FOSS4G 2019] was in Bucharest, Romania
** [http://2020.foss4g.org FOSS4G 2020] was planed for Calgary, Canada (canceled due to COVID-19)
** [http://2021.foss4g.org FOSS4G 2021] was in Buenos Aires, Argentina
** [http://2022.foss4g.org FOSS4G 2022] was in Florence, Italy
** [http://2023.foss4g.org FOSS4G 2023] was in Prizren, Kosovo
** [http://2024.foss4g.org FOSS4G 2024] was in Belém, Brazil
** [http://2025.foss4g.org FOSS4G 2025] was in Aukland, New Zealand
** [http://2026.foss4g.org FOSS4G 2026] will be in Hiroshima, Japan
** 2027 FOSS4G will be Worldwide

* "Letters of Intent" will be accepted from potential Local Organizing Committees (LOC) from all of the world.
* Regardless whether one or more letter(s) of intent are received, the Conference Committee members will vote. The vote procedure for 2027 is as follows: Every member of CC votes on every LoI. LoI's that receive more than 50% of "thumbs up"-votes will pass stage 1.
* Selected letters will be invited to prepare a full bid based on the usual RFP process.
* A proposal outlining budget, potential sponsors, LOC members, and venue costs will be required, even if only one letter is received.
* Based on experiences from the past years, we would like to stress the following tasks:
** OSGeo anticipates a Travel Grant program. There is a budget from OSGeo, but we expect the bidder to further collect money for TGP and to offer free or at least reduced passes for grantees.
** The bid should stress the alignment with OSGeo values as given in OSGeo's CoC and contain hints on a conference CoC

== Voters on RfP 2027 ==

# Maria Brovelli
# David Bitner
# David Fawcett
# Paul Ramsey
# Vasile Crăciunescu
# Michael Terner
# Peter Batty
# Mark Iliffe
# Darrell Fuhriman
# Gavin Fleming
# Claude Philipona
# Venkatesh Raghavan
# Msilikale Msilanga
# Guido Stein
# María Arias de Reyna
# Luca Delucchi
# Besfort Guri

== CRO's on RfP 2027 ==
CRO's will receive the votes for both stages and send the final results (but no counts!) to the chair of the committee. This year we are happy to have Till Adams and Codrina on board.

* [[User:Till Adams | Till Adams]]
* [[User:Codrina | Codrina Maria Ilie]]

= Summary of Important Dates ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anywhere_on_Earth AoE]) =

{|
|-
! Release RFP:
| 2025 November 21.
|-
! Letters of Intent (Stage 1) due:
| 2025 December 22.
|-
! Stage 1 question period:
| 2025 December 23. to 2025 December 31.
|-
! Stage 1 polling Period:
| 2026 January 01. to 2026 January 09.
|-
! Stage 1 decision announcement:
| 2026 January 09.
|-
! Proposals (Stage 2) due:
| 2026 March 10.
|-
! Stage 2 question period:
| 2026 March 11 to 2026 March 18.
|-
! Voting Period:
| 2026 March 19 to 2023 May 27.
|-
! Selection of host city announced
| 2026 March 29.
|}

= Letters of Intent =
* Accepted until December 22, 2025
* Limited to three pages
* Read the RFP document (below) and answer the following questions:
1. Who is your conference chair?

2. Who is on your local organizing committee (LOC)?

3. What is the experience of your committee members with similar events?

4. What is your proposed venue? (include access to Internet, room sizes, maximum attendees)

5. What are your provisional dates for the conference?

6. Early thoughts on prices of conference attendance? (indicative estimates)

7. What is the price range and general location of your proposed accommodations? (hotels)

8. Are you partnering with other organizations? (e.g. local entities or other events like HOT OSM Summit)

9. What makes FOSS4G in your proposed location and with your team compelling?

10. What are your safety plans? What is your financial strategy to make the event sustainable in this complex situation?

=== RFP Documents ===

* RFP containing updated process ([https://www.osgeo.org/wp-content/uploads/FOSS4G2027-request-for-proposal.pdf RFP])
* Budget template ([https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/foss4g/rfp/2021/osgeo-conference-budget-template.ods file])

= Letter of Intent Review =

* Letters of Intent were received from the following local committees:
** [[File:FOSS4G2027 Bristol LOI.pdf|thumb|FOSS4G 2027 Letter of Intent for Bristol, UK]]

* Questions will be asked of LOCs on conference_dev 2025 December 23 to 2025 December 31 - be prepared to answer the questions ASAP!
* Conference committee will vote and results announced on 2026 January 09.
** Letters with more than 50% thumbs up will be passed on to the proposal stage.

= Results Stage One =

== Bid Process Stage Two ==
Proposals were received from the following local committees:

= Result for Stage Two =

= Decision =

[[Category:Conference Committee]]
[[Category:FOSS4G]]
[[Category:FOSS4G2027]]

File:FOSS4G2027 Bristol LOI.pdf

2025-12-20T11:23:27Z

Dbauszus:

FOSS4G 2027 Letter of Intent for Bristol, UK