FOSS4G2019 Q&A Full Proposal Sevilla

Questions Paul Ramsey

• 35EUR seems low for a Gala dinner expense, have you trued this up with a quote?

The gala dinner we have planned is informal, allowing networking, gathering around high tables, with and without seats, taking advantage of the power of “tapas”-like menu to let all participants to live that gastronomic experience in a magnificent location.

We know a few catering companies that would make an excellent dinner for that price. We do have a couple of recent quotes in the same space and for the same type of dinner with prices that would fit in. On the other hand, we will negotiate with a catering company for all the services so we expect to have a good deal to get the assignment, even at a lower price.

• What is the actual floorplan of the proposed venue? How does the plenary hall relate to the exhibition hall relate to the session rooms? Near, far, connected, disconnected?

We have worked on the OpenStreetMap representation of Isla Mágica: http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/22747446#map=17/37.40795/-5.99994

There is still many things to add there, but you can have a better idea of how the venue is and where the rooms are going to be placed. On page 31 of the dossier you can find the detailed map of all the spaces we plan to use.

The walking distance between rooms will never be longer than 600 meters in the worst case. All the venue is almost flat (maybe 3 meters elevation difference maximum), prepared for wheelchair access, even the bridges over the water. So walking between different rooms should be easy and fast. We also can provide to people who have some kind of disabilities to move using different motorized ways like segway, golf car, electric wheelchair, motorized bikes,...

There are also some floorplans and photos for each room if you want to see how the room looks like right now, although some of the rooms will have a different distribution of seats as we want to perform different activities which requires different seat distributions.

The exhibition will be displayed along the ways between halls, close to the lunch and coffee break meeting points.

• The budget includes about EUR20K for workshop computers. What is the University providing and what are you renting yourself? Where do the spare computers go?

The University of Sevilla will provide all the computers for the workshops with proper internet connection. Those computers are the same students use on their classes, desktop machines linux friendly that can be started with OSGeo Live.

We will have to take care of all the expenses that arise from our activity, including: extra computers to complement room availability (as it is stated in the template: “You will need a handful more computers than you have seats, to deal with DOA equipment and on-site failures, so gross-up the per-computer cost a little to account for spare machines”), extra electricity cords supply, electrical technicians, technical assistance personnel, security, cleaning, etc.

We are also planning to record these sessions, and this will cause expenses that are also included in that budget item. Similarly cost for workshop registrations. Also the cost of coffee machines and coffee supplies are –mistakenly- included here. EUR20K it’s the overall cost of workshops that probably we should have splitted in more budget labels and rows.

Questions Steven Feldman

Can you provide some more details of the “parallel official schedule outside the main conference”?

• You propose 9 parallel track with 351 20 minute presentation slots, there does not appear to be any time allowance for questions and for changeover? Previous FOSS4Gs have had 30 minute sots with 20 mins talk, 5 mins questions and 5 mins changeover.
• Will workshop presenters receive free or reduced price entry to the conference? Is this included in your budget?
• Please clarify your plans to record sessions (all or some?)
• Will you be streaming any sessions live? If so, just keynotes or all sessions?
• Is there room capacity for 1200 attendees in the presentation track?
• While the mid range attendance at 1200 is in line with Boston in 2017 (1150) it is well above Bonn in 2016 (950) - I suggest it would be prudent to budget for a lower “low” estimate.
• Currently you only just cover costs with 900 delegates is there a plan in case the economic environment has deteriorated by 2019?
• How might you make the event financially viable with 750-800 delegates?
• Does your budget include allowance for 15% free entrance to students and staff and sponsors?
• Your sponsorship target is moderately high, particularly if you are focussing on a large proportion of public sector sponsors? Do you have a contingency plan if sponsorship is less than expected? Who will be responsible for recruiting sponsors, a member of SLOC or the PCO?
• How have you accounted for VAT on ticket sales and expenses?
• Have you allowed enough for the costs of a registration service e.g. eventbrite and credit card fees
• On your mid estimate 1200 delegates you only make a $40k surplus, this is quite low and leaves little room except your contingency. Can you clarify?
• Your sponsorship rates seem low in comparison to previous events Can you explain your rationale for this?
• Can you clarify the maximum extent of the OSGeo Guarantee that you are requesting?

Questions Till Adams

• General remark:
  • although I like the idea to write a story around the proposal, nevertheless, for me it seems unnecessary difficult to find single events and approach the structure. This maybe the cause for some questions, you already answered in your proposal...
• the workshop fee of 110/160 seems slightly high (guess we had 80/100) or is it per day (w workshops)?
• the total calculation seems a bit risky to me (e. g. 1200 participants, 40k surplus) - where are the levers that reduce your risk except to increase the participation fees?
• Does Gala Dinner mean Gala Dinner or is it also somewhat socializing (I think this is an important point. If x hundred people are seperated by fixed seats on tables, socializing is difficult (I think the Gala Dinner of the 2010 Barcelona event is an example for what I fear, socializing took place in front of the door, not really inside)
• In Bonn we shaped the Code Sprint around the conference. The idea was, to give the people the opportunity to work together, once they are in place anyhow. Do you see a chance for s.th. similar for 2019?
  • In chapt. 7.3. you write "We will try for students to engage on the codesprint so that they can learn how a codesprint works and interact with other developers [...]" - How will you do this, especially if the CS is only one day (which at least is quite enough for the people in the projects to say hello to each other)
• Looking at your sponsor's list: I think it's kind of unfair only to plan to mention the top level sponsors and let them present in the plenum. My opinion: In the end the day is as follows: We are a community of small to mid-sized companies, that are often willing to sponsor our events. If we only give big visibility to the "big players", none of the companies, that comes from our own community, that actualy support our projects will be mentioned - in relation, 8k for Gold for a small company is much more money, than 20k for google (e.g.). So my question is: Are you planning to give also small/mid-sized companies, that sponsor the event, more visibility?