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?
• 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?
• 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?

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: How will you contribute, that also small/mid-sized companies, that support FOSS4G2019 also day to day, will get their visibility?