Event Plan 2007

This page describes how VisCom will manage events for 2007, including a budget plan to be submitted to the board, as per our 16th meeting.

Types of Events

With respect to OSGeo's level participation there are three kinds of events in the world:

• A "Major Event" is where OSGeo is a formal sponsor of some sort. We host a booth, have multiple speakers, do workshops, etc. VisCom will be proactive in identifying these opportunities and will be significantly involved in working with the Event Owner to make it be a success. Funding will be provided by VisCom to help defray costs, but it is expected that major funding will be available from sponsors or the event organizers, e.g. booth space. These are considered "strategic" opportunities for us, and so we should understand well our target audience and our messages. There are only a few such events per year, and they are planned well in advance.

• A "Regular Event" is where there are people from OSGeo speaking or doing workshops, but we're not an actual sponsor. VisCom can lend a hand in lining up speakers and whatnot, but we don't have a booth. These events occur throughout the year at seemingly random intervals. VisCom might proactively prod people to participate, esp. if the actual event organizer contacts OSGeo looking for us to take part. VisCom may be able to some small funding, e.g. for travel or printing, on an as-needed basis. There will be several such events per year.

• A "Local Event" is where a group of OSGeo members coordinate to host some level of activity at a local event -- it might be a booth, or a session, or a workshop, etc. VisCom will support this by providing small funding amounts for things like brochures, posters, etc, but the bulk of the costs will be provided by the local chapter and/or sponsorships. There will be several such events per year.

(Note that FOSS4G is a separate category unto itself. That event is run by OSGeo but not via VisCom, so we won't consider it here.)

Event Participation Process and Event Owners

1. Events will come to VisCom's attention in one of three ways. Major Events will be identified in advance by the VisCom team. Regular and Local Event opportunities may be identified by OSGeo members or the event organizers may contact OSGeo directly looking for our participation.
2. An Event Owner will be assigned. This person will be responsible for coordinating OSGeo's presence and participation at the event [see page elsewhere]. Depending on the size of the event, the Event Owner might just be the sole speaker or the Event Owner might have charge of recruiting other OSGeo members to do booth duty and give workshops.
3. The Event Owner does whatever pre-event coordination is required. If required, funding assistance is requested from VisCom [we need a stock form / set of criteria/questions for this]. Other external funding or sponsorship opportunities are identified, as required. VisCom provides assistance to the Event Owner for things like graphics, T-shirts, collateral, etc.
4. The Event occurs!
5. The Event Owner provides a report back to VisCom. This may include things like a list of what OSGeo members participated and in what capacities, copies of whatever presentations were given (for the OSGeo library), breakdown of costs incurred (so we can help track and plan for future events), etc.

A Note on Limitations

The two limiting factors in deciding what events we do are the monetary cost and resource cost. Some thoughts on this:

• It is important to realize that the resource cost is not insignificant: for example, even if someone were to donate booth space for us at a big event, we'd still need to staff the booth and provide speakers and such.

• While we hope to sometimes be able rely on companies donating the cost of a booth, this is hard to rely on for the purposes of doing a budget and planning in advance our presence at big events.

Which Major Events in '07?

• Location Intelligence -- focus is on business-level work; opportunities for us to network, talk, work with current and future players in the geo field, esp. those of not yet tuned into the open source message
  • underway, owned by Tyler

• Where 2.0 -- focus is on whiz-bang / emerging tech; opportunities for us to network, talk, work with key players in the field, esp. those of high-caliber
  • planning underway, owned by mpg

• OSCON -- focus on other, non-geo open source projects; opportunities for cross-fertilization and developer-level networking
  • underway, owned by Aaron

• GITA -- a large/mainstream GIS event; focus on "regular" GIS apps and workflows; target audience is "regular" GIS folks who we can educate about OS methods and solutions
  • underway, tentatively owned by DaveM

• InterGeo -- a European event; audience could be any of the above, depending on actual event type; continues to make sure we don't focus only on North America
  • underway, owned by Arnulf

• to be determined -- an event in Africa, Asia, Australia, or South America; audience could be any of the above 1-4, depending on actual event type; continues to make sure we don't focus only on North America and Europe; opportunities to network and spread the gospel of OSGeo everywhere
  • underway, tentatively owned by Venka

Budget Plan for 2007

VisCom will humbly petition the Board for $85,000 for our 2007 budget.

The breakdown of the $85K is:

• $50K for funding of ~5 Major events
• $25K for funding of ~10 Regular events
• $10K for funding of ~10 Local events

We explicitly plan to use sponsorships, donations, etc, to defray the costs of the major events. This will be done in cooperation with the FunCom as required.

Note also that the three items of "50K for 5", etc, does not imply "10K for each of 5 events"; VisCom will juggle things around as required.

To Do List

• send budget to board for ratification
• ping DaveM re: GITA
• ping Venka re: Asia event
• add Owner field to event calender
• update Event Owner / Event Management pages; use LisaL's notes on How To Have An Event to make a Big Book?
• ???