FOSS4G2008 Lessons Learned

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This page is a collection of information, comments, and suggestions, based on the planning, organizing, and hosting of the FOSS4G 2008 conference. The intent is to provide a resource that can be used by organizers of future FOSS4G conferences. This is not a forum for conference attendees to comment on the conference. Use FOSS4G2008_Comments for that.

Bidding

Timetable

Money

Sponsorships

Complimentary Registrations and Volunteers

Workshop Pricing

Registration

Support For Some Attendees

Scams

Discounts

Breakdown by Country

Attendance

At the Conference

Within the Conference

Within the Code Sprint

Marketing

The Mail-out

How People Heard about FOSS4G2007

Local / Regional / International

Use Proxies

Local Marketing is Key

Web Site & Program

Lists are Important

Press Releases

Social Venues

Conference Venue

Audio-Visual

Quirks

Accommodations

Transportation

Workshops and Labs

Workshop Committee

Terminology

Call for Workshops

Timing

Format of the Call

Results of the Call

Selection Process

Ranking

Decisions

Communication with Instructors

Instructors should be *forced* onto the workshop-dev mail list - at 2008, some instructors did not join the list and were a bit incommunicado

Computers

Printed Handouts

2008 provided printed handouts where instructors wished them to be provided. One issue is that for labs it is difficult to know how many to print, for the labs are essentially walk in affairs. Feedback from attendees at labs and workshops suggests that, on the whole, printed material is desirable. One downside to having printed material is that attendees often tend to race ahead of the instructor, which can be problematic if the workshop or lab content is complex or likely to cause problems if an attendee misses a step.

We found a very helpful professional printshop near (i.e. 2 minutes walk) to the conference venue. They were flexible, accommodating and very professional. We organised a kind of printing "slush fund" at the printshop, which was capped at a certain level.

On another track, printed material offers a sponsorship opportunity...

Presentations

Call for Papers

Academic track

The call for papers did not include a request for number of words. This lead to some minimalistic, say useless, abstracts for the proceedings. A reasonable abstract and 3 keywords will also help to categorise the submissions more easily for the individual sessions.

Suggestions for 2009:

  • abstract number of words (300-500 words + 3 key references)
  • request 3 keywords

General track

  • abstract number of words (150-300 words + optionally 3 key references)
  • request 3 keywords

Submission Process

Community Ranking Process

Building Sessions

Cancellations

Posters

Wiki

Conference Evaluation

Workshop Evaluations

Onsite Staff

Program handouts etc

  • convenient small flyer, nice to carry around
  • presenter names would be desired (small font)

Conference website software

For the first time, OSGeo is making use of the Open Conference Systems (OCS) software to 'manage' a FOSS4G conference.