FOSS4G 2009 Lessons Learned - Revision history

Wiki-Leo at 10:17, 13 February 2015

2015-02-13T10:17:25Z

Jmckenna at 19:37, 2 February 2015

2015-02-02T19:37:08Z

Wiki-Camerons: /* Press Releases */

2013-03-02T00:28:27Z

Press Releases

Tmitchell: Reverted edits by Tmitchell (Talk) to last revision by Camerons

2011-05-25T03:26:09Z

Reverted edits by Tmitchell (Talk) to last revision by Camerons

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Tmitchell: adjusting heading hierarchy

2011-05-25T02:54:27Z

adjusting heading hierarchy

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Wiki-Camerons: /* Contra deals */

2010-03-19T18:50:52Z

Contra deals

Wiki-Camerons: /* Contra deals */

2010-03-19T18:43:42Z

Contra deals

Wiki-Camerons: /* Birds of a Feather */

2010-03-07T08:40:20Z

Birds of a Feather

Wiki-Camerons: /* Sponsorship */

2010-02-13T04:08:41Z

Sponsorship

Vmische: Added items to Abstract submission form

2010-01-29T11:08:06Z

Added items to Abstract submission form

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-''See also: [[FOSS4G2007_Lessons_Learned]] and [[FOSS4G2008_Lessons_Learned]]''
+''See also: the other [[:Category:FOSS4GLessonsLearned]]''
 =Bidding=
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 ==Translations==
-We had community volunteers translate the website and press releases. The theory is that local translations will reach into local communities and demonstrates the international roots of the conference. Examples: http://2009.foss4g.org and http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2009_Press_Release_7_Translations .  A list of translators is also available at: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pu9014gybzrd1M6FqyOzGWg&hl=en_GB
+We had community volunteers translate the website and press releases. The theory is that local translations will reach into local communities and demonstrates the international roots of the conference. Examples: http://2009.foss4g.org and [[FOSS4G 2009 Press Release 7 Translations]].  A list of translators is also available at: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pu9014gybzrd1M6FqyOzGWg&hl=en_GB
 =Tutorials=
-* See http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G2008_Lessons_Learned#Laptop_Based_Workshops
+* See [[FOSS4G2008 Lessons Learned#Laptop_Based_Workshops]]
 * Many tutorials were overbooked, with people spilling out the door outside the room. (I wonder whether this was because tutorials were free, but contained much of the same content as workshops).
 * We had water jugs and glasses on the table. With a crowded room, people were nervous taking their computers out when there is water on the desk.
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 # Position: Developer, User, Manager, CIO, Decision Maker
 * It would have been useful to have a "Comments" field for reviewers to add comments as to why someone was or was not reviewed high/low.
-* In reviewing abstracts from our community, some abstracts received 40 votes for just their abstract. This may have been encouraged by our press release, which encouraged abstracts authors to get their friends to vote for their abstracts. http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2009_Press_Release_17. Lesson is that we should encourage people to promote the conference, but not vote for just one abstract. We should also check the votes to verify people are not rigging the voting.
+* In reviewing abstracts from our community, some abstracts received 40 votes for just their abstract. This may have been encouraged by our press release, which encouraged abstracts authors to get their friends to vote for their abstracts. [[FOSS4G 2009 Press Release 17]]. Lesson is that we should encourage people to promote the conference, but not vote for just one abstract. We should also check the votes to verify people are not rigging the voting.
 * Having the community rank the abstracts was very successful. We did not get anyone challenging our selection choice, which was an issue in previous years. It also made it much easier for the abstract selection committee, as we had so many good abstracts to choose from.
 * Abstracts submission form should collect:
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 * One (Government Manager) wished to see an overview presentation at the start of the conference, so that he could decide which presentations should be viewed through the rest of the conference. This could be a very compelling, plenary presentation: "FOSS4G themes in a nutshell".
 == Birds of a Feather ==
-* We had one official "Birds of a Feather" session on Thursday afternoon. We had a wiki page for people to sign up for the Birds of a Feather before hand, but this wasn't used much. http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather
+* We had one official "Birds of a Feather" session on Thursday afternoon. We had a wiki page for people to sign up for the Birds of a Feather before hand, but this wasn't used much. [[FOSS4G 2009 BirdsOfAFeather]]
 * We also had sign up sheets at the OSGeo stand, and that was used. We had many people wanting to go to a number of the sessions, and a couple of sessions were moved to different timeslots.
 * The description "Birds of a Feather" was not understood by many people and they needed to have the term explained to them. This is an issue for people looking at the program before hand and wanting to determine whether they should come to the session or not. Maybe use "Interest Groups" instead.
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 [[Category:FOSS4G2009]]
 [[Category:FOSS4GLessonsLearned]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:37, 2 February 2015
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	[[Category:FOSS4G2009]]		[[Category:FOSS4G2009]]
	[[Category:FOSS4G]]		[[Category:FOSS4G]]
		+	[[Category:FOSS4GLessonsLearned]]

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 * Feedback we got from sponsors was "We thought FOSS4G was just going to be a techie conference and wouldn't lead to sales". You need to push the Business side of FOSS4G too. Push Business Case Studies, Integration into Spatial Data Infrastructure, Spatial Government, etc.
 ==Press Releases==
-See our press releases at: [[FOSS4G_2009_Press_Releases]], also [FOSS4G_2009_Press_Release_Process]].
+See our press releases at: [[FOSS4G_2009_Press_Releases]], also [[FOSS4G_2009_Press_Release_Process]].
 Keep press releases concise. The more that is written, the less it is read. Our early press releases were too long and feedback was that people were not reading to the end of it. Keep the long winded explanation to the website.

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 Recommendations:
-* Continue with setting up contra deals. Providing a 5% discount for members provides a cheap marketing technique and will only be used if the marketing works.
+* Continue making prudent use of contra deals with targeted organisations. Providing a 5% discount for members provides a cheap marketing technique and will only be used if the marketing works.
-* where possible, tie conference benefits (especially ones that cost the conference like a stand) to the contra deal sponsor. Ie, if the sponsor is able to attract X delegates, they will get a free stand at the conference.
+* Ensure that marketing is bigger than a one liner in a list of other conferences. You are looking for a feature article in a newsletter about "GeoSpatial Open Source and FOSS4G" or similar. Also banner add on website would be good.
 =Venue booking & Conference dates=

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 = Contra deals =
-* We set up contra deals with the Australian Computer Society and the Spatial Sciences Institute, offering a 5% discount to members and sharing a stand at the conference, in return for publicity. Afterwards, we hardly got any members make use of this discount. This implies that the marketing from these organisations was not as effective as other channels.
+We set up contra deals with the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and the Spatial Sciences Institute (SSI), offering a 5% discount and Professional Training points with ACS/SSI to members and ACS/SSI got to share a stand at the conference. In return we received a mention in ACS/SSI email blasts. Afterwards, we hardly got any members make use of this discount. I can guess at the reasons for this:
-* Recommendation: where possible, tie conference benefits (especially ones that cost the conference like a stand) to the contra deal sponsor. Ie, if the sponsor is able to attract X delegates, they will get a free stand at the conference.
+* For the ACS, I don't think anyone asked for a discount. The ACS did mention the FOSS4G conference in their communicaiton, but I have my doubts that it attracted any delegates. The ACS was probably not a targeted enough audience, and our conference mention was only a few lines mixed in a mass of material, making it an email blast which doesn't get read by most people.
 =Venue booking & Conference dates=

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 ** Someone with access to the delegate list should go through and email delegates individually and suggest meetings they may be interested in. (I used email domain names and my personal knowledge of delegate affiliations to identify likely interest). Someone also suggested that we could do some smart analysis of how people vote for abstracts. Alternatively, we could ask delegates to tick areas of interest when the register.
 ** Note that the size of the group effects its effectiveness. A group of 8 allows people to talk with each other. If you have a group of 20, then you will want to give people a chance to move around. (For a dinner group of 25, we had people mingle while having drinks before dinner, then invited delegates to change seats between dinner and desert).
 == Installfest ==

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 ** Access to list of attendees (without emails) to all delegates
 ** Access to all delegates who tick "allow my email details to be shared with sponsors" box on registration form. Silver sponsor and above.
-* We used a password protected Google Docs speadsheet to manage the list of potential sponsors. This worked particularly well and I encourage others to do the same.
+* We used a password protected Google Docs speadsheet to manage the list of potential sponsors. This worked particularly well and I encourage others to do the same. Our doc was at: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Al9zh8DjmU_RcHU5MDE0Z3lienJjZnpFU05lLW9rUWc&hl=en_GB (Talk to Cameron Shorter if you want access to it).
 * As host/funder/coordinator of the event, treat OSGeo similar to a primary sponsor - due to all rights, privileges and opportunities that other sponsors receive.  This does not mean calling OSGeo a sponsor, but remembering to make sure logos are well represented and that booth space, keynotes, and other promotional benefits are included.  Liaison with OSGeo Marketing or directly with Tyler or the Board.

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 ** email address (you will want to contact presenters afterwards)
 ** Country (you may wish to have some balance of presentations across countries)
 = Recommendations to Abstract Authors =