Re: Barcelona report

[Leslie Proctor <proctors pacbell net>]

Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller wrote:

" Personally I think we should make the GNOME User and
Business sessions a
separate conference this year and clearly mark it as
such. Earlier years
the user/business/government talks have mostly been an
embarrassment in
terms of attendance and I would rather ditch them from
GUADEC, instead
of wasting GUADEC resources on them. This year due to
the co-hosting
with IGC they might have a place, but I prefer to
'brand' them
separately from GUADEC so that if next years GUADEC
organizers are of
the more traditional type we can either ditch the
whole User and
Business part or host is as a separate event somewhere
else if there is
enough interest.


Christian"

I was part of the fundraising team for GUADEC when
User Day and the government/business speakers were
added.  They were added in response to the fact that
we were getting firm "no"s from potential sponsors. 
Those same companies came on board later on that year,
as a result of us adding the enhanced User Day.  These
companies have come back as speakers in large part
because of the bigger focus of GUADEC.  

To say that it's wasting money is not correct.  The
money's there because of the programming on User Day. 

Leslie