Re: Barcelona report

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="Leslie Proctor">

> 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. 

I don't think that's still the case (based on evidence from other successful
events), though it is entirely understandable given the economic climate at
the time.

Indeed, it is concerning to me that GUADEC requires independent sponsorship.

I believe we can fund a successful developer gathering *without* additional
help from our existing Advisory Board sponsors (primarily because I've been
involved in the creation of a conference built to a roughly similar model in
the past, which has continued to be successful *and* profitable annually).

I have offered my time and experience to the Foundation Board to help with
this. I have requested the budget for GUADEC 2005 to help with the creation
of a simpler, sustainable model for future GUADECs. I stated up front that I
did not require a finalised budget, just a coherent list of incomings and
outgoings. It has been promised, but not delivered - and how many weeks has
it been since GUADEC? This information should have been broadly understood
and documented *before* the conference, let alone weeks after it.

I don't blame the Board, however. They don't have this information either,
and will need to resolve *that* problem before they can pass it on to me.

(It's also concerning that decisions are being made about the next GUADEC
without this information...!)

- Jeff

-- 
OSCON 2005: August 1st-5th         http://conferences.oreillynet.com/os2005/
 
         "The GPL is good. Use it. Don't be silly." - Michael Meeks