Re: GNOME and KDE to Co-locate Flagship Conferences on Gran Canaria in 2009

[Dave Neary <bolsh gnome org>]

Hi Paul,

Paul Cooper wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 07:05 -0400, john palmieri wrote:
>> The idea is that they are two separate events with the exception of a
>> room reserved for freedesktop.org and other crossover talks.  Also
>> keynotes should most likely be joint as well as the after parties.
>> Everything else should remain separate as to not drastically change
>> the culture of each event. 
> 
> So GUADEC and aKademy are still going to individually approach, for
> example, Nokia, RedHat, Novell, etc for sponsorships - each with
> different costs and benefits? I thought part of the attraction of
> co-locating was to stop cutting these sponsors in two.

I've been pushing the board to do the following:

Shared:
* sponsorship
* registration & accommodation recommendations
* local team
* organising resource & infrastructure costs
* Some social events

Co-ordinated/negotiated/agreed:
* Travel budgets
* Target surplus and its distribution
* Programme for shared sessions

Separate:
* GUADEC and Akademy programs/BOFs/meetings
* At least one social event
* Decision on sponsored attendees

There is lots of stuff *not* on this list, this is just the big stuff
I've thought of.

> Two separate registration systems, and desks, and sets of volunteers on
> those desks? And so down the list of conference organisation. I'm not
> expecting answers to everything this second, just trying to give a heads
> up that it bears thinking about.

I'm pretty sure everyone's aware that the devil is now in the details,
and there will be times when we are in conflict over some issues. I
expect clearing up sponsorship and distribution of surplus will be the
biggest one, and the one we most need to settle quickly.

To my knowledge, Akademy runs at a loss, or no better than break-even,
while GUADEC has allowed the GNOME Foundation to propose hackfests, fund
speakers travelling to conferences, pay for the Boston Summit, fund the
GNOME Outreach Programme: Accessibility, and more.

Cheers,
Dave.

-- 
Dave Neary
GNOME Foundation member
bolsh gnome org