DrupalCon Sao Paulo: Initial Proposal

Introduction

The Drupal Latino community welcomes the opportunity to hold the first DrupalCon in Latin America. In particular, the Brazilian Drupal Association is excited with the possibility of having our country as a host to DrupalCon South America 2015. This document provides an initial proposal to demonstrate the potential of the city of Sao Paulo as a venue.

Ticket Price

Our suggestion is to have the ticket price between US$ 100 and US$ 200.

Sponsorship

Initial support for the event has come from Drupal companies who are actively involved with the Brazilian Drupal Association: Taller, Just Digital, MMDA, HostSH, SingleView, Fisqua, Chuva, and Itelios. These are small companies that have a team of 10 to 30 people.

There are also larger companies with whom the Brazilian Drupal Association is in touch and trying to get them more involved with the community such as Ci&T, with over 1000 employees.

The success of the event depends on this engagement not only from small companies but also the larger ones. The 1st Drupal Business Summit in Brazil is just one of several initiatives being organized by the Brazilian Drupal Association to promote this engagement.

Venue

The most attractive venue proposal so far has been FeComercio, at US$ 5000 per day for:

• Main auditorium, for up to 800 people;
• Three rooms, for 200-300 people each.

The venue is located in a noble region, near the Paulista Avenue (considered to be the most important Business Avenue in Latin America). It has easy access, served by 2 metro lines.

Venue Website: http://fecomercioeventos.com.br/centro-de-exposicoes/lan/br

Spreadsheet with estimated costs:

https://groups.drupal.org/files/DrupalCon_SP_2015.ods

Dates

The best dates for the event are between January 15th till February 12th. Please note that in 2015, Carnival will take place from February 13th till 18th, and should be avoided. Holding the event early February opens the opportunity to hold an after-event coinciding with Carnival, but hotel prices for this period tend to go considerably high, specially in Rio.

Logistics

Sao Paulo is considered to be the major financial center of Latin America and its metro area has a population of 21 million people. The city is served by three airports, which place Sao Paulo as one of the top 20 busiest in the world. There are flights from Sao Paulo to Rio every 10 minutes. Rio can be reached in about half an hour by air or about 5 hours by road.

Sao Paulo has a more business-oriented culture, while Rio has a more relaxing easy-going attitude, as well as an international touristic appeal. Thus, our proposal is to have a DrupalCon in Sao Paulo and an (optional) after-event in Rio de Janeiro, with visits to the Sugar Loaf and the Corcovado.

Fiscal Sponsorship

The Brazilian Drupal Association, as a legal entity, will fully support DrupalCon Sao Paulo.

Volunteer Team

The volunteer team for the DrupalCon will be the same from the Brazilian Drupal Association:

• Site visit coordinator: Leandro Nunes
• Marketing: Nick Vidal
• Finances: Edson Sales Jr.

Volunteers for on-site room monitors, registration help, and translators may be gathered with an open invitation at a later point. Our suggestion is to offer a 50% ticket discount to these volunteers.

Community

The Brazilian Community is very mature and has been growing stronger day by day. Surprisingly, the turning point was the cancellation of DrupalCon Sao Paulo. Only 6 months after the cancellation, the Brazilian community was able to successfully organize DrupalCamp Sao Paulo, with 300 participants from all over Brazil. This event was also important because it marked the foundation of the Brazilian Drupal Association.

In 2013, the Brazilian community has participated in all major open source events in Brazil, including FISL (8000 participants), Latinoware (4500 participants), Consegi (5000 participants), and Campus Party (8000 participants).

The community also organized DrupalCamp Porto Alegre inside one of the most important open source events in the world (the International Free Software Forum). This DrupalCamp had 300 participants.

In total, the community has held Drupal events in 8 cities in Brazil: Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Foz do Iguaçu, Brasilia, Florianopolis, Campinas, and Limeira.

The Brazilian community is also actively working with other communities and has played an important role in the organization of DrupalPicchu 2014. Together with the international community, the Brazilian Drupal Association is working to spread Drupal to all corners of the world, and looks forward to helping organize the 1st DrupalCon in Latin America!