Posted by boris mann on May 30, 2006 at 6:46pm
I want to nail down dates so we can start promoting and organizing around those dates.
- EuroOSCON goes Sept. 18 - 21st.
- Friday, the 22nd should be a full day DrupalCon
- additional Drupal "stuff" -- especially coding related -- should run concurrently with BarCamp, Sat/Sun 23rd/24th
What do you think?
Comments
We currently have an option
We currently have an option for Sept 16-18. We might co-organize a BarCamp on Saturday, Sept 16. The current idea is to make Saturday a "Drupal user day" where Drupal and BarCamp people can mingle. Then Sunday and Monday would be "Drupal developer days".
Thoughts?
Either way, before we can move forward we have to figure out how many rooms we needs (see other thread), and whether we can afford them. Time to get us some sponsors; we'll need thousands of dollars. :-) If we can't afford it, we'll have to find another venue, in which case the dates might change ... (I'm going to steer clear from the financial part. Hopefully someone else will take care of that.)
I'm reluctant to move forward before we figured out these basics.
another venue?
As our current location is very expensive (I think), finding an alternative location should be considered. I don't know if Bart has any ideas to reduce the costs at our current location, and I got no idea how many sponsoring Drupal can get, lets hope we can stay there.
Still better save than sorry.
Can you define "really expensive"?
I'm really happy that you're working on this, mixel, and I can hardly wait to attend. How expensive is the venue you're suggesting?
The whole process highlights the need for a Drupal foundation, in my opinion. There are so many hanging questions about who should do the organizing, who should be paying for it, how much budget we might be able to use, etc.... we're bound to have a big failure someday when all of these factors get to be too much for our local guy on the ground (mixel, this time, Bert last time, etc.) As I see it we're basically dependent on Bryght to come up with the money from their clients... is this otherwise?
I guess what I'm saying is that the stakes are getting too high to have our conference organizing continue to be done in ad-hoc fashion by volunteers.... it's not fair to the volunteers =)
Not sure we should mention
Not sure we should mention exact prices in public, especially, since we're still negotiating. It's pretty clear that, to organize a 3 day conference with several rooms, WIFI for about 100 people, coffee and refreshments, you end up with a serious bill. We're talking 5k - 15k USD, depending on the venue. (If you are serious about helping, I'll let you know the prices in private. Just mail me.)
I don't see how a foundation would make any difference. It takes X amount of work to do something, and at the end of the day, someone has to do it. Be it a foundation, a company, or someone else. One of the key reasons I'm reluctant to create a foundation is because people would love nothing more than to hand over work and responsibilities to a foundation that "automatically" takes care of everything.
If you want to help, but only if you get paid for it, speak up, and we might be able to work something out. It could be as simple a formula as: for every 5k USD you bring to the table, you get to keep 500 USD. As a result, you'd end up getting paid for taking care of sponsorship.
Didn't many of the Drupal based companies agreed to fund x% of their revenue (or x% of their time) back to the Drupal project? Well, this would be a good time to let some of that money flow. All it takes is one company to organize this, to accept the money on behalf of DrupalCON, and to wire it to the venue when asked to.
I, for one, am happy to do my part, free of charge, after hours and within my possibilities. I don't feel like wasting time on debating the pro and cons of a foundation.
Right now, we need people to bring money to the table so we can proceed finding a venue.
depending on funding
The venue location will depend on if we get close to 5K or to 15K. I don't need to make any picture on it, when its close to 5K we need to settle with a lesser location than the current one and the distance to the center of Brussels (and good hotels) will be bigger. So can we get (close) to 15K or should I start looking for alternatives?
Not yet, IMO
Mixel, I think we should talk to Bart some more. I'd not start looking for another venue until we have a final price. The last price we got was for the wrong number of rooms. Let's focus on one venue at a time.
I'll talk to all the people I can...
... and see what money can be raised. The plan is that they would wire the money directly to the venue? What about the money beyond that? Where should it go? Is there a bank account or PayPal account where funds can be sent as a "general conference sponsorship" fund? I assume that sponsors will get some sort of advertising in return? Can we say in advance what type of placement this will be?
You know I try to keep the griping-to-actual-helping ratio pretty low =)
Payment
Thanks for the help, Robert. Rallying sponsors is an excellent contribution. It is something many people can help with, and something we should do ASAP. The more money we get, the better. If we get too much money (unlikely), we can always spent it on beer, food, swag or some social event. Or we can keep it on the bank until the next Drupal conference, to help one of the many local events or to pay for our presence at conferences. We can easily make sure that the money is spent on conference related activies.
Past experiences showed that it is best to have some "sponsorship program". For x amount of money, you get this. For y amount of money, you get this. Like that, we prevent situations where different companies give different amounts of money for similar visibility. We don't necessarily need different amounts but it is nice to have some fairness built-in, or to be concrete and up-front of what their money will buy them. We should avoid surprises, or otherwise messy situations.
We don't have a bank account (but we do have a paypal account and CivicSpace is acting as a fiscal sponsor). As most of the money will come from the US, it would be ideal if one of the Drupal shops could accept the money on behalf of DrupalCON. Then, they'd have to wire it to the venue (either directly or through me) as soon we have to pay for it. So, yes, I'm hoping that someone will step forward to handle the financial part.
I think we need to have some kind of framework in place that allows other people to help with this, and that offers some guidelines for those willing to donate. Yes, a foundation would be handy (it would offer a bank acount) but more on that later. Right now, we have to be creative and use the tools that we have available. :)
new prices
New prices have been sent to Dries.
Bart Van Herreweghe
sounds good, but...
... there is always a but. Only two 'developer days' -- it takes 1K for someone over to pond to come over, and maybe two days is not enticing enough :)