Hello,
I have been appointed as Event Owner [1] of the OSGeo appearance at FOSS4G. Later the Wiki page describing the job was worked over by VisCom resulting in a long list of things [2] to be done. For this I need your help.
FOSS4G management has prepared a floor plan with OSGeo as a rectangular booth. From what we learned at other booths this is not optimal. I would like to propose to have separate tables for each project scattered throughout the exhibition hall. Each table is staffed by someone from a project (maybe even some celebrity, Steve Lime, Frank Warmerdam, Bill Gates, Daniel Morissette, Brent Owens and so on) so that during break there will be clusters of people around each project. Including the Geodata and Education Committees. They will receive some extra publicity if we manage to contact the respective potential clients prior to the conference so that they can make appointments with OSGeo representatives. We have lists of public administrations, universities, etc.
This means that each project must be prepared to have one representative be available at any time during the conference at that "booth"/table. I guess that during sessions when there are little people in the exhibition area it will be enough if we have two or three people watching over things. I think from a community perspective and the goal of bringing people together it would be a lot more attractive to not have one booth crammed with people but to spread them loosely across the exhibition hall. I have to check back with FOSS4G planners whether this would be possible at all but before I do that I need to know whether we can make it at all. Please reply to this email filling out the [square brackets]:
The [enter project name] PSC reports that [number of people] people have agreed to staff the exhibition platform. The Project [can provide for / needs] one notebook for presentations.
If I receive 7 positive replies within four workdays we can do it this way. If not we will just have one boring booth in a corner and I am going to make sure that it looks ugly an unhappy.
We currently have 8 software projects plus geodata plus education plus one table for people to register as OSGeo members, sell trivia and discuss Foundation issues.
Autodesk involvement
Autodesk is again involved with sponsoring and additionally provides for infrastructure and organizational support. Thanks a lot. They coordinate events on a separate conference call an Tuesdays (tomorrow) and ideally I could already give them a few hints at how this is going to develop. Hint hint, please get back here quick with an answer.
We have an action item list kindly prepared from Lisa Landers at Autodesk specifying some more details:
FOSS4G:
OSGeo Staffing: <ACTION ITEM – ARNULF> Provide a list of people available to staff the booth. This will help determine the number of kiosks, currently scheduled for 3 each.
<Arnulf>
If we really get all 11 tables staffed with one person each at any time that should be fine. I have added a list to the Wiki, please enter yourself or somebody you know. Don't forget that person to tell about it!
</Arnulf>
OSGeo Demo: <ACTION ITEM – ARNULF, TYLER, LISA> Need to review during OSGeo’s committee meeting on Thursday to determine what we can come up with for both FOSS4G & EuroOSCON. An avi as suggested by Lisa?
<Arnulf>
Projects are ~required to deliver presentation and demo for graduation. This is what is referred to here. An avi might not be that important but living demos are essential! VisCom can obviously not prepare them, so the projects would need to make sure they have something to show. If software needs be installed locally please bring your own. Enhance it with some breath-taking new gimmick. Steve Lime was bored last year, I don't want to see this happen again. 
</Arnulf>
Booth Collateral: <ACTION ITEM – ARNULF> Will most likely use the 10 OSGeo bruchures that were used at OSCON Portland but may need to localize, in German (for sure), French & Italian. <ACTION ITEM – TINA> Will need to determine where they will be printed, either Adsk US or EMEA.
<Arnulf>
Again the content is something that you must provide, VisCom oversees that printing is done. German translations are already prepared but the international discuss list is dead in the water so if you have anything in another language please make it available to VisCom.
Kind regards,
[1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php?title=Event_Owner&oldid=6653
[2] http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Event_Management
</Arnulf>
