State of the Map 2013/Minutes/2013-02-20 Kick off Meeting

Kick-off meeting SotM13 20th Feb 2013, 9pm GMT

Present: - Henk Hoff* - board member of OSMF, and on organising team of last 3 SotMs. - Brian Prangle - Gregory Marler* - Mike Duffy - Floris Looijesteijn* (SOTM team since Amsterdam / the website guy) - Stuart Lester >> Lead for sponsors - Jonathan H - Florian - Shaun McDonald - Rob - Mary - Nick Whitelegg - Andrew Mackenzie

• editors of this document/minutes.

Apologies: Andy Robinson Deb Tankersly - on SotM last year

References made to the bid document: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/images/6/68/SOTM_2013_bid_new_draft_v10.pdf

Henk congratulates Birmingham, and the most attended conference call! Niceties/welcomes skipped, due to so many people in the call.

Henk mentions Taichi (organiser of SotM 2012) and Daniel for their experience and willingness to help with questions.

The theme from the bid “Change”. Henk suggests the local team fleshes out these ideas to see how it can work, and how the programme might look like (tracks, hands-on requirements).

?Brian? would like to know... What’s the rough timescale? when do things need to be done, when did things happen last time (e.g. programme finalised, when was 50% sponsorship reached in previous years?...) Henk: There is information on sponsorship from previous years. Helps to have small focused group on this, perhaps one on local team and one on international team. Stuart has volunteered to be the UK lead on sponsorship. (he should get in touch with Deb’s) Suggested we create Sponsorship brochure needs to be created/updated, what levels are there and what do we have to offer? Deadline?... create list of potential sponsors in a Google Doc, in the next week. Henk: previous years, it helps if you have first-time-sponsors the companies don’t understand what kind of conference it is (i.e. conference formalities, how to get appeal of delegates). Get new conference website up, geared towards getting sponsors?

Brian... urgent task the venue needs to be secured. Contract to go to Henk to be signed on behalf of the board? Henk asks about the budget. Brian refers to quotations on page 17 of the bid. Agreed details of the contract discussed off-call between Brian and Henk.

Money... Look at the delegate fees, to cover the variable costs (e.g. catering). So if lots of people turn up, we are not in trouble. Conference dinner not included in delegate day rate of conference. Discussions about large restaurants(with travel), but there is a dinner option as part of the venue. Insurance, what kind? Florian discusses some issues with previous years not being UK-based and OSMF is. Previously done... cancellation policy ($300 for Denver), liability??. Hiscox recommend by Birmingham Conference guys (SotM has used them previously but not in US or Japan). What insurance does the venue have? Insurance was needed in the US, as the campus covered it. Brian will pick up looking into the insurance in detail and see if Hiscox still have OSMF on file. Brian: how do we come to the the delegate fee cost? Henk: get as much sponsorship as you can, SotM sponsorship is a main income Brian wants a target. Henk: Last year was hard to match Denver. SotM 12(Tokyo) figures: net profit $37,450 (mainly venue was practically free). $72,000 sponsorship income. Sotm 11(Denver): (not sure if these are definite) venue free, $73k sponsorship, $32k signups, expenditure: $48k Brian says he will double last year (joke). Girona(SotM 2010) entrance fee did not cover catering costs, and we started losing money as more signed up. Catering was done picnic-style, because inside the venue was too expensive. So catering should be covered by entrance fee. If numbers are low at August time, look at potential problem. Everyone optimistic for a successful conference.

Delegate Fee getting discussed, and potential tiered options. Mary: suggests dinner is included, and opt-out rather than opt-in (easier for management). Shaun: rates based on days (weekend only, friday only, all) Henk: previously “community” and “normal/business”. Business slightly higher because it looks more worthy & paid for by their company. Last couple of years, dinner was part of the price. People expect dinner to be part of the fee, and it is part of community. Offer sponsors packages to sponsor dinners/drinks, they like that. At Girona drinks were arranged a week before because of an additional sponsor wanted to. Some in OSM don’t like product placement - thin line. Stands for sponsors suggested. - but some of the community won’t like that so much.

Time reaches 9:55pm GMT.

Website: Nick W asks about web development (e.g. PHP) he can help, but not wordpress. Other CMS discussed. Brian will give a contact at Aston to integrate with their booking system for accomodation.

Who is interested in promotion/twitter? Whole team should be involved, but a point person it goes through. Shaun is happy to do twitter and such things.

Call for logos? There was a logo on the bid, makes sense to keep it. The logo represents the bull. “The Bull Ring” is the centre of the city and has a massive city. Motto? Henk suggests “SotM is the Bull”. Work on this later.

Promotion, Brian would like to put together a draft press release to get things going. Mainly news for certain niches. Website needs to be ready. Website will be cleaned up in a few days. Show Birmingham logo and post an announcement? Current website should be archived to sotm12 subdomain, like the others had. Keep in touch with the Communications Working Group. http://2010.stateofthemap.org

What is the frequency we should get together? Henk suggests every 2 weeks. Work needs to be split down and groups report back. Brian can’t make in 2 weeks time. Suggests 1 week’s time and fortnightly from then (Henk can’t make that). Henk not needed to set up the conference call, but try and avoid clashes with other WGs (too much fun in that) If we can’t make it, how can we update you. E-mail to the SotM13 mailing list should be fine. Nick makes clear his involvement is mainly close to the conference dates and time commitment is limited. Henk suggests non-local folk are ideal for running the call for papers - discuss in a further meeting, and who is able to lead it (not a high priority). Brian would like to thank all the non-local people joining the team for their help.

Henk thanks us all for being here. It’s hoped it will be less hectic in future weeks.

Meeting finished at 10:11pm GMT Next Meeting: Thursday 27th Feb, 9pm GMT. Action Tasks Henk & Brian: venue conference contract to be urgently discussed and secured & budget/bills. Stuart & Debs: sponsorship - potential companies list in Google Docs, brochure details, description material of conference. Floris & Jonathan & Nick: website (initially to encourage sponsorship)