State of the Map 2013/Minutes/2013-09-11 Post SotM Meeting

20th SotM13 Meeting (post-SotM) 11th September 2013 @ 8pm BST Present Gregory, Mary, Brian, Henk, Rob, Jon, Mike, Andy,

Apologies

Hack Day, over 60 people and the WiFi was under immense strain/down and no power sockets.

Proposed we go through each person and say what we think went well. Henk has shared the feedback responses, 63 already (1 claiming to be Henk, maybe a test): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AipIouDEzNc0dEdsV3FqN1pIWkhENXdFZ3lkZzVaVXc#gid=0 [limited permission to access]

Brian Overall exhausting but a great success. Communication to delegates could have been improved and made clearer.

       I.e. brought poster file but it was not published on website.

Partner tickets for the meal were queried. Were we expecting two disabled (wheelchair) people.

       But the building was DDAcompliant, so we knew it would be fine.

Could have more signs for the breakout room.

       May have caused the BoFs to be less popular.

Brian: These are all small points. The content could have been more hands on and introductory. Call for presentations could have asked for specific themes to aid balance.

We were good at being really on top of problems before they became noticeable by delegates or even the rest of the team.

Brian: improvement suggestion, have a press person that is separate from sorting out the organisation. Henk: How much press was there?

       BBC TV at start of Friday, BBC Radio at end.
       Birmingham City Uni student press also attended, did have to sit around a bit waiting for someone.

Andy Mabbett session captain for main track was good, especially for continuity throughout the weekend.

Would have been nice to have a sit down area for people with laptops (e.g. desks in refreshment area).

       Was an area in the guide, but people might not have read it or wanted to go to the Business School (separate building)
       Refreshment area could have been more central to the talk areas (not to one side).
       Refreshment area would have been good to have water all the time.
       
       Main Lecture hall was too cold (Greg could close the windows, but didn’t know it was an issue).

Separate delegate price for NGOs/third-sector(e.g. local authorities) would have been good, somewhere between business price and community price).

       Only those that were pushy or knew OSM more contacted us to ask for a lower price (at which point community was the only lower option)

Attendance list seemed to miss 5 certain people.

       There was an issue getting the Foundation to issue Invoices (following purchase orders?).
       Need to have a special process/routine to track these things (and payment through the bank accounts).

Chip-and-pin terminal for walk-ins?

       Mary: Would not have helped, most people were happy to pay by cash or use the laptop.
       Walk-in numbers: 5 (need invoicing) + 2 others.
       Plus there were souvenir purchases (t-shirts).
       Helped that Mary was able to deposit the cash directly into the UK bank account.
       

Sponsor pack needs refreshing, we only updated the dates. Needs to be much clearer on what they get out of it. Type of delegates, numbers watching the live stream (and recordings/photos), types of other sponsors. Relation to OSMF corporate membership now that (may) exists? Henk has on his task list to say thanks to the sponsors and follow up with them. Amazon got out of it what they wanted personally and professionally. All the ones Henk spoke to were happy, no complaints/comments/negatives.

               Possibly get sound bites from them?
               Also will look out for their staff in the feedback form.
       When is a good time of year to ask them?
               Brian got response saying get early in the financial year, we were too late.
               Need to start it earlier

Henk is still busy working on next year’s SotM, had hoped to announce it at the end.

               Hope to make it sooner for future years
               Greg deliberately questioned the OSMF board/audience about next year to get them thinking/excited (not knowing then the potential plans in motion about next year).
       Had queries on where the next one is
               OSMers not knowing its a bid process

Call for presentations:

       Mary - It was good. Having a specific email address helped to keep things separate.

       Abstracts had to be reduced and this was took a long time. The Call for Presentations should include their abstracts within the defined word limit.  
       The google spreadsheet should set a 120 word limit on the abstracts.
       We have to make it 100% clear from the off that presenters have to pay to attend. The only exception is when we invite speakers (keynote speakers).
       If presentation not accepted we could refund early bird tickets?
               We would lose out, and many other conferences don’t do that.
       How many people had multiple presentations?
               14 people.
               Most anyone gave was 3.
               Some feedback said it would be nicer to have newer talkers.
               We should have limited it, especially as they had similar themes.
       Would be good to personally encourage people to speak, makes them feel good.
               A lot of people think they don’t have interesting stuff to share until they’re told.

Sponsor package should include the date that information and logos are needed to be sent to us.

Budget update.

       Realised on the day there was no wine for the dinner, so we put out £600 for that.
       Extra 30 delegates? put us over by £4,500.
       

Latest info: £1700 surplus. Some adjustment to come with late invoicing etc.

Request to move for feedback from Henk

Henk

       Has run 5 conferences.
       How have we done compared to other SotM teams.
               It was very helpful.
               Different to past, we had a very very active local team, comparable to last year (Tokyo). At Denver and Girona the Foundation had to do way much more.
                       You’ve done a sterling job in making this happen.
       Little disappointed about, we now have real difficulty in getting sponsors in.
       Programme changes, it is always the case that things go manic trying to keep everything down on ink.
               Need some mechanisms to get that in control.

Looking at the last few years (besides Japan), Henk has normally had to come in a week early to sort out errands etc. But didn’t this year.

       No last minute things to solve.
       Nothing rushed to be done (like printing/programmes/banners).
       You did a good job. You’ve experienced the stress a conference like this has.
               Not just saying that to be nice.
               You were reasonable keeping calm under the circumstances.
       Perfectly happy with how you guys did it and how the end result was.
       I’ve done way way worse, this is one of the better ones.
       Good strong team, picking up.

Anyone going to volunteer to help with the next?

       Not within the next 6 months! Then ask again.

Programme online.

       Was kept up to date, but was anyone using it?
       It was difficult to use, but spreadsheet wouldn’t have been better.
       Greg saw a tweet saying it was new to them and they liked it.
       Lanyrd has just been brought by Eventbrite so might change.
       Would you use it again?
               Yes, but we need to see if we can display the programme in a better way. The stateofthemap.org website originally had the google spreadsheet version of the programme which nicely shows the grid of the days, but does not include the abstracts. This was replaced with the lanyard abstracts list. But this was hard to read (days and tracks). Is there a better lanyrd view? Grid?

Document for comments on how to improve: [Google docs link removed]

       We’ll be able to copy these minutes into that but a bit more sorted.
       Will be more just a brain dump for the next team.
       

Delegate response spreadsheet.

       Henk can view graphs of the responses, he can thus take a screenshot to share with us.
       Brian: consistently low score was only “How do you rate the knowledge level of the presentations?” 1s and 2s given, everything else varied or high/good.
               Matches the request for more workshops.
               Asking better in the call for presentations could improve this.
       Along side call for presentations we could also put a general call(mailing list discussion?) out to ask potential delegates what they want to know about. E.g.Mapbox demo of tilemill.
       We’ve tried workshops in the past, in Amsterdam and Girona?
               They take longer and people want to go to most of the sessions.
       First Hackday at the end was good, and a good place for developers to ask questions personally.
       Could have an additional day for workshops for those less technically minded.
               Workshop could run alongside the hackday (i.e. for non-devs).
       Hackday and workshop, after rather than before?
               After so people are inspired.
               But a separate(even optional) day means more holiday-allowance taking.
               This day could be the same as the business day.
       Let the next team tackile the workshop issue.
       The abstracts make it clear enough how much technical knowledge you need.
               

Communications with the community Mixed results on the feedback. Found it hard to know where to go with questions. Most people heard about us on osm.org homepage rather than stateofthemap.com

       We got a wider audience on twitter.
       Blog posts could potentially be dropped from the website?
               Henk would like to have it separate, but could have multiple articles on the OSM blog linking through to the SotM blog.
       Some people were using Facebook more, which we missed completely.
       We had a battle getting it on the osm.org page, could be done better next year.

Diversity mailing list.

       Quote… “Financing and related issues are something the OSMF needs to attack in the upcoming months.”

Server funding drive at the same time.

Communications, we didn't have a strategy/approach, we were just reactive to events.

       CWG should give more assistance and put their experience into next year, so we have more people working together on that.
       Brian expected more communication and contact coming from CWG.
       CWG is mainly Harry so it needs to get back on track and have more volunteers there.
               Mainly we need better communication with them than their time.
               We had good intentions about a communications diary but didn’t fill it up (due to lack of knowledge/experience).
                       Not about the topics to put in it, just to put in a plan.
                       Maybe budget to pay someone to help with that or run it?
       Might also be worth having someone who knows fundraising in a professional way, potentially pay them if budget allows. Knowing what to ask potential sponsors.

Timings Scheduled really tight, somehow we managed to stay on track. Should sessions try and stay in sync?

Sponsorships

       Funding Working Group in progress of being set up.
       One-on-one Relationships need to be kept longer than a year, so previous conversations can be referred to.
       It’s an emotional/personal link, knowing how to be nice to them or what they like.

End of conference. Add to linked documents. [Google docs link removed]

All looking forward to a conference we’re not organising. Await SotM14 announcement. Some people may attend SotM Scotland in a few weeks. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/State_of_the_Map_Scotland_2013

Goodnight. 9:30pm.