[Manifold-l] Manifold User Conference - Sydney January 2007 (Notice, Questions and Feedback)

[Simon Greener (SpatialDB Advisor)]

Folks,

I am talking with the administrators of the Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club's  
(ESLC) conference
facilities (you can see the venue on their website -  
http://www.eastleaguesclub.com.au/functions/harbourviewroom.php) about  
hosting the event. I am happy with the pricing, facilities and
the ease of access from Mascot airport and nearby accommodation choices.  
We (Mike Sumner
and I) contacted another academic site linked to Macquarie Uni but the  
price difference
wasn't enough to cover for the lack of easy access via public transport  
and nearby accommodation.

Because this is very much a hands-on user conference, I am interested in  
getting
some feedback on a few things.

1. Dates

ESLC currently have Mon 29th, Tues 30th, Wed 31st of January and Thurs 1st  
Feb
available. I am thinking about booking the Wed/Thurs. What do you all  
think? Would
you prefer the Mon/Tues? The location of the venue is such that you will  
be able to
fly into Sydney the morning of the conference and leave the evening it  
finishes with
only one night's accommodation necessary (the venue hosts are sending me a  
list of
cheap/budget local accommodation options).

2. Costs

The venue will cost $400/day ($800) with the audo-visuals costing $200/day  
($400 all up)
(computer projector + screen). A standard package for catering will cost  
$40 / person
and includes:

* Arrival Tea & Coffee
* Morning Tea & Coffee with Muffins
* Working Lunch
* Afternoon Tea & Coffee with homemade cookies
Plus
* Whiteboard
* Flipchart
* Notepads & Pens
* Mints & Ice Water

In total this is $1200 of fixed costs + $40 * the number of people who  
sign up
to attend. If I calculate costings based on the minimum 30 users the the  
venue
operators require and divide evenly we end up with $1200 / 30 = $40 + $40  
= $80 / person.
(You have to pay for airfares, accommodation and an evening meal.)

However, it is impossible to know numbers in advance (I would like 50 so  
get out
there an hustle up some attendees), so I would prefer to charge a flat  
amount
that would cover our costs in the worst case scenario of a minimum  
attendence (30).

Another approach is to charge something like $200 per person to attend and
we put any money left over into creating a Manifold User Group + slush fund
for other venues. We could even up the pricing to $300 / person for the  
two days
and offer Manifold.Net some funds to fly someone from the USA. (BTW I am  
not
charging for any of my time organising this event.)

What do you say to a simple flat fee of $200 for the conference. Might  
make it easier to get
permission from bosses if it actually costs something to attend! With any  
left over monies
going to pay for a Manifold.Net person to fly from the USA or go towards  
funding any local
Manifold User Groups that may want to have local sessions during the year?

Comments?

3. Conference vs UnConference

There are a number of ways we can organise this conference. Given that it  
is an amateur conference
we have the power in our hands to decide how to do this. Besides  
Manifold.Net giving a cracking
opening talk and demo of technology, here are three/four options:

(Oh, everyone should try and bring a lap top with them with Manifold GIS  
on it + a WiFi card.)

A. Traditional Talking Heads

We call for people to present papers and do the normal talking head thing.  
But if we go down
this track we should try to build in lab sessions in which the presenters  
might offer some data
and a receipe for trialling what the spoke about. In those ad-hoc lab  
sessions users can group around
and demo, show what they are doing with Manifold.

B. Presenter sessions on aspects of Manifold GIS use

Here a presenter/facilitator/expert offers to run a longish session (up to  
1.5 hours) in which he
shows how to set up and use certain aspects of Manifold GIS with all the  
attendees being able to
actually work through the technology with data supplied by the presenter.  
A sort of "mini training"
class/CodeCamp. So, we might have someone show how to set up Oracle XE,  
load some data via Manifold GIS
and edit it (I offer to do that); or someone might show how to process  
LiDAR data (eg I have in mind someone
  from Forestry Tasmania who could show how to krige LiDAR data and  
indentify and extract trees from the data;
or I could show people how to use my Image Catalog tool to create and  
manage image catalogs...

C. An UnConference (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference)

Start with the Wikipedia link about and do some reading. If this is  
something people want to explore
we can start with a Wiki site and get everyone to offer session ideas, etc  
such that we end up an
agenda with material that YOU the USER want to see covered and take home  
 from the USER Conference.
This is harder to visualise (I am still trying to work out how to organise  
an unconference!)... but
might just be far more beneficial!

D. We could mix up B and C with C being for the second half of the last  
day...

So, comments/responses/votes please!

regards
S