Hi Rufus, I think that OKFest shouldn't be held in Europe simply because that's where most of your staff are based. If OKF sees itself as a global organisation, then OKFest could be used as an opportunity to raise awareness about the OKF mission in lesser known regions, such as Africa and the Middle East. I believe that the publicity that can come out of OKFest would raise awareness and potentially lead to the increased formation of Local Groups/Ambassadors in these regions.
Regards Abbas (Former Ambassador) On 10/8/14, Rufus Pollock <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi All, > > Open Knowledge Festival 2014 in Berlin this year was fantastic and we plan > to run an Open Knowledge Festival 2015 next year. > > I’m writing as part of what will be an ongoing process to solicit input re > Open Knowledge Festival 2015. Today's email focuses, at this point, on a > key first step, namely the location - I emphasize that this is just the > first of many things to discuss re the Festival but this is the first > priority as we need to sort out the location (and relatedly the date) asap. > I will also take a moment to provide a bit of essential background for a > decision about location. > > Background > > First, some background: As we said last year (2013), we have made some > changes about how we do OKFestivals and OKCons: > > A. Primary organizing responsibility for Open Knowledge Festival will fall > on Open Knowledge “International” (rather than being a local chapter) . > Open Knowledge International will, of course, always work with all local > groups and the broader community to include them in the event, especially > in programming. > > B. Open Knowledge Festival will likely not move around that much, at least > for the foreseeable future (it will likely stay located in one (or at most > 2) places) > > C. OKCons (Open Knowledge Conferences) can be organized locally and > regionally by any local groups who want to do so. Open Knowledge encourages > local community-organized OKCons and Open Knowledge International can > provide some event guidance and cross-promotion. > > Why make these changes? > > > - > > By creating these distinct options local groups are encouraged free to > go run events without depending on Open Knowledge “International” (and > Open > Knowledge International will happily support and promote all such event > activities). Meanwhile Open Knowledge International has primary > responsibility for coordinating a great Open Knowledge Festival. > - > > Its a huge amount of work to put on an Open Knowledge Festival and > involves significant financial commitment as well as dedicated staff and > resources. Both 2012 and 2013 events were amazing but took a huge amount > from the partner local group and also involved significant risk for all > parties (in terms of up-front financial commitments etc). > - > > These events whilst awesome have so far almost never broken even on a > full-cost basis - they generally make a small-ish loss (and there’s > always the risk of a big loss since you have to make up-front > commitments > for venue, organizing etc and revenues in terms of tickets etc come > later). > As a smallish non-profit, this is a big deal for Open Knowledge > International but it is potentially an even bigger deal for a local > group > (especially when they commit a lot of time and energy). At the same time > we > plan to continue the approach whereby Open Knowledge Festival was a > great convenor of many communities. Many friends and partners hosted > side-events or united their community at the event. We will make every > attempt diversify these events with friends and partners in a similar > way > in the future. > - > > Running the event in the same place can significantly reduce > organizational and other expenses (since you can reuse learning and > experience from previous years). It also may make it easier to > fund-raise > since you have pre-existing contacts. > > > The Specific Issue > > This brings me to today’s specific issue: thinking about the location of > Open Knowledge Festival 2015? > > At present, the two likely options are London or Berlin based on: > > A. the location of the coordinating and organizing team (who are primarily > Europe based at the moment) > > B. the strong desire to run the event somewhere we’ve run major events > before (as above: this helps us build on previous learning and experience, > saves on logistical planning and reduces risk in a big way). This is > similar to other large open events such as OSCon or MozFest. > > However, it would be fantastic to hear people’s thoughts both on this idea > and on the criteria by which we should determine location (these could be > especially relevant if at some point in the future we want to consider > relocating or moving the Festival around). I also emphasize that this is > just the first of many things to discuss regarding Open Knowledge Festival, > and as always, we hope all of the community will get heavily involved > especially in programme curation. Also by confirming the venue and doing it > somewhere that is cost-effective we can spend more time and energy on > bringing as many of the community to the event as possible. > > The kinds of criteria I can imagine at the moment are (in no specific > order): > > > - > > Cost /ease of travel to the location from around the world (e.g. are you > at or near a large international hub airport) > - > > Complexity and cost for organizers / coordinators (e.g. organizing an > event in a new location is more complex than doing in previous location. > Organizing with 4 lead organizers is more complex than with two or one) > - > > Venue options and costs (this is all-in costs - often a venue may be > cheap or even “free” but has large number of hidden extra costs - or > requires the organizers to take care of setup and takedown etc) > - > > Living costs at the location (e.g. hotels, food etc) > - > > Complexity of travel arrangements for participants (e.g. how hard is it > to get visas- this is extra important for organizing team as they will > often have to support this process) > - > > Local partnership opportunities > - > > Local fund-raising opportunities > - > > Financial complexity of operation (e.g. do you need a local fiscal > partner/sponsor and how complex are the local tax and legislation) > > > Would be great to get folks’ thoughts both on additional items not included > and any thoughts on this list as well as generally. > > Regards, > > Rufus > _______________________________________________ okfn-discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss Unsubscribe: https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/okfn-discuss
