DebConf16/Meetings/2014-09-17

Meeting: DebConf 16 Bid -- 2014-09-17

Held at 2014-09-17T17:30:22Z in #debconf16-capetown on oftc. Convened by tumbleweed.

Attendees

• indiebio
• wendar
• confluency
• nattie
• madduck
• tumbleweed
• ginggs (silent)

Minutes

Bid Timeline

Bid is due on 1 Dec. We don't know exactly how far along we need to be, but we think we should be down to a primary venue.

Venue Contacts

We have a draft letter, http://whiteboard.debian.net/86b9cc.wb, to send to potential venues. (This has since been further discussed on this list.)

We think there should be a single person contacting venues. So,

ACTION

Bernelle will make initial venue contacts, and then we may delegate interested venues to other negotiators, for follow-up.

Venue reccie, post-pycon.za

Allison and Stefano will be in Cape Town, after pycon.za, on 6 & 7 October, so we will go and visit all the venues we are considering.

Initial budget, sponsor ideas

Allison is on the debconf sponsorship team, but we need local people to get involved. All sponsorship negotiation must be run through the sponsorship team, to avoid conflicts, and maintain sponsors across DebConfs.

ACTION

Bernelle will contact her Silicon Cape contacts to find us a sponsorship person.

ACTION

Bernelle will also try to get in contact with Georg Lerm and the ArduinoCT people. Possibly via Marc?

The budget is probably going to be on the order of ZAR 2 million, based on previous DebConfs.

We should probably try to help DC15's airline partnership outreach.

Bernelle will try some early contact of potential sponsors, to find out what their timelines for sponsorship applications, are.

Assignment of (hypothetical) medium- to long-term tasks

We aren't ready to start staffing up all the teams, yet. But need to start recruiting the local team.

Automated Minutes

17:30:22 Meeting started
17:30:50 topic: Review Agenda (tumbleweed)
17:31:16 topic: Bid Timeline (tumbleweed)
17:43:03 topic: Venue contacts (tumbleweed)
17:45:56 idea: Draft Letter is at http://whiteboard.debian.net/86b9cc.wb (tumbleweed)
17:52:07 agreed: indiebio will make initial venue contacts, and then we may delegate interested venues to other negotiators, for follow-up (tumbleweed)
17:55:23 topic: Venue reccie post pycon (tumbleweed)
18:02:40 topic: Initial budget, sponsor ideas (tumbleweed)
18:21:56 agreed: indiebio to chat to Silicon Cape contacts to find us a sponsorship person (tumbleweed)
18:23:12 agreed: indiebio to chat to Georg Lerm, and/or get in contact with ArduinoCT via marc (tumbleweed)
18:30:44 topic: Assignment of (hypothetical) medium- to long-term tasks (tumbleweed)
18:40:29 topic: Any Other Business (tumbleweed)
18:42:17 Meeting ended

Full log

17:30:22 <tumbleweed> tibid: start meeting about DebConf 16 Bid
17:30:22 * tibid gets out his memo-pad and cracks his knuckles
17:30:50 <tumbleweed> tibid: topic Review Agenda
17:30:50 <tibid> Current Topic: Review Agenda
17:30:52 <tumbleweed> http://whiteboard.debian.net/1f05bd.wb
17:31:01 <tumbleweed> if we're missing anything, please add it
17:31:03 <tumbleweed> and now we continue
17:31:16 <tumbleweed> tibid: topic Bid Timeline
17:31:16 <tibid> Current Topic: Bid Timeline
17:31:32 <tumbleweed> ok, we're back to where we were a second ago
17:32:01 <nattie> so, the deadline is the first of December
17:32:06 <tumbleweed> I'm assuming that because of the moved-up bid timeline, we aren't expected to be as far along as last year, but this doesn't seem to have been decided yet
17:32:20 <nattie> we might as well be as far along as we (sanely) can be
17:33:04 <tumbleweed> yeah, it's only good for the bid
17:33:16 <indiebio> please give the link to the previous bid - how they looked by the time the bid closed?
17:33:23 <indiebio> so we know what we're working with
17:33:45 <nattie> last year was... interesting because the winning bid actually offered two potential venues
17:33:50 <nattie> in different cities
17:34:07 <tumbleweed> one assumes it hasn't changed much since the bid deadline
17:34:10 <tumbleweed> but look at the history
17:34:22 <nattie> https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf15/ has links
17:34:26 <nattie> snap :)
17:34:44 <indiebio> thanks
17:34:00 <tumbleweed> https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf15/Bids/Germany
17:35:51 <nattie> i think we shouldn't do that, as it was pretty controversial at the time, and made some people think there was an unfair advantage
17:36:18 <indiebio> OK, Germany as a country, vs Cape Town as a city. Somewhere someone is going to ask why not Jhb, or PE. I can think of two big reasons: Scenery, and SiliconCape, for what they're worth.
17:36:36 <nattie> OTOH, tying oneself to a single venue prematurely is also not an advantage
17:37:01 <nattie> another bid had wanted to hold it in a very specific small belgian town, and that ended up not coming off
17:37:01 <indiebio> sure, we're talking city vs venue here.
17:37:17 * nattie waves at confluency
17:38:16 <indiebio> hahaha "Weird, semi-friendly contact who does not appear to speak German too well; outcome unclear"
17:38:21 <confluency> 1. Medium time (depends on my near-future work situation); 2. people-wrangling over email; 3. driving ability is mostly theoretical
17:37:37 <indiebio> That's why I'm making sure this page is public and has a good overview, for the judges' sake. https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf16/Bids/Cape_Town/venue_details
17:38:46 <tumbleweed> indiebio: I don't think we need to defend ourselves against other cities. Cape Town is where the Free Software community mostly is
17:39:24 <indiebio> ah. MY 2. love site-seeing and hobnobbing. have a car, willing to travel. flexible day schedule, so can do stuff in office hours.
17:39:59 <nattie> that's a big plus, being able to do stuff during the day
17:40:06 <indiebio> OK, but that needs to go into the bid then. in an intro paragraph or something.
17:40:20 <nattie> i'd be willing to phone people, but people might be all "where does *she* get off with her posh accent?!"
17:40:32 <tumbleweed> :P
17:40:39 <nattie> what?
17:40:44 <indiebio> oh no, cape town has posh ones too. actually, all sorts, my bru.
17:40:58 <madduck> nattie: there was never an unfair advantage, but it makes no sense to propose multiple options for a single city, IMHPO
17:41:25 <tumbleweed> it does divide work, though
17:41:27 <nattie> madduck: yes, but there was the *appearance* of an unfair advantage, at least that's what i gathered from a rather sour-grapes mail to -team i saw
17:41:30 <nattie> but never mind
17:41:45 <tumbleweed> if we think we have a preferred venue, we should bid with it
17:41:50 <nattie> absolutely
17:41:54 <tumbleweed> (and have some backup venues)
17:42:08 <nattie> so right now the thing to do is contact places, then narrow down
17:42:34 <nattie> because some places will inevitably say "sorry, we're washing our hair on the 16th of august" (for example)
17:42:38 <tumbleweed> which brings us to the next agenda item, if there are no objections
17:42:47 * nattie objects on principle!
17:42:52 <nattie> no, carry on :)
17:43:03 <tumbleweed> tibid: topic Venue contacts
17:43:03 <tibid> Current Topic: Venue contacts
17:43:14 <indiebio> tumbleweed, side note, I added the bit about the free software thing onto the wiki. please oversee when you can...
17:43:18 <tumbleweed> thanks
17:43:51 <tumbleweed> so, we have a letter to send to potential venues
17:43:53 <nattie> tumbleweed: is there an equivalent to #info on this bot?
17:44:09 <tumbleweed> nattie: #info being?
17:44:22 <tumbleweed> oh I see
17:44:31 <nattie> something that goes into the minutes for information
17:44:41 <tumbleweed> tibid: help meetings
17:44:41 <tibid> tumbleweed: Take minutes of an IRC Meeting. You can use it like this:

 (start | end) meeting [about <title>]
 I am <True Name>
 topic <topic>
 (agreed | idea | accepted | rejected) <statement>
 minutes so far
 meeting title is <title>

17:44:48 <tumbleweed> agreed / idea usually
17:45:15 <tumbleweed> he might not listen to you, let's see
17:45:17 <nattie> (i have no idea whether that worked)
17:45:19 <tumbleweed> tibid: minutes so far
17:45:19 <tibid> Minutes available at http://corelli.tumbleweed.org.za/tibid-meetings/oftc-%23debconf16-capetown-2014-09-17-17-30-22
17:45:36 <nattie> no they're not
17:45:47 <tumbleweed> yeah, he didn't
17:45:55 * nattie is starting to think tibid doesn't love her
17:45:56 <tumbleweed> tibid: idea Draft Letter is at http://whiteboard.debian.net/86b9cc.wb
17:45:56 <tibid> Idea recorded: Draft Letter is at http://whiteboard.debian.net/86b9cc.wb
17:45:05 <nattie> tibid: idea Draft letter is at http://whiteboard.debian.net/86b9cc.wb
17:45:05 <tibid> nattie: One learns a new thing every day
17:46:02 <nattie> :-P
17:46:03 <tumbleweed> we can fix that
17:46:43 <nattie> :)
17:46:57 <tumbleweed> hrm, I don' tknow if we can discuss this much further without the agenda item about assigning people
17:47:10 <nattie> which *can* get moved, but...
17:47:16 <tumbleweed> basically, we should have one person contact the venues we've thought of
17:47:22 <nattie> didn't we basically volunteer indiebio for it yesterday when she wasn't here yet? ;)
17:47:25 <tumbleweed> and any other s we think of
17:47:27 <indiebio> I would say rather than assigning people to tasks, can we assign people to venues?
17:47:42 <nattie> indiebio: i think we need one person to do the sending of letters
17:47:46 <nattie> (or mails, whatever)
17:48:01 <indiebio> I was thinking of sending that standard email to the contact emails I can find.
17:48:07 <nattie> yeah
17:48:17 <indiebio> But I need help where the links aren't obvious, or where people have insider info
17:48:30 <nattie> i mean, some venues will only have two pieces of correspondence "can we?" "nope."
17:48:59 <indiebio> Also, Some emails need to hint hint that we want them to be involved, so that build a sortof relationship. And here it takes more time, and some people may be specially suited for it.
17:49:09 <indiebio> hence my bugging e.g. Hilton for stias
17:49:12 <tumbleweed> yeah
17:49:30 <nattie> was stias the one with the really nice-looking front desk?
17:49:38 <tumbleweed> yes
17:49:44 <nattie> aha
17:49:45 <indiebio> So I volunteer to do the first sweep, and then assigning venues to people if they need more work or show sponsor etc potential.
17:49:49 <nattie> (shallow, moi?)
17:49:53 <nattie> indiebio: sounds like a plan
17:50:01 <tumbleweed> and we're going to want to persuade them to give us insane discounts, and run our own conference, rather than their usual per-head deals
17:50:09 <nattie> well, yes
17:50:26 <nattie> basically "can we borrow your house for a fortnight? we promise not to break it!"
17:50:40 <tumbleweed> something like that
17:50:46 <nattie> but in grown-up-speak
17:50:49 <indiebio> that is why I'm very pro-aligned interests: universities, bandwidth barn, for example.
17:51:04 <wendar> nattie: sorry, reading backscroll
17:51:10 <tumbleweed> yeah, they're more likely to get it
17:51:19 <nattie> wendar: no worries - hope i introduced you well enough
17:51:33 <indiebio> the food ends up being the killer though. many 'proper' conference venues are find giving you R5k a day worth for free, IF you use their food, which ends up being ridiculous. Been there, bad idea.
17:52:07 <nattie> sorry, run that by me again please?
17:52:07 <tumbleweed> tibid: agreed indiebio will make initial venue contacts, and then we may delegate interested venues to other negotiators, for follow-up
17:52:07 <tibid> Agreed: indiebio will make initial venue contacts, and then we may delegate interested venues to other negotiators, for follow-up
17:52:27 <indiebio> I'm thinking for food, do food trucks. So very open. Many venues are contractually bound to specific food, and this to me is a biggie.
17:52:42 <nattie> food trucks and stuff get Complicated
17:52:47 <nattie> in terms of budgeting
17:52:48 <nattie> HOWEVER
17:53:00 <indiebio> ok, it's just an idea at this stage.
17:53:13 <nattie> it could be sort of done like fosdem, where volunteers get food vouchers of sorts, which can be used at the various trucks
17:53:25 <tumbleweed> yeah, we just had that contractual binding at dc14 in portland
17:53:28 <nattie> so i'm not ruling it out altogether, but it might be more faff than is worth it
17:53:38 <nattie> dining hall! cookies!
17:53:44 <tumbleweed> sit down meals are nice
17:53:53 <indiebio> yes, up to a limit and after that it's paying. well, let's see... All I'm saying is be careful with venues that tie you to a specific food supplier.
17:54:08 * nattie says nothing about smuggling waffles out of the dining hall
17:54:22 <tumbleweed> :)
17:54:39 <tumbleweed> ok, is this agenda item dead yet?
17:54:49 <nattie> what was the question? ;)
17:55:03 <indiebio> Is this venue or tasks?
17:55:06 <nattie> i think food is worth discussing, but possibly post-meeting
17:55:19 <tumbleweed> indiebio: we were on venues
17:55:23 <nattie> as in, we can hash it out and present any results in a fortnight
17:55:23 <tumbleweed> tibid: topic Venue reccie post pycon
17:55:23 <tibid> Current Topic: Venue reccie post pycon
17:55:30 <tumbleweed> so, sub-topic really
17:55:41 <indiebio> yeah, venue contacts dead. Action all: either email me your ideas on venues or dump them here: https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf16/Bids/Cape_Town/venue_details
17:56:04 <indiebio> nattie: cool :)
17:56:08 <tumbleweed> wendar (and presumably I, haven't booked yet) look like we'll be in CPT around 6-8 Oct
17:56:22 <indiebio> venue reccie: from the next two week's work we can shortlist some, and then go check them out
17:56:32 <indiebio> weeks'. man, my grammar.
17:56:46 <nattie> again, sounds like a plan
17:56:54 <tumbleweed> yeah, if we push a bit on venues now, the reccie should be useful
17:57:01 <indiebio> cool, can we tentatively clear a day for it, put it in the diary?
17:57:16 <tumbleweed> I guess so
17:58:02 <nattie> so that's all mid-week, presumably tuesday 7th?
17:58:16 <indiebio> I've made it the 6th, as in the earliest possible day, because we can always see on that day if we should rescedule... rather than missing an opportunity.
17:58:31 <tumbleweed> from what wendar said, mon/tue are the options
17:58:32 <nattie> point
17:58:47 <nattie> what's the culture like for being open or closed on mondays?
17:59:11 <indiebio> most of these are open, I think. Another thing we can follow up on email closer to the time.
17:59:22 <nattie> *nods*
17:59:31 <nattie> that's... not very many weeks from now
17:59:55 <nattie> the 8th is 3 weeks from now
18:00:12 <wendar> indiebio: we may split by location, Capt Town venues one day, Stellenbosch another day
18:00:20 <wendar> (if we haven't ruled out STIAS by then)
18:00:22 <nattie> point
18:00:30 <indiebio> yeah.
18:01:12 <indiebio> Also, if we don't get it all in, that's ok, I just need an idea what's the specs. Looking at the German bid, by the way, we're not far off for a good bid, I'd say.
18:01:32 <tumbleweed> indiebio: click through to the per-location pages
18:01:36 <tumbleweed> there was quite a bit of scouting
18:01:52 <tumbleweed> but yes, this feels totally doable
18:02:09 <indiebio> they're also german. :P
18:02:23 <tumbleweed> oh, yes, that
18:02:26 <tumbleweed> moving on?
18:02:35 <nattie> hey! nothing *inherently* wrong with germans! ;)
18:02:40 <tumbleweed> tibid: topic Initial budget, sponsor ideas?
18:02:40 <tibid> Current Topic: Initial budget, sponsor ideas
18:03:01 <indiebio> not wrong, just overly good at everything. it's annoying :P
18:03:10 <tumbleweed> so, I assume sponsorship contact should all go through the newly-forming debconf sponsorship team?
18:03:13 <nattie> there were all the ideas you listed for the presentation
18:02:18 <tumbleweed> I mean like https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf15/Bids/Germany/Heidelberg
18:03:22 <indiebio> tumbleweed, cape town has all that info in tourism handbooks. not difficult to populate.
18:03:49 <tumbleweed> indiebio: yep. See also the wikimania bid I linked from the foot of our bid. They've done a lot of similar research
18:03:57 <indiebio> who's good at hustling for money?
18:04:00 <tumbleweed> (in wiki markup, and sanely licensed :P )
18:04:20 <wendar> tumbleweed: yes on going through the sponsors team, and *also* we need to make sure we have someone local on the team
18:04:39 <wendar> i.e. local sponsor contacts are often better when they come from a local person
18:04:41 <tumbleweed> and our local person should join the central team, I guess
18:04:43 <nattie> should we perhaps get some of the wikimania people on board? would they be sympathetic?
18:04:45 <indiebio> and we'll need a good sponsor doc. and we need to chat to everyone who's anyone and involved in IT in SA.
18:04:45 <wendar> aye
18:05:29 <indiebio> So I have a few, dusty by now, contacts in IT from my TEDx adventures. I was thinking to adapt that venue email into an initial expression of interest email.
18:05:48 <tumbleweed> nattie: hrm, I don't know that team at all
18:05:52 <indiebio> I can then send it to my contacts, and if they express interest, introduce them to the sponsor team.
18:06:01 <indiebio> Does anyone know Georg Lerm?
18:06:08 <indiebio> from Arduino Cape Town
18:06:10 <nattie> somebody must do, but i don't ;)
18:06:12 <tumbleweed> the name is familiar
18:06:17 <tumbleweed> ah, arduino, right
18:07:02 <indiebio> he strikes me as perfect for the job. Should I ask him if he's interested? Also, dumb Q, arduino can use/is using debian?
18:07:09 <nattie> i think so
18:07:26 <nattie> i've certainly heard of it in a debian context, but i am not technical, so...
18:07:29 <tumbleweed> indiebio: the sponsor brochours for all previous (or recent, at least) debconfs are in the debconf-data repos
18:07:50 <indiebio> yeah, and all due respect, I think they can be improved.
18:07:52 <nattie> also, the final reports make for entertaining reading (possibly)
18:08:04 <tumbleweed> indiebio: chat to marc? I think he had the most contact with cape town arduino people
18:08:13 <indiebio> Also, in terms of getting sponsors's hopes up, and in terms of their long times to decide and handover money and budget cycles....
18:08:22 <indiebio> What are the chances of us getting the bid?
18:08:34 <wendar> indiebio: good, but not guaranteed
18:08:59 <wendar> so, we should present it as an initial interest thing until bid answer
18:09:03 <tumbleweed> esp if we don't fall off the wagon
18:09:11 <indiebio> ok
18:09:12 <tumbleweed> (our usual problem) :P
18:09:20 <wendar> sponsorship is not something we're expected to have in the bag before bid time
18:09:27 <wendar> not my a long shot
18:09:36 <wendar> we just need to demonstrate potential
18:09:40 <indiebio> also, random point. meetings shouldn't be much longer than an hour... just saying.
18:09:49 <tumbleweed> right, we started half an hour late
18:09:55 <tumbleweed> I'm usually reasonable at cracking a whip
18:09:57 <tumbleweed> sorry
18:10:25 <nattie> sorry, i should have done something
18:10:27 <tumbleweed> back to the topic, do we have anything budget related to discuss, yet?
18:10:31 <indiebio> well, it's the first one and all, but my brain is also like a puppy. all on, and then, all of. just like that.
18:10:40 <tumbleweed> yeah, long IRC meetings suck
18:10:51 * nattie will remember to bring puppy toys next time :)
18:10:52 <indiebio> I did a bit of an analysis on the past debconfs, on that dreaded spreadsheet.
18:11:02 <nattie> anyway, where were we?
18:11:05 <indiebio> they all come to about ZAR2million
18:11:18 <tumbleweed> which is about what I thumbsucked with highvoltage, last year
18:11:20 <indiebio> except for one in Spain
18:11:31 <indiebio> so I would say that is our ball park.
18:11:40 <tumbleweed> we must be prepared to spend a huge proportion on travel sponsorship, though
18:11:48 <tumbleweed> quite possibly more than ever before
18:11:55 <indiebio> South Africans have a reputation for doing things at one tenth of the price (REALLY) but even so we could do with a buffer.
18:12:02 <indiebio> many confs ran at a loss. Bad.
18:12:15 <tumbleweed> DebConf has avoided doing that for a few years now
18:12:37 <indiebio> OK. Let's start with that. Are there any sponsor takers to engage with every single airline you can think of?
18:12:43 <indiebio> Does airlines run on debian/
18:12:52 <tumbleweed> probably not
18:12:58 <indiebio> Do. FFS. grammar. (I'm afrikaans, and from Benoni. It's a dialect)
18:13:07 <tumbleweed> and I think getting sponsorship out of airlines is going to be like squeezing water from a rock
18:13:22 <nattie> in terms of actually getting them to give more than a discount, yes
18:13:27 <tumbleweed> related: https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf15/FundraisingIdeas#Airline_Partnerships
18:13:31 <nattie> though there was a bit of a thing starting.... yeah
18:13:49 <indiebio> yeah. Also, government is the other pain in the ass. If we can get money, epic, but it's disjointed, and sometimes they say yes and the money never comes.
18:14:19 <tumbleweed> but we probably aren't high profile enough
18:14:34 <nattie> but we are international!
18:14:53 <tumbleweed> indiebio: right, and that is near DebConf's experience of other government sponsorship in the past
18:14:57 <indiebio> I do think that if we can get into the airline magazines, it gives more exposure for sponsors. This is a bit jumping the gun, but developing good sponsor drawcards (exposure, community activities .... ) takes time, but strengthens the opportunities so much more. I'd like to play with this once we sort the bid out.
18:15:05 <wendar> just as a note here, let's make sure we don't start contacting potential sponsors without engaging with the wider sponsors team
18:15:13 <madduck> airline partnerships should be coorindated and the work done for dc15! ;)
18:14:14 <tumbleweed> so, http://www.flysaa.com/za/en/flyingSAA/News/south-african-airways-proudly-bring-delegates-to-the-cop17-climate-change-conference.html hints that SAA has a department that does this kind of thing
18:15:23 <wendar> (general principle for making sure folks are in the loop)
18:15:29 <nattie> yep
18:15:37 <indiebio> KLM is my fav.
18:15:48 <nattie> oh yeah, that's a thing. if we win, we will have to get quite involved in DC15 first
18:15:50 <tumbleweed> they fly to CPT, for a start (unlike SAA :P )
18:15:59 <indiebio> yes, I would say we need a good sponsor doc before we do anything.
18:16:12 <indiebio> AND, please, don't promise things we can't deliver. That has happened to me. very bad.
18:16:32 <nattie> indiebio: we learned that lesson a few years ago :) (i hope...)
18:16:36 <tumbleweed> :)
18:17:00 <indiebio> OK, so. any takers for someone to head up the sponsor team?
18:17:19 <tumbleweed> so, years ago when I was involved in a wikimania bid, we got endorsement (I can't remember about sponsorship) from the city of cape town. Trying this again is an option
18:17:20 <nattie> sorry, no, i'm *terrible* at approaching people
18:17:28 <tumbleweed> they also helped wrangle venues, IIRC
18:17:45 <wendar> I am on sponsors team, but we need really local reps.
18:19:43 <indiebio> OK, I will chat to my contacts at Silicon Cape. They're a bunch of <couch> hipsters and entrepreneurs. But that's sortof who you need here.
18:19:56 <wendar> indiebio: I hate pulling you into one more thing, but could you join the wider sponsors team?
18:20:05 <indiebio> lol, I can advise
18:20:08 <nattie> even smallish amounts of sponsorship are a good and useful thing
18:20:10 <wendar> it seems like you have a lot of local contacts from past events
18:20:17 <nattie> bronze sponsors do all add up
18:20:24 <wendar> and, I suspect it'll be good for you to be informed on what the global team is doing
18:20:31 <wendar> i.e. keep in sync
18:20:31 <madduck> dc15 could profit, and you could profit from dc15 too ;)
18:21:02 <wendar> yeah, and especially, the experience of watching the dc15 work, will be hugely useful in dc16 work
18:21:07 <indiebio> Yah. But not before 3 October, OK?
18:21:15 <nattie> let's not count our chickens too toon
18:21:22 <nattie> *soon
18:21:24 <wendar> yup, no rush
18:21:30 <nattie> but *if*!
18:21:56 <tumbleweed> tibid: agreed indiebio to chat to Silicon Cape contacts to find us a sponsorship person
18:21:56 <tibid> Agreed: indiebio to chat to Silicon Cape contacts to find us a sponsorship person
18:22:02 <indiebio> the big things with sponsors is clear benefit, and TIME. this is why I want this to start now. They fix there budgets for the next year in like, Feb or something.
18:22:26 <nattie> *nods* getting in early is definitely a good thing
18:22:31 <wendar> yeah
18:22:36 <madduck> WAIT
18:22:38 <indiebio> tumbleweed, also put in an action item to chat to Georg Lerm, or chat to Marc about Georg (ArduinoCT) please
18:23:12 <tumbleweed> tibid: agreed indiebio to chat to Georg Lerm, and/or get in contact with ArduinoCT via marc
18:23:12 <tibid> Agreed: indiebio to chat to Georg Lerm, and/or get in contact with ArduinoCT via marc
18:23:18 <nattie> madduck: yes?
18:24:06 <madduck> sponsorship work/contacts *must* be coordinated across debconfs
18:24:23 <madduck> you must *not* approach any sponsor for dc16 while we are talking to sponsors for dc15
18:24:44 <indiebio> for international ones, yes. I'm saying, locals. And yes, we agreed to coordinate first. I am just stressing the timing.
18:24:52 <wendar> madduck: this is only local sponsors, and only for the purpose of saying they might be interested on the bid page
18:24:54 <nattie> casual inquiries are different
18:25:03 <nattie> and finding out when to approach officially
18:25:09 <madduck> indiebio: even local ones, please
18:25:11 <madduck> you can obviously do preliminary work
18:25:14 <madduck> but timing is not that urgent
18:25:21 <nattie> yeah, i think we're just talking about preliminary work here
18:25:36 <nattie> knowing when to get an actual request in, in time for 2016
18:26:05 <madduck> budgeting for dc16 does not start until Q3/2015
18:26:05 <madduck> we did not contact sponrs for the bid page, we just listed who we think could be targets
18:26:08 <madduck> yes caussual inquireies should be fine
18:26:09 <madduck> and might provide dc15 leads too
18:26:16 <wendar> indiebio: but, even for that, we do need to coordinate with global team
18:26:29 <madduck> please do
18:26:39 <wendar> i.e. all contacts with sponsors we need to coordinate
18:26:47 <madduck> we even promise to react quickly after checking that there are no conflicts in each case! ;)
18:26:48 <indiebio> with all due respect, and your concerns noted. We need to have sponsors locked down by Feb 2015, for 2016.
18:26:59 <wendar> they will likely tell us "it's fine, go ahead and get dates/deadlines/initial interest"
18:27:03 <madduck> indiebio: why?
18:27:17 <madduck> indiebio: dc15 has not a single sponsor yet
18:27:28 <madduck> and we are (almost still) early
18:27:44 <indiebio> their budgets go in by feb of the previous year for spending of the next year. For the big amounts. So it's easier to deal with them earlier rather than fight over scraps later.
18:27:48 <wendar> over half of the sponsorship for dc14 came in the last 4 months
18:28:20 <madduck> indiebio: you seem to have different experience from me.
18:28:23 <indiebio> it might be mainly a south african thing, but this has happened to us before. I don't want to do that last minute begging thing again.
18:28:34 <indiebio> Anyways, it still gives a few months.
18:28:44 <madduck> okay, your experience, just coordinate with us, please
18:29:16 <wendar> if we seem a little overly cautious, it's just because of past less-than-good experiences
18:29:25 <madduck> and for that, join the sfundraising team in general
18:29:34 <wendar> overcommunication, early prevents a lot of problems
18:29:38 <indiebio> agreed, this is a thorny field. all the more reason to collaborate earlier!
18:29:42 <wendar> ja
18:29:50 <nattie> "ag, ja man"
18:29:54 <tumbleweed> :P
18:29:55 <tumbleweed> ok, moving on?
18:29:58 <indiebio> ok, so we're on the same page. I'll get back on this mid october.
18:30:02 * nattie is just practicing!
18:30:28 <madduck> indiebio: madduck@dc.o and I will hok you up with the info
18:30:29 <indiebio> moving on, capt'n
18:30:44 <tumbleweed> tibid: topic Assignment of (hypothetical) medium- to long-term tasks
18:30:44 <tibid> Current Topic: Assignment of (hypothetical) medium- to long-term tasks
18:30:57 <nattie> that's really a very small agenda iteam
18:30:59 <nattie> *item
18:31:09 <nattie> (clearly that's the "i" in "iteam"
18:31:10 <nattie> )
18:31:23 <indiebio> lol
18:31:32 <indiebio> did you not know the i is in the A's hole?
18:31:32 <nattie> \o/
18:31:40 <tumbleweed> what teams do we need to start forming?
18:31:40 <nattie> oh, i know that, too
18:32:04 <nattie> for now, budget and venue scouting, i guess?
18:32:21 <nattie> closer to the time, other stuff will come up like network and registration and all that jazz
18:32:26 <indiebio> so venue - I'm heading that up. Sponsorship - wendar?
18:32:35 <nattie> but that's contingent on other stuff anyway
18:32:45 <wendar> I shouldn't be lead on sponsorship
18:32:45 <indiebio> agree.
18:32:52 <indiebio> for now, until we get someone.
18:32:53 <indiebio> :)
18:32:58 <wendar> for the global team I've volunteered to be a "wizard"
18:33:08 <indiebio> just for it to have a place, and you have links to db15, it seems...
18:33:08 <wendar> i.e. a resource, and big hitter
18:33:11 <nattie> wendar: do you put on your robe and wizard hat?
18:33:14 <wendar> but, not day to day lead
18:33:21 <indiebio> that's perfect.
18:33:59 <nattie> so, we'll designate you "contact person pro tem"?
18:34:14 <wendar> indiebio: sounds like you were doing some recruiting for sponsorship?
18:34:32 <wendar> maybe whoever volunteers there could be primary local contact
18:34:42 <indiebio> I just want to chat to people who have experience in gaining sponsorships for IT-related events. Not the actual sponsors themselves yet.
18:34:48 <wendar> for Portland I was one of the primary local reps
18:34:54 <wendar> (even though I live in Seattle)
18:34:58 <indiebio> I am looking for teammates at this stage, not the sponsors. Sorry, I realise this may have been a misunderstanding!
18:35:14 <tumbleweed> that sounds like what we need
18:35:19 <wendar> but, I'm close enough in time-zone to make that work
18:35:26 <indiebio> so madduck, no problems then!
18:35:45 <wendar> yes, I'll be participating in sponsor work
18:36:22 <wendar> indiebio: but, did you think some of those people with experinece in IT-related events might want to actively help with dc16
18:36:23 <wendar> ?
18:36:43 <wendar> or, is this more looking for information/pointers/advice?
18:36:45 <indiebio> maybe. or they might know people.
18:37:07 <indiebio> both. all of the above. I'm an oppotunist. I mean, optimist.
18:37:13 <nattie> :)
18:37:14 <wendar> cool
18:37:23 <tumbleweed> are we near done?
18:37:34 <indiebio> at the very least they may know more venues with kicking internet
18:37:46 <wendar> so, in terms of staffing, I'd say we're looking for at least one, maybe two local folks willing to reach out to local sponsors
18:37:52 <wendar> (it's fine if we don't have them yet)
18:38:00 <indiebio> yeah, but we can take that offline.
18:38:02 <indiebio> I'm tired now.
18:38:21 <tumbleweed> I can't think of anyone who is both in the free software world, and would be a perfect sponsor wrangler :/
18:38:23 <wendar> oooh, nearly 2 hour meeting
18:38:57 <nattie> we did have something else that i was going to stick in AOB, but i can't remember what it was now
18:39:02 <indiebio> this is why we need other people. For TEDx we had the weirdest teams, and managing the different personalities is a challenge, but that's also where the magic comes from. I consider myself a humble expert :)
18:39:12 <tumbleweed> yeah
18:39:15 <wendar> :)
18:39:29 <wendar> indiebio: we welcome your expertise :)
18:39:34 <indiebio> thanks :)
18:39:37 <tumbleweed> we can spread some discussion at pycon.za, and mail CLUG, I guess
18:40:07 <wendar> yah
18:40:29 <tumbleweed> tibid: topic Any Other Business?
18:40:29 <tibid> Current Topic: Any Other Business
18:40:33 <tumbleweed> nattie: you remembered yet?
18:40:37 <wendar> aside from site visits, maybe we could grab dinner one night with folks in Cape Town?
18:40:50 <tumbleweed> wendar: tuesday nights are good for that
18:41:01 <tumbleweed> CLUG elders/hungry people meet up for dinner
18:41:09 <wendar> perfect
18:41:15 <indiebio> who you calling elders? punk.
18:41:35 <nattie> tumbleweed: nope, it's gone, it'll come back to me in a fortnight, i think
18:42:07 <tumbleweed> ok
18:42:08 <tumbleweed> going
18:42:14 <tumbleweed> going
18:42:15 <tumbleweed> gone
18:42:17 <tumbleweed> tibid: end meeting