FOSS4G'13

Here's a few ideas on things we might to put some design effort into, as we consider who to ask to do it.

Does this list need to be reviewed? e.g. conference bags? Sponsored 'items'?

I've been approached by http://www.wellingtonstravel.com/ about maps for FOSS4G. is this something we're interesting in?

I think that would depend on what the approach was. What was the offer?

"Is this something you would be interested in". From my perspective it would be awesome to make a cool map of Nottingham how they do and sell. Unsure on the specifics - I'm an academic, not a businessman ;) 

This made me think they might want to have an exhibition stand at the conference, but looking at the budget it seems the only channel to the exhibit space is via bronze and upwards sponsorship. So for £2.5k they get a conference pass, some advertising on the web site, and a small table to hawk their wares.

@ Peter B

We are talking about signage, banners and stuff for the venue. We want to leverage the identity throughout the venue but would also like the collateral to be re-usable by future FOSS4G events.

Any experience from Denver? Thoughts? Do OSGeo want to have a stake or say in this, maybe shipping to next event?

A few thoughts from me based on Denver experience - as always, these are just my opinions, no hard and fast rules. And I know this list was originally posted a while back and we've discussed several of the things that I mention below since then.

I got very strong feedback that a good quality T-shirt is top priority in terms of "giveaways" for the event. A T-shirt for all attendees included in the registration price is something that all previous FOSS4G events have had, to the best of my knowledge.

I also got very strong feedback that people didn't want the event to seem "too commercial". So I oppose having separately sponsored lanyards, bags, etc. Also you've already published a standard sponsorship scheme and most of the obvious sponsors have committed money for that. If they knew they had options for different sponsorships they might have spent their money differently, so I don't think you should introduce a load of new options now. Also I think you're in good shape for sponsorship money. So I feel pretty strongly that you shouldn't have additional individually sponsored items.

We specifically decided not to do bags at Denver. Many of us who go to conferences regularly just don't take these or throw them away, we felt there would be a lot of waste. And I think I said this before, but I really think a pretty limited number of FOSS4G types will take notes on paper so I think there would be a lot of waste with clipboards and headed paper personally.

One giveaway to consider spending money on is an OSGeo LiveDVD - you can use either DVDs or USB sticks (latter more expensive but faster to run off) or a mix.

Steven, in terms of re-using signs and banners, would you not be mainly branding those with the conference logo, which would really be specific to Nottingham? If you did some OSGeo branding then those might be reusable, but I might be inclined to stick (at least mainly) with the conference logo. So it's a good question to raise but I'm not sure if it's a major thing to worry about. You could email the OSGeo marketing mailing list if you want to solicit more opinions.

@ Peter

We will defo have a good quality t-shirt (we are about to ask for design ideas from the community) and it will be free to delegates.

No plans for any additional sponsor branded items.

We decided on no bags or stuffing delegates with tons of paper, there will be a place for sponsors to place leaflets but up to delegates whether they take them.

We are looking at an item in addition to t-shirt which wil have FOSS4G branding plus Gold/Plat logos as per sponsorship programme. Note your view on clipboards and will ask for further consideration.

We will have an OSGeo Live DVD for each delegate (some concerns re USB's and booting from them so we are playing safe with DVD's)

We were thinking about some of the banners being FOSS4G or OSGeo rather than FOSS4G 2013 to make them reusable but I recognise that may not be worth the hassle and we may go with one time stuff (possibly to reuse by UK chapter). Can @Jo mail the marketing list to seek opinions

steven

I have added some prices to this document.  Can people have a look and see what you think.  The banner company said they could reduce the prices on the banners if we buy multiples.  If anyone knows any companies that do any of the badges/banners etc cheaper - let me know.
Thanks

Claire, have added a link to a banners company I have used before who are cheap but reliable.

Does anyone think foss4g lapel badges might be a nice giveaway: http://www.lapelpinbadges.co.uk/index.html - ~50p each for a 1" metal die-struck enamel coloured badge.

They also do custom medals, which clearly we all deserve. Might make a nice gift for plenary speakers.

They also do embroidered badges, which the Canadian attendees might like to sew on their backpacks next to their flag of I'm-not-from-the-USA.

I love die struck badges as gifts to delegates also medals for volunteers or prizes.

I'm also a fan of stickers for laptops etc

I'm also a fan of sweatshirts or zipper jackets for the conference team

Truth is I love all of this tat :)

Just a reminder that in our Sponsorship Packages http://2013.foss4g.org/sponsorship-opportunities/sponsorship-packages/ we said that Diamond, plat & Gold would get their logo on the conference bag.

We aren't having a conference bag so we need to find a way to make that up to them with logos on something else.

Are we doing clipboard/notebooks that also function as laptop rests?  Stick their logos on those?

I notice from the EMCC gallery that the theatre doesn't have those swingout tables, which might make laptop rests very welcome.

Clipboards/laptop stands would be fine, I just didn't want to miss them off and have a queue of moaning sponsors on Sept 17th!

I guess we will want to have the OSGeo logon in there as well - it's going to be logo heaven but at least it leaves the t-shirt a bit cleaner

Jo is in charge of this element - it's going ahead.

Logos with lots of colours in make printing costs for the laptop-lap-stand-clipboard much more expensive. Do you think we could get away with stickers that we apply ourselves, or do you think we need them properly printed?

Go with properly printed, maybe cut down the number of colours? How expensive?

Depends on exactly what we go for- that was a gut feeling based on the prices for other items. Two colour logos is normally OK but anything else is additional and we're probably going to need 6 (I think) if we do all logos on a white background- 7 if not. 

Don't we just need two colours? White/Black and a Green? I think the greens in the logo file may be different shades, but it should be easy to do one with the same green throughout.

Not if we're including sponsors logos, no- we need OS blue and pink, and met office yellow, plus our own black and green. So 5, or 6 including white. 

Monochrome versions of those logos aren't available?

That's obviously a possibility- we'll have to check if they are OK with that.

http://www.bigprinting.co.uk/

This is the company AGI usually use.  They have a really quick turnaround.