FOSS4G'13: Keynote Speakers ideas for FOSS4G 2013

Keynote Speakers ideas for FOSS4G 2013

Posted by Suchith Anand on November 19, 2012

It will be good if all start putting ideas on keynote speakers for FOSS4G 2013. It will be good to have some good keynote speakers from governments, academia and industry.

My suggestion is that there is atleast one government keynote speaker from UK (ideally someone from Cabinet Office esp with the UK Government Open Standards policy implementation in place) . All suggestions and ideas welcome.

Sir Tim Berners Lee is also good to invite as keynote speaker as it fits well with open data, open standards.

For other EU countries government level, Professor Evangelos Livieratos , Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change, Greece might be good to invite. He is also current chair of ICA Commission on Digital Technologies in Cartographic Heritage, so has strong academic background (till recently was Professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki). I know him through my ICA chair role.

http://www.ypeka.gr/Default.aspx?tabid=427&locale=en-US&language=el-GR ;

Prof Georg Gartner (President, ICA) is also good speaker to consider inviting from the academia esp with the ICA-OSGeo MoU

All of these people are very busy, so we need to contact early to see their availability.

Suchith

Comments

Addy Pope on November 19, 2012:

Agree with the Tim Berners Lee idea, timing with the open data research institute opening. Someone high up at the Met Office? We know they are using OSGeo software and support FOSS.

Jo Cook on November 19, 2012:

Tim Berners Lee would be superb, otherwise we have to be a little careful about speakers that are too academic. We need speakers that will appeal to a wider range of people- I think Suchith's suggestions are a little too esoteric for the average (US) developer, or the average software user.

Jo

Antony Scott on November 19, 2012:

We already have a page on basecamp of candidate keynote speakers, sorry can't link to it at the moment but there are a number of stellar suggestions...
Antony

Peter Batty on November 19, 2012:

We invited Sir Tim to do a keynote in Denver but his assistant politely told us he was unavailable. He has quite specific instructions on how to invite him at http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/#Speaking

He would obviously be a big draw!

Jo Cook on November 19, 2012:

Here's the original document, which I suggest we stick to using for our list:
https://basecamp.com/1920286/projects/762306-foss4g-13/documents/1191978-keynote-speaker

Suchith Anand on November 19, 2012:

Thanks. I didnt see this list already setup. That is excellent, so could i suggest everyone add more names/thoughts to this list by this month, so we can aim to finalize the speakers and contact them for confirmations. Thanks.

btw how many keynote/invited speakers can we aim?

Peter Batty on November 19, 2012:

On the subject of how many keynote speakers can you invite, I think based on our experience in Denver it's important to decide as early as possible on the "shape" of the program and exactly how many slots you have for each type of presentation (regular track presentations, keynotes, lightning presentations, panels, academic presentations, workshops, tutorials). Obviously it's good to try to keep a little flexibility but you pretty quickly need to lock in on this to manage logistics with rooms etc. Keep in mind that every additional keynote speaker means 9 fewer regular presentations, if you go 9 tracks wide (roughly speaking ... maybe a keynote is shorter than a regular presentation but you get the idea). So it is important to prioritise who you want your keynote speakers to be and not invite too many!

Rollo Home on November 19, 2012:

The programme - as it currently stands - could accommodate up to 7 speakers over the 3 days of conference. There's flexibility here of course.
In terms of making contact with speakers, I'd suggest that there needs to be a highly organised system with a key person (Steven?) responsible. Suggest focus on getting the hit list sorted for now.

Suchith Anand on November 19, 2012:

Yes, once the draft list is ready and everyone agree and finalize the invited speakers then Steven can start contacting the speakers (atleast by Jan beginning) to get their confirmations and we can put the confirmed keynote speakers in the conference website with their short bio and talk abstract.