[okfn-discuss] Open Knowledge Festival 2015 - Location Thoughts
Rufus Pollock
rufus.pollock at okfn.org
Wed Oct 8 16:19:50 UTC 2014
On 8 October 2014 16:49, Abbas Mahmood <abbasjnr at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
There are several considerations of which this is one.
> 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.
>
We'd absolutely love to see both more Open Knowledge events around the
world especially regional OKCons. Re the Festival we would also be very
excited to travel around at some point. However, near-term, as the email
explains, there are real practical challenges of moving the Festival around
- but part of this thread is about people's thoughts on this and what we
can do going forward (for 2015 I think will be very tough just because of
timeline ...)
Rufus
> Regards
> Abbas
> (Former Ambassador)
>
> On 10/8/14, Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org> 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
> >
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