[okfn-discuss] Open Knowledge Festival 2015 - Location Thoughts

Wed Oct 8 16:28:31 UTC 2014

Ahoi!

+100 for OKFestival 2015 location outside Europe and USA !

Daniel

On 08.10.2014, at 17:49, 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
> 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 <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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