[maemo-community] Organizing Maemo Summit 2009

[From: Andrea Grandi]

Hi,

> Another way to see this is that precisely Nokia employees are busy and
> perhaps a liberated community member is much better to coordinate a
> community event.
>
> I coordinated the first Summit and in that case it was (imo) important
> to have a core Nokia guy there to set the path and the style, getting
> the company committed at the same time. I'm happy getting involved this
> time as well, and it's part of my role to do this but as full time
> coordinator again...

Quim, since I'm a student I've months where I'm very busy (like this
one, I've to pass 4 exams) and months where I've a lot of free time,
so I think I've times to spend in the organization. Just tell me what
we have to do.

I agree you are the main coordinator in the organization.

> For instance, if Niels and Kees agree recommending a venue in Amsterdam,
> the local org sounds confident after a first chat/visit, Dave agrees
> taking the role of coordinator, the community thinks it's a good plan
> and Peter (my manager) nods, I will consider that we are 49% done.

sounds like a good news :)
I like Amsterdam!

> And a big problem that can go easily above 50% of the budget. I wish
> Nokia would handle the big & critical funds guaranteeing free entrance
> (location, equipment, wlan and perhaps even some food and night life)
> and then make a one time donation to cover the sponsored participants
> and whatever else going in the low amounts (e.g. when organizing GUADEC
> I had to find out in the last minute where to rent a drum set).

you mean we should do a donation  to help covering expenses? Well...
it doesn't sound so bad in the end. You just need to accept free
donation from community, each one depending on his own possibility and
this could help with the expenses.

Anyway: what if we looked for some sponsor? Every year I organize the
"LinuxDay" in Pistoia, my town (LinuxDay is an italian event organized
in about 100 cities every year) and since last year we looked for some
sponsor. I think there is nothing bad in it. What do you think about?

> Nokia paid travels beforehand to those having no other choice than
> flying through regular carriers (mainly the intercontinental flights)
> since Kaleva Travel could handle those. But using the travel agent for
> many European flights would have been a lot more expensive, since they
> can't work with Ryanair and etc.

well, I understand you. Anyway there's nothing bad if we book
flight+hotel by ourself, this can make save lots of money.

-- 
Andrea Grandi
email: a.grandi [AT] gmail [DOT] com
website: http://www.andreagrandi.it
PGP Key: http://www.andreagrandi.it/pgp_key.asc