For me London is totally out of the question. It is not a matter of distance or money it is a matter of principle, being a Northerner. As far as organic muck is concerned you can shove that stuff where a monkey shoves his nuts On Thursday 11 December 2003 01:41, Josef Davies-Coates wrote:
Ian,
I'm not sure how set in stone the plans for FLOSSIE are but...
1) Mid-week is not good. Better to hold it on a Saturday than a Wednesday. That way far more people would be able to attend.
2) School halls are normally empty on Saturdays and could probably be used for free (or cheap) instead of hiring out an expensive London hall. Surely that ties in nicely too - maybe we can convince the host school to change over to OS, or perhaps one that already has done could host the confernece? (don't know if there are any in London? with enough space?)
3) I don't drink coffee, and doubt the food will be organic, so would bring a packed lunch.
4) Why offer freebies (lunch, coffee) at all? (The no-frills EasyJet model works).
5) I would get someone like http://www.organic-express.com/home.htm to do the food, and if your going to supply tea and coffee, make sure that it is fair trade and organic (I can get it cheap if interested - got an account with a wholesaler)
I think £10 would then easily cover entrance (and maybe tea/coffee, but not lunch). Give people choice and think beyond Open Source. Linking up the event with other ethical consumption choices (i.e. having organic food and drink) would also add a air of respectability and show that your not just a bunch of geeks, but people with high morals, both willing and able to act on them.
Thoughts, comments?
Peace,
Josef.
ian wrote:
On Wed, 2003-12-10 at 23:17, Josef Davies-Coates wrote:
Hello Ian et al,
I would come if it was a lot cheaper (personally I can't strech much further thatn £10). I would also be able to convince lots of other people to come along too if it was a lot cheaper. My mum is a teacher and I have quite a lot of education links.
I'll look into ways of reducing the cost. The difficulty is that the lunch and coffees come to £10 a head and there is the cost of hiring the hall. We could look at sponsorship though.
Best,
Josef.
ian wrote:
Sorry to bring this up again, but recruitment is not going particularly well. I don't want to have to cancel and it might just be that people intending to come are just waiting to book nearer the time. If you are in this category, please E-mail me and let me know so I have some idea of the possible attendance. If you are not going to attend for a specific reason eg delegate fee, date or whatever, that would be useful information too. Also if you can spread the word around through as many of your contacts, mailing lists etc as possible. If we can't get enough interest to run an annual conference its not going to make much impression on the powers that be that there is a growing interest in FLOSS in schools!
Regards,
-- Josef Davies-Coates Founder, uniteddiversity LLP
Tel: 0845 456 9774 Mob: 07764 75 99 70
mailto:josef@uniteddiversity.com http://josef.uniteddiversity.com
-- Regards John http://www.totalrekall.co.uk john@totalrekall.co.uk