[Linux-aus] lca ghosts program

[Michael Davies]

On 27/03/07, Tim Bowden <tim.bowden at westnet.com.au> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm looking at giving some input to the conf committee of the Open
> Source Geospatial Foundation, and I'd like to get some feedback on the
> lca ghosts program.  Specifically, how beneficial has it been and what
> sort of costs (ballpark) has it involved?

Hi Tim,

The "linux.conf.au Ghosts of Conference Past" program has been in
place for a while now, and it serves a number of purposes:

a) provides a debrief opportunity for last conference's team to tell
LA and next year's conference organisers things they need to be aware
of, do both a physical and virtual handover, including sponsorship
arrangements etc etc etc;

b) provides an opportunity for the next conference to bounce ideas off
Linux Australia and previous conference organisers, to validate their
thinking;

c) provides continuity for LCA by allowing input into the planning of
the next conference by those who have been there and have sweated
blood before (to maintain the flavour of the conference);

d) provides an avenue for Linux Australia to audit where the next
conference's planning is at, and what intervention (if any) it needs
to make to ensure the next conference rocks (especially financially
since LA "underwrites" the conference);

e) allows support structures to be put in place to support the
organising committee of the next conference.

As someone who has benefited from "ghosts" and has also been involved
in supporting LCA in this capacity over the past 4 years, I think it's
very beneficial to a roaming conference like LCA with a different
organising committee every year.

Cost wise, we're looking at domestic airfares and accommodation for
approx 6 people over a weekend.  I think it's a small investment
considering the size of the budget for LCA these days.

Hope this helps,
-- 
Michael Davies           "Do what you think is interesting, do somthing that
michael at the-davies.net    you think is fun and worthwhile, because otherwise
http://michaeldavies.org  you won't do it well anyway." -- Brian Kernighan