[Linux-aus] Sydney's bid for LCA2014 and 2015

[Tim Ansell]

Please note that speakers are welcome to apply for these grants too.

Tim

On 1 October 2012 20:44, Mary Gardiner <mary at puzzling.org> wrote:

> On 2012-09-26, Tim Ansell wrote:
> > Hello Linux Australia community,
> >
> > You can find our bid document for LCA2014 and 2015 at
> >
> https://docs.google.com/a/mithis.com/file/d/0B5VlNZ_Rvdw6WVA2Y0phUHFtQ1E/edit
>
> Excited to see a Sydney bid, and one looking at modifying some parts of
> LCA.
>
> The proposal to alter the travel funding I think is very interesting!
> Copying
> and pasting from the bid doc for the benefit of the list:
>
> """
> This exciting new program aims to target diversity, not just gender
> diversity,
> but regional and income. This is based on the very successful PyCon US
> model,
> another community run conference which funds a community run organisation.
> Jesse Noller, a PyCon US organiser, has explained why this program is so
> important.
>
>     "... offers a very generous financial aid program — this means that
> some
>     attendees, speakers, tutorial presenters, etc have some, or in rare
> cases,
>     all of their expenses such as flight, hotel and admission provided to
> them
>     from the PyCon budget.
>
>     PyCon goes out of its way to encourage people to a pply for financial
> aid
>     even if we cant cover all of your expenses, we will give you free
> admission
>     based on need. The FA application process is simple, and
> straightforward.
>
>     We also don't ban anyone from applying (for example, I needed
> assistance in
>     2010 even as the PC chair)."
>
> The funding for this program [at a Sydney LCA] will come from the money
> normally allocated for the speakers travel budget. A majority of our
> speakers
> work for large corporations that are happy to pay both their travel and
> accommodation and LCA does currently not utilising this fact. This doesn't
> leave speakers who don't meet this criteria out in the cold, as they can
> apply
> to the grant program too.
>
> [...]
>
> The budget can be extended even further through a "Donate to the grants
> program, get discount on your professional ticket" or a "Buy one, give one"
> program.
>
> [...]
>
> On average, these costs will mean that the average grant will be ~$1200
> meaning
> we can bring ~33 people to the event.
> """
>
> I have some miscellaneous commentary on this:
>
> As a brief correction: most LCA speakers who work for large for-profit
> corporations already do have that corporation pay for their travel to LCA:
> the
> bid team should not expect enormous savings in this respect. Speakers
> asking
> for travel are, by and large, working for smaller or newer companies,
> working
> for non-profits, working as hobbyists or volunteers, or in the odd case
> here
> and there working for the occasional large corporation with a very stingy
> staff
> travel program. I would expect that almost all of those speakers would
> apply
> for the travel grants under the new model too.
>
> Which doesn't make it a bad idea!
>
> For the benefit of history only, I should note that LCA has also had
> variants
> on such a scheme before:
>
> 1. a Regional Delegates Program, sponsored by Sun, for linux.conf.au 2003,
>    2004, and 2005, which selected one person from each Australian state and
>    territory to receive travel, accommodation and registration to the
> conference.
>
> 2. a Diversity Delegates Program, sponsored by Google, for linux.conf.au2009
>    and 2010, which selected women (in 2009) and members of minority groups
> (in
>    2010) for grants to attend. LCA2010 also had grants for people from New
> Zealand
>    and Oceania, funded by other sponsors.
>
> So what the Sydney bid is proposing also fits into that history, with the
> change that it comes from central conference funds at the expense of the
> fund
> that is limited to speakers' travel.
>
> As a note: some conferences have also done a similar "donate to the [cause]
> fund" at registration time in order to fund the provision of childcare.
>
> -Mary
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> linux-aus mailing list
> linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au
> http://lists.linux.org.au/listinfo/linux-aus
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.linux.org.au/pipermail/linux-aus/attachments/20121002/0b1a30af/attachment.htm