<p>Thanks Anthony </p>
<p>That is good feedback. I think at the time I was pretty busy and didn't have a lot of local support, when I heard Canberra was bidding, it was pretty easy to procrastinate and let it slide.</p>
<p>I hear what you are saying about you having to bid multiple times to get it though, a few others also gave me this advice. It's just not particularly motivating when you know what you are putting lots of unpaid effort into is just a warm up exercise, or a warm up for a warm up. </p>
<p>I think in hindsight I should have just put something basic in - if people could see I had at least attempted it might at the very least had brought some more active locals into the team to help me on the next bid.</p>
<p>Re the Casino thing on OSDC - there may have been other reasons but that was the only one that got back to me.</p>
<p>Anyway - Griffith Uni is looking a lot better these days, new Uni hospital opens in December and Health & Knowledge Precinct currently under construction - which makes it a much bigger and interesting Campus. It would be a great venue for LCA is worthy of a bid. Bond Uni is a no go - their 3 semesters means there is almost no time where the place is on vacation - they are also about to virtually close down what is left of their school of IT which is very sad for the Gold Coast.</p>
<p>Steve</p>
<p>Refactor.<br>
Engage | Succeed | Repeat<br>
tel: +61 (0)7 5668 3424<br>
mob: +61 (0)414 464564<br>
web: <a href="http://refactor.com.au">refactor.com.au</a></p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Aug 29, 2012 10:35 PM, "Anthony Towns" <<a href="mailto:aj@erisian.com.au">aj@erisian.com.au</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
On 29 August 2012 09:42, Steve Dalton <<a href="mailto:steve@refactor.com.au">steve@refactor.com.au</a>> wrote:<br>
> I was thinking of bidding for 2013, started looking at the bid documents and<br>
> I already had a little bit of stuff done from a failed OSDC bid. But when I<br>
> heard Canberra were bidding, I didn't bother with it -<br>
<br>
That's not the best approach; historically most cities/teams have to<br>
bid more than once to actually get it. If you can get your first<br>
attempt out of the way earlier, that's a win. FWIW, going from memory,<br>
supply your own grains of salt:<br>
<br>
First-timers:<br>
Melbourne (CALU) '99: party at Rusty's place<br>
Sydney '01: only ones game to try stealing Rusty's shoes<br>
Brisbane '02: Perth and Adelaide/Canberra (?) ceded to Brisbane<br>
Sydney '07: uppity folks they were<br>
Wellington '10: also uppity<br>
Canberra '13: taking uppity to never before seen heights<br>
<br>
Multiple bids:<br>
Perth '03: also wanted to run it in '02<br>
Adelaide '04: wanted in for '03 iirc<br>
Canberra '05: wanted in for '03 and '04 at least iirc<br>
Dunedin '06: not bids per say but was interested from '04 on iirc<br>
Melbourne '08: bid for '06 and '07 iirc<br>
Hobart '09: bid for '07 and '08 iirc<br>
Brisbane '11: bid for '09, '10 as well<br>
Ballarat '12: bid for '11 as well<br>
<br>
I don't know if there's been any actual teams that have actually put<br>
bids in for LCA and not (eventually) run one. I can't recall any?<br>
<br>
I think there was only one team bidding for both LCA 2012 and LCA 2013.<br>
<br>
> as there would have<br>
> been a fair bit of work to do the bid properly, and looking at the way that<br>
> OSDC Canberra had gone I realised I had no chance against Canberra.<br>
<br>
Even so, it would give you the opportunity to ask "so, hey, why was<br>
Canberra's bid better than mine?" and make notes for next time.<br>
Certainly teams have changed composition and/or leaders between their<br>
first and successful bids.<br>
<br>
> As<br>
> potential organisers we could also get an idea for the chances of actual<br>
> success before we spend a lot of time preparing bid documents.<br>
<br>
The odds depend a lot on who you end up coming up against; eg,<br>
Brisbane's bid for the 2010 conference had a lot of work put in for<br>
it, but it was reasonably legitimately outclassed by Wellington's bid,<br>
which wasn't something that could really have been predicted until<br>
after the bids were in.<br>
<br>
> My OSDC bid for instance was knocked back as I chose the Casino as a venue -<br>
<br>
Interesting. AIUI, PyCon that just finished was held at Wrest Point<br>
casino down in Tas. I can understand another bid being preferred (a<br>
uni being cheaper or a more pleasant environment than a casino eg),<br>
but not being outright knocked back.<br>
<br>
The main reasons to knock back an LCA bid seem (to me) to be: not<br>
enough evidence you really understand the dollars involved (can't put<br>
together a realistic budget particularly), don't have a good enough<br>
idea for where/when you're going to host the conference or other<br>
logistics (arguably Ballarat got knocked back for LCA 2011 mostly due<br>
to transport concerns I think), or don't have a strong enough team to<br>
convince LA that you'll be able to pull your plans off. Other than<br>
that, it's just a matter of being the best bid out of the ones<br>
received, and if there's only one bid...<br>
<br>
> is there anyway we can do something like an expression of interest from<br>
> bidders before the actual bid?<br>
<br>
This was done for 2013:<br>
<a href="http://lists.linux.org.au/pipermail/linux-aus/2011-February/018476.html" target="_blank">http://lists.linux.org.au/pipermail/linux-aus/2011-February/018476.html</a><br>
<br>
It was skipped for 2014 because the council was behind schedule:<br>
<a href="http://lists.linux.org.au/pipermail/linux-aus/2012-April/019446.html" target="_blank">http://lists.linux.org.au/pipermail/linux-aus/2012-April/019446.html</a><br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
aj<br>
<br>
--<br>
Anthony Towns <<a href="mailto:aj@erisian.com.au">aj@erisian.com.au</a>><br>
</blockquote></div>