[CREATE] Proposals for LGM 2010 - Deadline approaching

[Louis Desjardins]

2009/6/2 <snelting at collectifs.net>

> Dear all!


Dear Femke and dear all! :-)

>
>
> As we wrote earlier, we are *serious* about organising LGM in Brussels,
> and though to announce the exact venue a year in advance is difficult for
> us to organise, we would like to propose 5-8 May 2010 as dates and of
> course Brussels as host city :-)


If the dates are not yet sure, what about announcing first the host city and
the local organisation and take a few more days to determine the dates, once
we also determined what institution/building will be the host of the LGM.

Short Press releases keeping up with the latest news will help us gather
momentum around the event.

>
>
> The local organisation responsible for LGM would be Constant
> http://www.constantvzw.org, association for art and media. Constant works
> since 1997 on projects that involve Free Software, Open Content Licenses
> and other free culture activism and currently consists of 5 part time
> members (I'm one of them ;-)). The advantage of Constant as organiser is
> that the association has a formal non-profit status, is funded on a
> long-term basis by the Flemish Community and in general eligible for
> government funding.


This looks promising but we have to deal with a few basic questions
nonetheless.

We would need to set a distinct accounting to set apart the LGM money from
the Constant money. We have to sort this out quick and early in the process.
There could be other views on this issue, of course. But in any event, the
main reason for raising money is to ease the developers expanses by
reimbursing the travel fees. This is the biggest part of the budget, by far.

Would there be dedicated staff for accounting?

Do you suggest to handle all the money in one single place? On my part, I
was suggesting we ask the GNOME Foundation to continue handling the
international money but would this include the EU input, if there is to be
any?

>
>
> The Constant team is super motivated to help host LGM2010 in Brussels
> because we hope that in this way they/we contribute to the development of
> our favourite tools.


:-)

>
>
> Trying to avoid any user-developer divide whenever possible, and even if
> some of our members are developers, we're a cultural organisation so we
> need your help in making sure the event is what it needs to be. LGM 2010
> will no doubt be yet again a bit different than before, but hopefully you
> are looking as much forward to it as we are.


Fresh air is always welcome!

>
>
> AUDIENCE
>
> Constant is closely networked with many (digital) arts- and design
> organisations in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and The Netherlands so we
> can expect quite some visitors from across Europe. Locally, we work with
> various art- and design schools and the Brussels Linux User Group --
> several members of BXLUG have already expressed enthusiasm for
> participating in LGM2010.


Yes!

>
>
> We would like to promote the event at a.o.: The Open Video Conference
> (June 2009), RMLL (July 2009), FOSDEM (February 2010)


Agree.

>
>
> FUNDING
>
> We have good hopes for successful applications at Belgium and possibly
> Dutch cultural/educational funders. We will look into EU funding too, but
> no guarantees because the administrative load might be out of balance.
> We're interested in making connections with local printing industry,
> though as you know, these are hard times.


You might consider split the load on the local printer by asking a paper
mill to offer the paper (ecofriendly paper...). We could have a LGM
publication printed among other things.

>
> Being a cultural organisation, we know well how to do funding
> applications, but have not much experience with commercial sponsoring.
> BXLUG has offered help on this but we will also need your help as well.


This gives me the opportunity to say again what I think works best here. LGM
is a team of people and altogether we do have a network. The corporate
sponsoring can be handled by the larger LGM team, not only by the local
team. There is no need to but that much pressure only on the local team!
Remember we can do lots of things remotely.

>
>
> VENUE
>
> We are working on a few options right now. It will not be too difficult to
> find a location for LGM, it is about choosing the right one. Among our
> favourite options:
>
> - The Royal Albertina Library (high class venue, beautiful lecture hall,
> close to station etc. but possibly a bit hard to access in weekends)


> - De Pianofabriek (large venue, recently renovated, multiple spaces for
> workshops, network etc. all ok; spaces for meetings / BOF etc., located in
> nice St. Gilles neighbourhood close to the city centre. But it's convivial
> atmosphere could be a bit too informal for LGM?)


Internet acces too, bandwidth and power!

>
>
> LODGING
>
> Constant organised many medium-sized festivals and events in the past few
> years. We have worked with several hotels and hostels; Brussels has many
> options available at reasonable prices.


Are we going to be able to gather the teams in as few hotels as possible?

>
>
> VISUAL IDENTITY
>
> As you can imagine ... this has already caused quite some discussion
> amongst OSP's ;-) Later, I'll try to respond to the relevant messages
> earlier on the list.


ok!

>
>
> CATERING
>
> Expect great food and drinks. And we really mean it!
>

Yum! :-)

* * *

Further thoughts, questions, comments, anyone?

According to our discussions, we are in the last days for deciding on next
year’s venue.

Cheers!

Louis

>
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