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Want to add your event to our calendar? Click here. Email events at (@) BhamNow dot com for promotional options.
NOTE – Due to Covid-19 many events are being cancelled or postponed which might not be reflected here. Please double check with the organizer before attending any event.
- This event has passed.
Data Science Certification Training in Birmingham Alabama Area
November 20, 2018 @ 9:00 am - November 23, 2018 @ 5:00 pm
Key Features
- 30 hours of Interactive Class
- Mock Exams and Mock Projects
- Group Activities for better reinforcement
- Real world examples from various industries
- Industry based case studies
- Life time access to classroom recordings (for Online class customers only)
- 24/7 customer support
About the Course
Data science is a "concept to unify statistics, data analysis and their related methods" to "understand and analyze actual phenomena" with data. It employs techniques and theories drawn from many fields within the broad areas of mathematics, statistics, information science, and computer science from the subdomains of machine learning, classification, cluster analysis, data mining, databases, and visualization. The Data Science Certification Training enables you to gain knowledge of the entire Life Cycle of Data Science, analyzing and visualizing different data sets, different Machine Learning Algorithms like K-Means Clustering, Decision Trees, Random Forest, and Naive Bayes.
Who needs to attend?
The course is designed for all those who want to learn about the life cycle of Data Science, which would include acquisition of data from various sources, data wrangling and data visualization. Applying Machine Learning techniques in R language, and wish to apply these techniques on different types of Data.
The following professionals can go for this course:
1. Developers aspiring to be a 'Data Scientist'
2. Analytics Managers who are leading a team of analysts
3. Business Analysts who want to understand Machine Learning (ML) Techniques
4. Information Architects who want to gain expertise in Predictive Analytics
5. 'R' professionals who want to captivate and analyze Big Data
7. Analysts wanting to understand Data Science methodologies
What is this course about?
The incorporation of technology in our everyday lives has been made possible by the availability of data in enormous amounts. Data is drawn from different sectors and platforms including cell phones, social media, e-commerce sites, various surveys, internet searches, etc.
However, the interpretation of vast amounts of unstructured data for effective decision making may prove too complex and time consuming for companies, hence, the emergence of Data Science.
Data science incorporates tools from multi disciplines to gather a data set, process and derive insights from the data set, extract meaningful data from the set, and interpret it for decision-making purposes. The disciplinary areas that make up the data science field include mining, statistics, machine learning, analytics, and some programming. Data mining applies algorithms in the complex data set to reveal patterns which are then used to extract useable and relevant data from the set. Statistical measures like predictive analytics utilize this extracted data to gauge events that are likely to happen in the future based on what the data shows happened in the past. Machine learning is an artificial intelligence tool that processes mass quantities of data that a human would be unable to process in a lifetime. Machine learning perfects the decision model presented under predictive analytics by matching the likelihood of an event happening to what actually happened at the predicted time.
What learning benefits do you get from Trainerkart training?
- Establish a common vocabulary and understanding of basic Project Management terms and concepts such as PMBOK®, project, Project management, operations, programs, stakeholders, earned value, scheduling techniques, and project managers' responsibilities and competencies.
- Describe the purpose, inputs, and outputs of the processes in each of the five Process Groups: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, and Closing
- Define the 10 Project Management Knowledge areas & the processes in each. Define & explain the relationship of process groups, Knowledge areas, project phases, project &product life cycle
- Demonstrate a clear understanding of what activities, tools, & techniques, are necessary in each phase of a project & understand the PMP® examination nuances
- Understand, acknowledge & appreciate importance of risk management. Learn tools and techniques for managing the risks in projects
- Overview of Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) & discussion on concept of Buffer Management.
- Help the participants to understand one, understand others, and manage the interface more efficiently & effectively. Understanding the impact of organizational structures on projects
- Discussion on project manager's professional responsibilities.
- With the help of case studies, motivating the participants to use the principles of Project Management in their own Work area discussed with the help of case studies.
Why Trainerkart Learning Solution?
Trainerkart training is the best and value for time & money invested. We stand out because our customers
Get trained at the best price compared to other training providers.
Get trained by the best trainer in the industry.
Get access to course specific learning videos.
Related Events
Want to add your event to our calendar? Click here. Email events at (@) BhamNow dot com for promotional options. NOTE – Due to Covid-19 many events are being cancelled or postponed which might not be reflected here. Please double check with the organizer before attending any event.


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Review Vacancy
AgencyPeople With Developmental Disabilities, Office for
Occupational CategoryHealth Care, Human/Social Services
Bargaining UnitPS&T - Professional, Scientific, and Technical (PEF)
Salary RangeFrom $73284 to $92693 Annually
Jurisdictional Class Competitive Class
Compressed workweek allowed? No
Street Address OPWDD - Western NY DDSO
1200 East and West Road
Minimum Qualifications MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
Candidates must be reachable for appointment from the current Civil Service eligible list;
OR for Transfer Opportunity:
Candidates must have one year of permanent service as an Associate Psychologist and be eligible for lateral transfer; OR be in a title deemed appropriate for transfer via Section 70.1 of the Civil Service Law;
For Temporary Appointment:
Candidates must have a doctoral degree in a field of psychology; AND have completed a one-year, full-time clinical internship or traineeship; OR one year of psychology experience in a clinical setting under the supervision of a Licensed Psychologist. Candidates must demonstrate on their application how they meet this qualification.
Duties Description PRIMARY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
As an Associate Psychologist in the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, the incumbent performs a wide range of professional, administrative and technical duties such as;
• Work with individuals receiving services that present the more complex behavioral and/or mental health problems.
• Provide administrative supervision to lower-level psychology staff.
• Provide and perform professional psychological services.
• Design, develop, administer, score, and interpret psychological tests.
• Conduct psychological evaluations.
• Participate at treatment team meetings and assist in the development of behavioral/treatment plans.
• Participate in and lead individual, family and group counseling sessions.
• Prepare reports and maintain a wide variety of records.
Please note that, appointment at this level requires possession of a doctoral degree in a field of psychology.
Additional Comments Please note:
• Preference will be given to OPWDD employees impacted by closures. If you are being impacted by closure, please indicate this on your resume/cover letter.
• All OPWDD employees must be eligible and maintain eligibility for full and unconditional participation in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Continued employment will depend on maintaining eligibility.
• Position may be eligible for Loan Forgiveness via the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program:
• For more information on PSLF, please visit www.studentAid.gov/publicservice
Some positions may require additional credentials or a background check to verify your identity.
Name Human Resources Management Office
Email Address email@example.com
1200 East and West Road
Notes on ApplyingSubmit cover letter and résumé by April 30, 2021. Please reference the Associate Psychologist title in all correspondence.
1. Non-qualifying degrees include, but are not limited to the following: education, educational psychology, educational counseling, guidance counseling, experimental psychology, industrial psychology, organizational psychology, student and personnel services, mental health counseling, human relations, etc.
2. Psychology experience in a clinical setting is considered to be any direct care experience with individuals, families, or groups in a hospital, clinic, private practice, or correctional setting under the supervision of a Licensed Psychologist. Qualifying experience must primarily include performing psychological evaluations or assessment tests, psychological diagnostic testing, developing psychological treatment plans, providing psychological counseling and treatment in one or more of the following areas: mental and/or emotional disorders, mental retardation, developmental disabilities, alcoholism, addictions, sex offender assessment and treatment, or forensic mental health.
3. The following experience is NOT considered qualifying: experience in administration, administrative services, administrative oversight, training, special education, behavior specialist, habilitation specialist, project management, research, or primarily supervisory experience. Other non-qualifying experience including, but is no limited to, experience in experimental psychology, research psychology, industrial psychology, organizational psychology, utilization review, guidance counseling, etc.
Associate Psychologist is a continuous recruitment examination. Candidates who are not on the eligible list may apply for this position and if appointed, will receive a temporary appointment. To apply for this examination, candidates must submit a completed NYS-APP form with their resume and cover letter. A NYS-APP form can be obtained by emailing NYS Department of Civil Service: firstname.lastname@example.com.
Candidates appointed temporary must receive a score that is reachable on the resulting eligible list before they can be permanently appointed. Candidates who are found not qualified or who do not receive a reachable score may not be retained.

subset: commoncrawl


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Looking good on the slopes is only partially about perfecting your skiing/riding ability. Making sure you look good on all fronts means dialing in your clothes, equipment and the fuel to keep you stylin' on the hill all day long. The 2012/2013 OTS Ski Test Partners made sure our testers had their look locked in Aspen during the test. Check out what the ski testers were wearing, using, eating and drinking here:
Dakine provided packs and gloves for our testers. The low profile Heli Pack was perfect to stash food, drinks, test cards and goggles with plenty of room to spare. The Dakine gloves were both stylish and warm thanks to a leather outer complete with GORE-TEX waterproofing.
Good 'n Natural kept our testers' motors running with fruit, nut and seed bars straight from Sun Valley. Our crew switched it up and sampled all four flavors: Cranberry Almond, Lemon, Chocolate and Peanut Butter. The bars taste great and kept our team skiing until last chair.
GORE-TEX® was the official outerwear sponsor for the test. Jackets and pants from the likes of Arc'teryx, Marmot, The North Face, Patagonia and more featuring GORE-TEX® kept the testers dry and comfortable in some sweet looking threads. The Dakine gloves worn also featured the durable waterproof protection of GORE-TEX®.
Nalgene suppplied sweet OnTheSnow-branded water bottles to each tester. Most testers tossed these in their pack and broke them out while filling out their test cards on the chair or back at the OTS tent. The convenient pop top made it easy to hydrate without having to shed gloves.
H20 Overdrive knows the importance of staying hydrated when exerting yourself at altitude, and that's why they supplied our testers with their tasty sports drinks. Between Jostaberry Grape Explosion, Lychee Lemon and Tangy Tangerine Freeze, case after case was consumed on the mountain and back in town.
Scott came through with baselayers, goggles and poles for our testers. The lightweight baselayers were perfect for the spring conditions we encountered in Aspen. The goggles fended off the midday Colorado sun that inevitably reflected off the snow. The electric blue poles for our male testers and pink ones for our female testers also really stood out on the hill.
Wigwam socks featuring 3M Thinsulate kept our tester's dogs from barking. These high performance socks provided comfort while keeping everyone's feet dry on a few warm days that required multiple ski changes and binding adjustments. Nothing is worse than stinking up a slopeside hotel with sweaty socks and smelly boots—thanks to Wigwam and 3M Thinsulate, our rooms at the Limelight were smelling so fresh and so clean.


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Programy rozwoju talentów dla absolwentów APAC Corporate Functions (Analyst only)
Przyciski udostępniania
Corporate Functions provides high-quality services to support our business divisions. We cover a range of specialist business disciplines that support our client operations around the globe such as finance, risk, compliance, operations, human resources, branding and corporate communications.
You'll gain an in-depth understanding of what it's like to work inside one of the world's largest banks, all while developing your skills and building a valuable network that stretches across the organization.
In Asia Pacific, we place full-time Analysts in Finance, Internal Audit and Risk.
Join us and you will:
- Attend a core induction program, which includes orientation to Credit Suisse, role-specific technical training, personal effectiveness courses, team building and networking activities.
- Regular business presentations and interactions from senior professionals.
- Formal mentoring from highly experienced colleagues in the field.


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Former Oakland Raiders assistant coach found guilty in Calif. beer-bottle attack
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – A former Oakland Raiders assistant coach is facing up to four years in state prison after being convicted of striking a man with a beer bottle outside a California bar.
The San Luis Obispo Tribune (http://bit.ly/ZNHehs) reported Monday that jurors found Randy Hanson guilty of felony battery and misdemeanor assault.
Hanson is best known for alleging in 2009 that then-Raiders head coach Tom Cable broke his jaw and teeth during a fight at a hotel.
Hanson testified he acted in self-defense after 51-year-old James Kelsey approached him at the Pismo Beach bar in August and taunted him about Cable. Hanson conceded he remembered little about the night because he'd had 10 glasses of wine.
Kelsey testified the attack left him with a broken nose and concussion.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 10. Defense attorney Ilan Funke-Bilu says he'll ask the judge then to reduce the felony battery charge to a misdemeanor.
Information from: The Tribune, http://www.sanluisobispo.com


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Suggested Searchesbased on this product
About the Product
Wall Mockup - Sticker Wall Mockup
This wall mockup allows you to quickly display your designs and layouts into a digital photo realistic showcase. Please note that you must have basic photoshop knowledge to use this project.
Files Included:
- 1 PSD File with resolution 3840x2160
- 1 PDF Help File with description layers and quick guide
Main Features
- Easy editable with smart objects
- 1 view
- Help File Included
Tutorials included:
- How to place your wall stickers
- How to place your wall artworks
- How to change the color of the wall
Note: The real size of the mockup is bigger than the image preview because you may want to crop it with different proportions.
If you like the project and want more wall mockups you can check this collections: https://creativemarket.com/interiors/collections
If you have any trouble with the project, please contact us via Message button here: https://creativemarket.com/interiors/
You don't have photoshop? We will set your artworks for a small fee. Please contact us here: https://creativemarket.com/interiors/
In manufacturing and design, a mockup, or mock-up, is a scale or full-size model of a design or device, used for teaching, demonstration, design evaluation, promotion, and other purposes High-quality mockups are very essential for designers to present their branding ideas. These PSD Mockup templates are a good solution for presenting your works and impressing your clients.
Product Specs
- Created: Oct 31, 2016
- Compatible with: Adobe Photoshop
- File Type: PSD, PDF
- File Size: 108.5 MB
- Dimensions: 3840 x 2160 px
- Layered


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I always learn something by reading Paul's Thunder Road Report. Great comparison of the basic cycles of Armstrong and Puetz. I find myself liking the fact that Paul acknowledges and presents bullish arguments but then weighs the bearish reality and comes down on the side of sanity, which, of course, will eventually prevail.
When reading, please keep in mind that Paul is not located in the United States and that any recommendation made by him in his newsletter is not necessarily endorsed by Economic Edge. A lengthier edition but a pleasant read, enjoy. Thanks Paul!
Here's Paul's theme music, LOL…
Thunder Road 1976 - Bruce Springsteen:
Wednesday: ADP Employment, Beige Book
5 hours ago


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Police officers searching for suspected cop killer Christopher Dorner have now shot up innocent citizens on two occasions. Dorner is armed and dangerous, but you really have to wonder what's going on.
On Thursday a vehicle matching Dorner's gray Nissan Titan was reported in Torrance. Before long, according to the Los Angeles Times, at least seven police officers opened fire. They unleashed a barrage at a mother and daughter, ages 47 and 71, delivering newspapers while traveling in an aqua blue Toyota Tacoma. A photo of the vehicle after the encounter with police is below.
The second incident followed on Thursday morning in short order. Here is the opening of the Los Angeles Times story on the second incident:
David Perdue was on his way to sneak in some surfing before work Thursday morning when police flagged him down. They asked who he was and where he was headed, then sent him on his way.
Seconds later, Perdue's attorney said, a Torrance police cruiser slammed into his pickup and officers opened fire; none of the bullets struck Perdue.
His pickup, police later explained, matched the description of the one belonging to Christopher Jordan Dorner — the ex-cop who has evaded authorities after allegedly killing three and wounding two more. But the pickups were different makes and colors. And Perdue looks nothing like Dorner: He's several inches shorter and about a hundred pounds lighter. And Perdue is white; Dorner is black.
The Times quotes an attorney representing Perdue: "I don't want to use the word buffoonery but it really is unbridled police lawlessness. These people need training and they need restraint."
As I say, you have to wonder what's going on.
Via InstaPundit.
CORRECTION: In the first incident, as the Times reports, the older of the two women was shot twice in her back and seriously wounded. Her daughter escaped with minor wounds from broken glass. In the second incident Torrance police officers did the damage. I erred in stating originally that LAPD officers were involved, and missed their targets, in both incidents and have adjusted the text above accordingly. I regret the errors and thank commenters for pointing them out.


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Proposed Rear-view Camera Mandate Would Cost Up To $57.2 Million Per Life Saved
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants to require cameras on all new vehicles to save 26 to 69 lives
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it hopes to complete a rule that would require rear view cameras in the back of vehicles, which could cost as much as $57.2 million per life saved.
Equipping all vehicles with the rearview camera with interior mirror display would cost between $1.1 billion to $2.57 billion and is estimated to result in 26 to 69 "total fatalities avoided," according to NHTSA documents.
"On a costs-benefits analysis, this makes no sense whatsoever," said Shirley Ybarra, a senior transportation policy analyst for the Reason Foundation. "I'm sorry when people back over their children. In terms of costs, however, this is just ridiculous. This is just another example of the Obama nanny-state."
Magna Electronics Technology Inc. in Grand Blanc Township is getting local and state tax incentives to produce the rear view camera technology. The company received a five-year, $2.1 million deal in 2011 with the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
Magna Electronics plans to invest $64.8 million over the next five years in Michigan to expand the plant in Grand Blanc Township. Magna is the largest manufacturer of rear view camera technology in the country.
In addition to the issue about tax dollars being spent, many have questioned how far federal authority will reach when mandating laws if the threshold is to save a few dozen lives.
For example, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that about 20 children per year drown in buckets. Other groups estimate the annual deaths of people in buckets at 30. But should the federal government outlaw buckets?
Leon Drolet, chairman of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance, said mandating motorists wear helmets in vehicles would save many more lives than a rear view camera.
"It's not about saving lives," Drolet said. "The cost is going to encourage some people to drive a less safe automobile. People will drive less safe cars for longer because they can't afford the 'regulation-mobile.' If it were about saving lives, you'd have to be able to measure how many lives are lost by people driving older cars. You are feeding the political process and lobbying process that created this regulation. They are the clear winners. There are tragedies that happen all the time. They are terrible. But tragedies make bad laws."
See also:
Experts Say CAFE Still Kills Despite Congressional Support
Milton Friedman: Morality and Capitalism - Federal mandates on vehicles
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.


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Argus Media Delegate Agreement
1. Agreement
1.1 These "Terms and Conditions" set out the contract between Argus Media Limited (a company incorporated in England with registered number 01642534 and registered office at Lacon House, 84 Theobald's Road, London, WC1X 8NL, UK) and the "Company" in the "Registration Form" submitted by you regarding the attendance by the delegates ("Delegates") at the event(s) (each an "Event") specified in the Registration Form. The expressions "we", "us" and "our" refer to Argus and "you" and "your" refer to the Company. Where the person who registered to attend this Event is attending in his or her personal capacity, this contract will be between us and that person, and "you" and "your" will refer to that individual Delegate.
1.2 These Terms and Conditions, the Registration Form, the "Argus Confirmation of Registration" (if applicable) and the "Event Invoice" in respect of the Fees (as defined below) set out the entire "Agreement" between you and us. In the event of any conflict, the Terms and Conditions shall prevail. Please print and retain a copy of these Terms and Conditions for future reference.
1.3 These Terms and Conditions set out the conditions of entry to, and attendance at, our Events, and must be complied with by all Delegates. Payment of our Fees will constitute acceptance of these Terms and Conditions. You undertake to draw these Terms and Conditions to the attention of every Delegate, including any Delegate Substitute. You warrant and undertake that any consent provided in the Registration Form on behalf of a Delegate has been authorised by that Delegate. By attending the Event, each Delegate confirms that any consent provided on his or her behalf is authorised by that Delegate.
2. Event attendance, programme and materials
2.1 Subject to availability and provided Argus has received payment in full of the Fees, Argus grants a revocable, non-exclusive, personal right to each of the Delegates to: (a) attend the Event; and (b) use the materials made available by us at the Event (the "Event Materials") for the purpose of supporting their attendance at the Event.
2.2 You acknowledge and agree: (a) to comply, and procure the compliance of the Delegates, with all applicable laws, regulations and requirements (including without limitation health and safety requirements) in respect of the Event; and (b) that no films, photograph or other recordings of all or any part of the Event (including, for the avoidance of doubt, films, photographs or other recordings of any individual speaker or any presentation made by that speaker) are permitted without our prior written consent. We reserve the right to refuse admission/eject any Delegate without liability to/from an Event for any reason.
2.3 Argus reserves the right in its sole discretion to change the content, speakers, location, and/or timing of the Event without liability. Argus shall use reasonable endeavours to notify you of any Event changes by no later than when it notifies other Event delegates.
2.4 Argus will use reasonable endeavours to satisfy any access or dietary requirements provided you or the relevant Delegate notifies us of such requirements in reasonable advance of the Event. You acknowledge and agree that, due to the nature of the location/venue of the Events, it may not be possible for such requirements to be satisfied.
2.5 You acknowledge and agree that unless otherwise stated views expressed by speakers at the Event do not represent the views of Argus.
2.6 All Event Materials are provided to you on an "as is" basis and we give no warranties, representations or guarantees that the Event Materials are in sequence, accurate, up-to-date or complete or that use of them will meet the particular requirements of the Delegates. Use of the Event Materials is entirely at your and each Delegate's risk.
2.7 You acknowledge and agree that, unless otherwise expressly stated, we own all intellectual property and other rights in all Event Materials. You shall not, and shall procure that the Delegates shall not, disclose, distribute or use the Event Materials other than as expressly permitted in clause 2.1.
3. Fees
3.1 Argus shall be entitled to submit an Event Invoice for the registration fee together with all applicable taxes (including without limitation VAT) for the attendance by the Delegates at the Event (the "Fee") upon receipt of a Registration Form from you. The Fees are not refundable in whole or in part other than as expressly set out at clauses 4.1 and 4.2.
3.2 You shall pay the Fee in full without deduction or set-off: (i) within 30 days of the date of the Event Invoice; or (ii) by the first day of the Event, whichever is earlier.
3.3 Argus may (at its sole discretion) offer discounts (including without limitation "early bird" discounts). To qualify for any "early bird" discounts, you must have: (a) submitted your Registration Form within the discount period specified on our website for the Event; and (b) paid the Fees in full within 30 days of the date of the Event Invoice.
3.4 You shall pay/procure payment of the Fees into any bank account and by any method of payment that Argus shall reasonably request. From time to time Argus may, but is not obligated to, accept payment by you of the Fees via a third-party payment intermediary (the "Third Party Payment Provider"). Use of the Third Party Payment Provider is entirely at your own risk. You should ensure that you read any third-party privacy policies and terms of use before using such services.
3.5 Without prejudice to any other remedy that may be available to Argus, Argus shall be entitled to charge interest of 2% above the National Westminster Bank base rate in force at the relevant time in respect of any overdue payment.
4. Cancellations, Substitutions and Termination
4.1 If one or more Delegate is unable to attend the Event, (a) you may cancel this Agreement and Argus may in its sole discretion either refund the applicable Fees less a 15% administration charge or offer a credit note for another event provided notification of such non-attendance is received by email sent to the email address from which the Confirmation of Registration is issued at least 30 days prior to the commencement of the Event (no refunds/credit notes will be given for cancellations received thereafter or non-attendance of all or any part of the Event for any reason) or: (b) "Delegate Substitute(s)" may attend provided that Argus receives notification in writing to the email address from which the Confirmation of Registration is issued at least 48 hours before the first day of the Event and in its sole discretion consents to such substitution. You acknowledge that a refund/credit note is your sole remedy in respect of any cancellation under this clause.
4.2 If the Event is cancelled for any reason within our control, then in Argus' sole discretion either the Fee will be fully refunded. We shall not be liable for any loss, damage, costs (including without limitation travel, visa or accommodation costs), expenses or other liabilities incurred by you and/or the Delegates in connection with such Event cancellation. You acknowledge that a refund is your sole remedy in respect of our cancellation under this clause.
4.3 Argus shall be entitled in its sole discretion to terminate all or any part of this Agreement immediately on written notice if (i) you, the Company and/or any of the Delegates is in material or persistent breach of any of its obligations under this Agreement and has not remedied such breach (if capable of remedy) within thirty (30) days of written notice from Argus; or (ii) there is a change of Control of the Company (where "Control" means the power of a person to secure that the Company's affairs are conducted in accordance with the wishes of that person).
5. Privacy, Delegate Lists and Use of Argus Apps
5.1 We will process Delegates' information in accordance with the Argus Privacy Policy.
5.2 If a Delegate has consented for his or her business information to appear on the delegate list for the Event ("Delegate List"), he or she will be given access to the Delegate List. As between you and us, the Delegate List constitutes the confidential and proprietary information of Argus.
5.3 The Delegate List may only be used for networking purposes connected with the Event. In particular but without limitation, neither you nor a Delegate may:
5.3.1 Disclose the Delegate List to any third party, including another Delegate, another conference participant or any organisation or association of which you or a Delegate may be a member; or
5.3.2 Use the Delegate List for marketing purposes or to host or promote your own event.
5.4 The delegate list may be provided in hard copy or it may be uploaded to a web-based application (an "Argus App") at our discretion. Use of any Argus Apps is at your and the Delegates' own risk. You should ensure that you and any Delegate has read any third-party App privacy policies and terms of use before downloading such App. Argus reserves the right in its sole discretion and at any time to withdraw use of or access to the Apps and reserves the right to edit and/or remove any part of the App and posted content.
5.5 Argus (and any entity permitted by Argus) may take photography and make films and other recordings at Argus Events and it (and in certain instances, the sponsors of a relevant Argus Event or other entities permitted to do so by Argus) may use, incorporate, incorporate and/or publish the photography, film or other recording including in its advertising and marketing campaigns and in any corporate communications. If a Delegate does not wish his or her image to be used in this way he or she must notify the event organiser or another member of the Argus team as soon as possible and in any event prior to the end of the Event.
6. Liability and Warranties
6.1 Argus shall not be liable to the Company, any of the Delegates, nor to any other party, for any inaccuracies, errors, omissions, defects, or delays in respect of the Event, the Event Materials, the Third Party Payment Service Providers or the Apps, or for any loss or damage, howsoever caused and whether or not for breach of contract, negligence or otherwise and whether or not Argus is advised of the possibility of such loss or damage, including loss of profit, data, business, reputation or anticipated savings, and all indirect, incidental, special, punitive or consequential loss and damage arising in connection with the Event, the Event Materials, the Third Party Payment Service Providers or the Apps, or otherwise in connection with this Agreement.
6.2 Subject to clause 6.3, the total aggregate liability of Argus, its employees, Affiliates, sub-contractors and agents, to the Company and the Delegates or any other party arising out of or in connection with this Agreement whether the action is grounded in contract or tort (including negligence) or in any other law, and whether common law or statute, will in no event exceed the total amount actually paid by the Company to Argus in respect of the Event.
6.3 Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed as limiting the liability of either party for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by that party's negligence.
6.4 You are fully responsible and liable for any loss or damage howsoever caused by you and/or the Delegates to property (including for the avoidance of doubt the Event venue) or individuals at an Event. You shall on written demand indemnify and keep Argus fully indemnified from and against any loss, damage (including statutory damages), claims, costs and expenses (including legal and other professional costs and expenses), and liabilities suffered or incurred by Argus and/or its Affiliates arising out of or in connection with the attendance of you and/or the Delegates at the Event.
6.5 It is your responsibility to arrange appropriate insurance cover for travel to and attendance at the Event. You and each Delegate are responsible for safeguarding your and their own property at the Event.
7. General
7.1 Neither party shall be in breach of this Agreement nor liable for delay in performing, or failure to perform, any of its obligations under this Agreement if such delay or failure results (or is likely to result) from events, circumstances or causes beyond its reasonable control.
7.2 If any provision of this Agreement (in whole or in part) is found by any competent authority to be unenforceable or illegal, the remainder of the provisions shall remain in force.
7.3 This Agreement is governed by the laws of England and Wales and the parties agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.
7.4 The English language version of this Agreement prevails over all translations howsoever made available.For any questions on the terms and conditions, please contact us at: email@example.com


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Cox and Robinson online trading is operated as a is a trading division of Manor Drug Company Ltd (a subsidiary of PCT Healthcare Limited ) (Company Registration Number 923390 and VAT number 616702944 for Manor Drug Company)
We display the Registered Internet Pharmacy Logo that shows that we are registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council and allows you to check out the registration details of our pharmacy and the pharmacists behind the website. Please take care when using overseas websites or sites that do not display the GPhC logo as inappropriate or fake medicines pose a serious risk to health.The qualified pharmacist responsible for this site is Andrew Walton, MPharm, registration number GPhC 2063964. The premises registration number 1089485
Please contact us for more information.
Cox and Robinson Chemists Ltd (Pharmacy Chain) is a trading subsidiary company of PCT Healthcare Limited operating 12 Pharmacies as identified by the store locator.
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Supreme Court Wisely Rules that U.S. Law Doesn't Apply Outside the U.S.
As Walter Olson notes below, today the Supreme Court correctly ruled in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum that the Alien Tort Statute, like any federal law not explicitly stating otherwise, does not cover actions occurring outside the United States. That is, you can't bring a suit in U.S. court just because it involves a "violation of the law of nations" (the conduct that the ATS addresses).
As Chief Justice Roberts said in announcing the decision, even a claim that a foreigner committed such an international‐law violation against another foreigner isn't enough to counter the presumption that laws don't have extra‐territorial application. Indeed, in such a case — and Kiobel's allegations of human rights abuses by Nigerians against Nigerians in Nigeria is such a case — there is even less of a reason to invoke the jurisdiction of American courts than if some American dimension existed (e.g., the citizenship of one of the parties or the location of the conduct).
Nothing in the text of the ATS overcomes that basic presumption against extra‐territoriality and the Court's fascinating historical exposition demonstrates why the First Congress — the ATS was enacted in 1789 as one of our first laws — wouldn't have wanted to change that practice or make the fledgling republic a "uniquely hispitable forum for the enforcement of international norms."
As Cato's amicus brief argued, the Founders understood "the law of nations" to provide a methodology for defining the extraterritorial scope of ATS jurisdiction. Their understanding of jurisdiction rested on the nexus between territory and sovereignty; the law of nations as of 1789 recognized a territorial nexus between the state asserting jurisdiction and the claim asserted. That the law of nations permits jurisdiction over piracy on the high seas or in other unique circumstances doesn't mean that a U.S. court may assert jurisdiction over conduct occurring entirely within the territory of a foreign sovereign.
Finally, the Court correctly noted that the mere fact that corporations are present in the case — the original issue was whether the ATS recognized corporate liability — doesn't somehow change the extraterritorial‐applicability calculus. In Kiobel, even the corporations were foreign (Dutch and British oil companies), with nobody alleging that so much as a U.S. subsidiary was involved.
At the end of the day, this was an exceedingly complicated case with a relatively simple solution. Well done, Supreme Court.


text:
FOSS4G2007 Lessons Learned
Back to Conference Committee
This page is a collection of information, comments, and suggestions, based on the planning, organizing, and hosting of the FOSS4G 2007 conference. The intent is to provide a resource that can be used by organizers of future FOSS4G conferences. This is not a forum for conference attendees to comment on the conference. Use FOSS4G2007_Comments for that.
- 1 Bidding
- 2 Timetable
- 3 Money
- 4 Registration
- 5 Marketing
- 6 Social Venues
- 7 Conference Venue
- 8 Accommodations
- 9 Transportation
- 10 Workshops and Labs
- 11 Presentations
- 12 Wiki
- 13 Conference Evaluation
- 14 Onsite Staff
If you approach your local conference center, or tourist bureau, you may find a wealth of support for your bid. Local governments often fund promotion to bring in conferences, and will get behind you with free assistance in preparing your bid. A conference of only 500 people can represent a couple million dollars for a local economy, so it is worth their time to help you win the conference.
Victoria 2007 engaged with both the local conference center and a local organizing company, who helped on the bid preparation pro bono in return for the opportunity to work the conference in the event we won. The conference centre provided lots of pre-made content about the facility, accommodations, and so on, and the organizer helped prepare material for the bid web site.
Take advantage of your local government to assist your bid. FOSS4G is a large enough event now that localities receive a significant financial benefit when we locate in their city.
The most important piece of timetable information is that you can not make any predictions about response/attendance until deadlines. The number of workshop submissions in 2007 doubled on the deadline day; the number of presentation submissions doubled in the last two days. The 2004 organizers reported having registration go from 100 to 200 in the last month. The 2006 organizers reported having registration go from 150 to over 500 in the last six weeks.
2007 attempted to force the registration timetable backwards somewhat by having an early-bird rate ($395CAD) substantially lower than the regular rate ($565CAD) with the early-bird deadline two months in advance.
Lesson: The steeper Early Bird price schedule, combined with a large associated marketing campaign around the Early Bird deadline did change the traditional registration pattern. 2007 registered 450 people prior to early bird, about 2/3 of the final attendance, far better than in previous years. Remember, the pricing and date alone will not be enough, people have to actually know the deadline is coming, so an associated marketing blitz will also be required.
Lesson: Where there is no financial motivation or other counterbalance, people will put things off to the last minute. Over 2/3 of the workshop submissions were received on the last day. Same basic pattern for the presentations, over 1/2 of the submissions received in the last two days.
Starting sponsorship solicitation as early as possible is very important. People will register at the last moment, so it is very difficult to predict registration revenues, but sponsorship revenues can be locked up very early through aggressive work on getting commitments from sponsors. First write out a list of potential sponsors, then assign each one to a committee member to pursue. We used the Google Spreadsheet to keep a shared page of information about who had been contacted, who had committed, how many contacts had been made, who at the sponsoring company had responded, etc.
A large number of the sponsorships were obtained through the direct connections of the conference chair with people in the sponsoring organizations (ILMB, Safe, Refractions, Leica, Google, ESRI, GeoConnections, Timberline, Sierra). Some of the international companies (Google, ESRI, Leica) may sponsor again, for longer term strategic reasons, however the lesson we draw from this is that it's important to have connections and be prepared to use them if you're planning on landing a large sponsorship dossier. You can't count on the previous years sponsors simply showing up again the following year. Note that 20% of the ultimate sponsorship total was from Canadian/BC government (ILMB and GeoConnections), so having good government contacts is also important.
Complimentary Registrations and Volunteers
When budgeting, remember that a proportion of your attendance is going to be complimentary. These attendees are hard because while they don't pay, they still do inconvenient things like eat the food and sit in chairs.
We had approximately 80 complimentary registrations. (The exact number should show up in the final report.) That was slightly over 10% of the total attendance.
We used volunteers for room monitors, security, basically everything that required a body, about 7 people at any one time. In return for 8 hours of labor (two 4-hour shifts) they got complimentary registration for the rest of the conference (and a cool orange shirt). The cost of every budget item that had to be scaled on a "per person" basis (food, shirts, bags, etc) was about $230, so those 8 hours of volunteer labour cost us dearly. In 2006, the conference was at a university and they were having a reading break at the time of the conference, so the organizers just hired 8 students to work the conference full time. Even if they paid them $20 per hour, they probably came out far ahead of us, financially. Simply hiring staff for things like room monitoring, manning the registration desk, security, may be more fiscally effective than using volunteers as we did.
Workshop Pricing
The price differential between "Full Conference" and "Full Conference + Workshops" was low enough that (it turned out) the workshops were financially a net neutral activity. We could have cancelled the whole workshop day (theoretically) and the financial outcome of the event would have been identical. Of course, the workshops were a huge draw, so canceling them would be stupid, but given that they are a huge draw, it might be wiser to price them so they turn a bit of a profit.
To reiterate: the cost of renting the center for a the day, computers for the workshops, feeding the delegates, and other sundry expenses for the day was about the same as the revenue represented by the price difference between Full Conference and Workshops times the number of workshop delegates.
Support For Some Attendees
You will get lots and lots of requests for support. Travel subsidies, free registration, free lodging, you name it. Establish your policy early, and work within that policy. Because we had no policy and no budget item for this, our policy was "no". However, if you think ahead, you can probably ensure that a couple worthy attendees who would otherwise be unable to come can make the conference. Establish your budget number, and how you will decide who gets support, and go from there.
We had a number of attempts to scam the conference in various ways. The most popular were:
- "I want to attend, please write me a VISA support letter", from folks with no obvious motivation to attend.
- "I paid with a credit card, but I want a re-fund by wire."
We also had a few people pay the conference in full in order to establish their VISA credentials and then attempt to get a VISA on that basis alone. They eventually asked for and received a refund, less the cancellation fee ($50). The cancellation fee sounds draconian, but it probably cut down on the number of these scams by making a failure potentially expensive.
Everyone wants a discount, and everyone feels they have a right to a discount. As with your policy for travel support, figure out your discount policy well in advance. The FOSS4G2007_Discounts page is a good start in determining the classes of people who will be looking for discounts.
Breakdown by Country
The registration breakdown by country was:
- North America, 521, 72%
- USA (265), Canada (253), Mexico (3)
- Europe, 139, 19%
- Italy (21), France (18), United Kingdom (15), Spain (12), The Netherlands (12), Germany (11), Switzerland (11), Norway (6), Belgium (5), Austria (5), Czech Republic (4), Sweden (4), Finland (3), Portugal (2), Poland (2), Romania (2), Denmark (2), Hungary (1), Luxembourg (1), Latvia (1), Slovenia (1)
- Australasia, 40, 5%
- Korea (11), Japan (11), Australia (4), Indonesia (3), China (3), New Zealand (3), Fiji (2), Taiwan (1), Thailand (1), Vietnam (1)
- South America, 10, 1.4%
- Brazil (4), Venezuela (3), Chile (2), Cuba (1)
- Africa, 7, 0.9%
- South Africa (5), Namibia (2)
- Near East, 4, 0.5%
- India (2), Iran (1), Afghanistan (1)
The registration breakdown by distance was:
- Less than 10km: 97, 13%
- Between 10km and 100km: 42, 6%
- Between 100km and 1000km: 91, 12%
- Between 1000km and 5000km: 290, 40%
- Between 5000km and 10000km: 175, 24%
- More than 10000km: 28, 4%
At the Conference
The recording of attendance has to be done on site. Just because someone registers doesn't mean they attended the conference. There also may be last-minute changes such as one person (perhaps even from another country) attending in place of someone else. The actual attendance at the conference can be tracked by the registration system used at the conference desk where attendees check in and receive their conference pass. Attendance numbers for FOSS4G2007 will be in the final report.
Within the Conference
Attendance at specific venues or events within the conference may be easy to measure, such as at a ticketed social event, or harder to measure, such as estimating the crowd in a ballroom. For FOSS4G2007 some of the attendance recording was done by the conference secretariat as part of their role while on site.
Lesson: We had a 'room monitor' (one of the volunteers) assigned to each room used for Workshops, Labs, and Presentations. For Workshops, one of their roles was to use a registration list to ensure that only people who had paid for the Workshop attended the Workshop. Labs and Presentations were 'first come first served', so there was no such list. It would have been easy to have had a system to have 'room monitors' keep track of attendance.
Within the Code Sprint
50 people showed up at the peak. It was a sort of conference room with maybe 15 round tables - most were used and worked like a good focal point for groups of 10 or less working together.
We supplied some power cords, but not nearly enough, so the tables around the edge of the room were sought after.
Wireless internet was provided. The AV wasn't good, would have been better if we'd stayed at the conference center, since we had them trained by that point.
Paper flip charts were available.
Coffee and snacks were provided in the morning, along with lunch.
Cost about $1500, room+food+AV.
The section is a summary of emails from Paul Ramsey and Tyler Mitchell http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/aust-nz/2007-December/thread.html
The Mail-out
We attempted some old-fashioned physical marketing, to see what the effect would be. 10,000 postcards were printed, with attractive designs and some basic information and prominent web URL 1 2. Mailing lists were purchased from two North American geospatial magazines (GeoWorld and Geospatial Solutions) for states with good physical proximity to the conference (WA, OR, CA) or strong GIS communities (VA, CO). The entire exercise (designing and printing card, list purchasing, postage) cost about $12,000.
Based on the results below, it does not appear to have worked very well at all.
How People Heard about FOSS4G2007
The registration form on the web site included a question about "how did you hear about the conference". Here are the responses:
- 223 (36%), colleague
- 160 (26%), weblink
- 134 (20%), previous conference
- 60 (10%), email
- 43 (7%), other
- 4 (1%), mailout
On the basis of these numbers, the physical mail-out seems to have been a poor expense. The email spamming activities were highly effective, and worth doing again, both bulk-email to harvested addresses and emails to project mailing lists. The web banners on the project sites were also highly effective. Note that the purchased mailing lists did include e-mail addresses for a couple thousand people, and those were used for direct email campaigns.
Lesson: Harvest and purchase mass email lists. Get emails onto lists of associations and other organizations with lists. Make spam a top marketing priority. Spam more frequently.
Lesson: Ensure as many project sites are badged as possible. Note that the top referrers are Mapserver, QGIS, PostGIS, OSGeo, and GRASS. Paul Ramsey's personal blog (part of the PlanetGeospatial blog roll) was the fifth highest driver of traffic. Get a FOSS4G08 blog into the PlanetGS.com blog roll and keep it live and interesting.
Local / Regional / International
You are going to attract people from three geographic segments, and they have very different characteristics:
- Local people will find it cheap to attend the conference. Therefore, even marginally interested people might go, just to "see what it is about". So your local marketing campaign should be as broad as possible. Hit everyone, don't just target at "GIS, open source", target all scientists, all computer people, all development people. You never know who might have an interest, and because the threshold for them to come is relatively low, it is worth it to be indiscriminate.
- Regional people will have to travel to the conference, but not far. These are folks who might be in the field, but not have heard about open source GIS before. It will still be a learning experience for them. A broad approach is still not a bad idea, but gets harder to execute and more expensive over a larger regional territory. Buy mailing lists from local trade magazines for your targetted regions (2007 did the US states, CA, WA, OR, CO, VA primarily, as well as Canada).
- International people will be committing to a major expense to attend. These are true believers. Getting web badges on the open source project sites, and doing mail-outs to the project lists is enough to keep these folks informed of deadlines and connected to the beat of the conference.
Use Proxies
Wherever possible, identify people to do your marketing for you:
- Emails to project lists should come from project leaders.
- Get local OSGeo chapters to promote the conference to their members and to local GIS organizations.
- Get academics to carry the torch to their professional bodies.
Local Marketing is Key
One thing we failed at in 2007 was really hitting the local market as hard as possible. As a result, we had people who should have known about the conference saying at the last minute "oh, there's a conference coming?". Word of mouth is not enough, you need to spam local people indiscriminately. Build a list of every remotely technical person in the city, and ensure they get three emails about the conference.
Lesson: Don't be afraid to spam. Web traffic analysis from when we did spam showed that we logged way more hits after spam runs on local institutions. We should have done more.
Lesson: Don't take anything for granted. We thought that local people would sort of just "show up". Just because FOSS4G is consuming your every waking moment does not mean that anyone else will have heard about it, even your office mate three cubicles down. Get into local general media, like the local paper. Make sure that every local tech group knows about it (Linux users groups, Java users groups, Perl mongers, etc).
Web Site & Program
The web site is the public face of your conference. It it's not on the web site, it doesn't exist.
People make the "buying decision" for your conference based on your web site. It had better
- Look smart and professional
- Include as much information about the content of the conference as possible
In order to include lots of content, you need to get your program firmed up as quickly as possible. The earlier you have your program set, the more information you can provide to prospective attendees on the web site.
Lists are Important
You will be able to easily mail all the active community members by putting together a list-of-lists (FOSS4G2007_Communication#E-Mail_Marketing) and getting the list owners to help propagate the FOSS4G message.
Since 80% of your attendance will be local and regional people, not necessarily the international community you communicate with on the lists, you must compile lists of local people who may have an interest in the conference. You must compile these lists early in the process so that the marketing message can be put out early for people who need lead-time to get approvals for conference attendance.
Here are some ways to get lists:
- Regional technology magazines sell their subscription lists
- Get the physical addresses and mail postcards
- Get the e-mail addresses for your mass-email list
- Screen-scrape the phone directories of government agencies
- Mail everyone you can, particular people in the 1-2 hour travel radius of your event
- Get contact lists from sponsors if they will provide them
- Professional groups have lists of potentially interested parties
- Surveyors, geologists, ecologists, biologists, foresters
- Academics are often interested and also connected
- Computer science, geography, ecology, forestry
Remember that if people do not know the event is coming, they'll never purchase a registration, and you cannot count on the international community for your attendance, you need local attendees.
2007 purchased lists from magazines and did a 10,000 card mail-out. Also compiled addresses from local organization web sites that might be interested, and added them to the main physical/email distribution lists. We compiled the secondary lists manually, just surfing to county and city site and gathering the names of GIS coordinators.
Press Releases
Press releases get wide distribution and repetition via the less-industrious GIS "news" outlets and "journalists". Doing formal press releases and making sure they hit all the GIS web sites and so on for each important milestone (call for workshops, call for papers, early bird, etc) will add to the out-of-community marketing reach.
During the conference, press releases can be used to control the message coming out of the conference. Much of the conference "coverage" will come from these same "journalists" re-packaging the press release material they are receiving. Hence, the coverage of 2007 hinged a lot on the Ingres announcement, the Autodesk/Mentor announcement, and some of the releases Safe Software sent out, all of which were transmitted to the "media" in the traditional PR-oriented way. Having an "in house journalist" to create content, a couple releases a day, and fire it out to the outlets will improve the quality of the "press" the event receives.
Lesson: Coordinate the media your vendors are going to create via press releases, and make sure you add in some of your own. Use press releases as part of the lead-in to important events, like call-for-papers, early bird deadline, and one-week-to-go.
Social Venues
The Sticky Wicket was a great venue in terms of capacity (1200 seats), location (one block from the conference centre) and service options (food and beverage, table service and bar service).
Lesson: A number of people felt short changed when the "Welcome Reception" was really just a mixer at the Wicket. Bad choice of name, should have been "Ice Breaker" or "Get Together". Easier to change the name than to put on an actual reception.
Lesson: The Wicket actually closed for a private function on Tuesday, our "free evening" when ordinarily everyone would have met at the Wicket. Ooops! Check the event schedule for the venue, don't make assumptions about the schedule.
The BC Museum was a nice venue, in terms of visual interest and location. Being indoors also meant we were not affected by weather. A few attendees felt short changed when the reception was a stand-up rather than a full sit-down dinner. However, the stand-up worked very well, allowing people to move about and talk with lots of different folks rather than being planted in one location at a table. Having the venue close to the hotels meant that people could stay for as much or as little as they liked. The IMAX movie was good in theory, but bad in practice -- since we did not pre-screen it, we didn't know just how bad it was going to be! Never believe the trailers.
Lesson: The tickets to the reception cost $50, but the reception cost over $80 for venue, food, drink and entertainment. In general, we seem to have a history of subsidizing the event, but it's a dangerous and potentially unsustainable habit. Why should people who don't go to the event pay for people who do?
Conference Venue
The biggest single expense category for 2007 was the food (it was actually broken into several categories in the budget, but if you put them together it was the easy winner). That was because the Conference Centre had an exclusive catering arrangement with the associated hotel, and the food was expensive. $5 cokes, $4 coffees, that sort of thing. This will be very common for most conference venues. Be prepared, be unsurprised.
One pleasant surprise at the 2007 venue was the price of wireless internet. Conference centres and hotels traditionally charge a huge amount for internet access, but the quotation we received from the in-house provider was 30% of our expected budget number. However, be prepared to pay a lot for internet.
On the exhibition floor, the conference centre might expect you to leave your exhibitors to "fend for themselves", paying extra fees for internet, power, and so on. 2007 opted to pay those charges directly, so they were included in the overall sponsor/exhibition fees and everyone had access. It seems silly to consider power or internet an "optional" expense at a technology trade show -- it is not like we are running a home-and-garden exhibition, where an exhibitor might reasonably run a booth without them.
Have laser pointers be part of what is provided for Workshop / Lab Instructors.
During the conference planning, have the conference centre provide a full classroom mockup, including a computer connected to a projector, and a screen. For 2007, we didn't see this complete setup until the conference was starting, and there were comments on the evaluations that the projected images weren't bright enough, or, for larger rooms, big enough.
For 2007, part of the volunteer staff were for 'room monitors' for the Workshops and Labs. Part of that was 'security', to control access to Workshops only for those who had registered, and for Labs to limit the capacity to the size of the room. The other part of the 'room monitor' duties was to be able to assist the Instructors(e.g. handing out and collecting evaluations). When doing the pre-conference orientation for 'room monitors'(or others who may be assisting Instructors/Presenters), make sure they are trained in how to use any handheld or hands-free microphone systems.
- FOSS4G attendees have an unusual willingness to sit on the floor during lunch (or really, any time at all). This surprised the venue managers quite a bit. They provided more stand-up tables by day two.
- FOSS4G attendees pack laptops. Almost all of them. That means (a) lots of demand for places to use laptops, like chairs and (b) huge wireless load. VCC had good physical infrastructure in terms of access points and outgoing bandwidth (dual 100Mbit fibre) but had not sufficiently tested their log-in system prior to the conference. The result was a melt-down on day two, as they ran out of logins in their security box, then ongoing issues afterwards from machines with "bad logins" from the melt-down the day prior. This will be hard to avoid -- the conference centre will always be sure they can handle anything right up until you prove them wrong.
- FOSS4G attendees are predominantly male. That means that standardized food orders, that expect more gender balance, will tend to under-budget for how much each attendee eats. This was especially noticeable on "pizza day", when, despite the food services accidentally over-providing 20 pizzas, we still consumed every single piece.
Getting a hotel room block reserved ahead of time was wise. The kind of contract you have to agree to will vary, depending on the demand for rooms from ordinary customers. We got very good contracts, with three different hotels at different rates, with no penalties for not filling the blocks.
- 50 rooms at $100 night
- 50 rooms at $110 night
- 100 rooms at $135 night
The final room block was filled on August 23.
Providing a very complete list of local accommodation options on the web site will save your attendees the trouble of Googling it all up themselves. Plus you'll know and be able to find some that are very hard to find independently. List every reasonable hotel you can think of, with a web link directly to the hotel site, so that folks don't have to hunt them down.
Lesson: FOSS4G attendees are cheap. The cheapest room block ($100 / night) filled up right away, followed by the second cheapest, and the most expensive block ($135 /night) filled up last. Attendees booked hotels relatively late in the process, in the final month before the conference.
Try to be explicit about transportation options and publish that information on the web site well in advance. In particular anything that is not normally part of the airline experience, like how to get downtown, is useful for people to visualize their trip and feel comfortable about it.
FOSS4G 2007 kept all activities downtown, and had no transportation logistics. Previous conferences all had at least one event that required hundreds of people to get onto buses (2004, hotels were downtown but conference was at Carleton, and everyone had to be bussed; 2005, the event was a barbecue at an old fort 30 minutes out of town; 2006, after the castle dinner everyone had to be bussed back to Lausanne).
Workshops and Labs
- Initially, the conference organizing committee dealt with "workshops", and that was primarily done by a couple of people
- A Workshop Committee was then formed, to deal with "workshops", within the parameters set out by the conference organizing committee (e.g. the number of time slots for "workshops")
- It was decided that Workshops were to be 3 hours long, with no planned break. On 'the Workshops day'(Monday) there were to be 12 Workshops, with 6 in the morning and 6 in the afternoon.
- In addition to the 12 slots for 3 hour workshops (for the 'workshop day'), there were 16 slots for 1.5 hour Labs within the conference timetable.
Workshop Committee
When the Workshop Committee was formed, there was no clear set of roles and responsibilities, or expectations. This lead two two unclear situations.
One was that once the Workshop Committee ranked the workshop/lab submissions, some members of the committee felt that those results should determine which workshops/labs were selected for the conference program, not that the local organizing committee would make the final decision.
Lesson: Make it clear right from the start what role the Workshop Committee will play in the selection of the workshops/labs.
The other situation was that as the organization of the conference evolved, some tasks that needed to be done fell to the Workshop Committee, and some committee members didn't feel those were things that "they had signed up for". For example, it appeared to be a given that committee members expected to be involved in the process of evaluating workshop/lab submissions, but not involved in the loading and configuring of software on the PCs used for the workshop/labs.
Lesson: Make it clear right from the start the roles and responsibilities of Workshop Committee members. This may include preparation of the Call for Workshops, communications with people during the call, evaluation of the workshop/lab submissions, working with selected Instructors to refine requirements, loading and configuring software on the classroom PCs, communications with Instructors regarding things such as deadlines for printed materials etc., helping with the on site setup and tear down of computers, and assisting with monitoring the workshop/lab classrooms during the conference.
The intent for 2007 was that "workshops" would be 'hands on' classes with computers. The term "Workshops" was used to refer to computer classes that were 3 hours long, and for which there was a separate charge from the conference fee. To distinguish the shorter 1.5 hour computer classes, which were within the conference, they were called "Labs". That terminology wasn't decided until after the 'Call for Workshops' was over. In the future, it would be better to use consistent terminology right from the start.
Despite the intent to have the "workshops" be 'hands on', there were a couple of classes in 2007 that had minimal 'hands on', and there were complaints about that in the evaluations. If there is a desire to have something like "workshops", but without a 'hands on' component, perhaps using a different name would be appropriate, such as "Classes".
Call for Workshops
If the "workshops" are to be a distinct item, for which attendees pay extra, then the "workshops" must be selected prior to the opening of registration. Workshops/Labs are also a good piece of "web site content" that help convey to potential attendees "what the conference is about". As with every other piece of conference content, the sooner these things are selected and published, the easier you will find it to attract non-traditional attendees, who form their opinions based on the content you provide on the web site.
In 2007, the Call for Workshops went out in early February (8 months prior to conference) and closed in early March (7 months prior to conference). Workshops/Labs were selected by the end of March (6 months prior to conference).
Format of the Call
Workshop submissions were accepted by email, with the submitters having to fill in a standard document template. The information received was entered into a summary spreadsheet (for title, name, short abstract) and document (for all information). Submitters were asked to indicate what kind of physical infrastructure they required, and whether their submission was a 3 hour or 1.5 hour submission. Some submitters indicated they could do both formats, others only indicated one.
Lesson: It was not made clear to submitters that "both" was an acceptable answer, which led to a bad selectivity situation later on. If the conference is going to have multiple formats, such as Workshops, Labs, Classes, then make that clear in the document template or instructions, and encourage people to make submissions for all formats that apply to their material.
The document template included a section for 'User Level'. There were issues both with the various levels to choose from, and what they meant. The 'User Level' was used, to some extent, by the Workshop Committee in the selection process to try and make sure the program was balanced. It may be worthwhile to display the 'User Level' in the registration system for classes for which people have to pay extra (i.e. for 2007, for Workshops).
Lesson: The options for 'User Level' need to be broad enough to describe the various types of levels (in 2007, we forgot "intermediate"), and just as importantly, there needs to be a definition for what the levels mean.
Lesson: The 'User Level' was displayed on the website's page for Workshops/Labs. Especially for Labs, where people might decide 'at the last minute' which room to go into, the User Level should be indicated in the conference program and on the signage for the rooms, to help avoid comments on the evaluation forms of people who felt the material was too hard or too easy.
Results of the Call
52 workshop submissions were received. 33 submissions indicated they could do 3 hour formats, which made almost 3-to-1 demand versus supply (12 slots). 22 submissions indicated they could do 1.5 hour formats, which was much closer to the 16 slots available in the lab format.
Selection Process
The ranking of the results of the Call for Workshops was done by the Workshop Committee. "workshop" submissions were ranked using a multi-criteria system, scored from 1-5, and each "workshop" was supposed to be given scores for all criteria by all Workshop Committee members. In the end, some members found the process too onerous and only gave one score for each workshop, based on a holistic understanding of all the criteria. Some members ranked in a range of 3-5, others used the entire range of 1-5. In general, because of the different methodologies, the amount of 'information' pulled from the ranking process was not as high as it could have been. Ideally, each committee member would provide equal 'information' to the decision, but in 2007, those members who used the whole range of their scores, and only provided one score, had higher influence than members who ranked more judiciously and provided all the criteria separately.
Lesson #1: Before publishing the Call for Workshops, agree on the decision criteria, and publish them along with the Call.
Lesson #2: Do not attempt to gather individual scores for each criterion. Have members score the submissions holistically, keeping all the criteria in mind as they do so.
Lesson #3: Do not use a 1-X scoring system, but instead use an ordered sorting system, where each member returns a sorted list of submissions, from most to least desirable. This approach maximizes the amount of information gathered about each submission, and sidesteps "plumping" strategies (where a member gives all the submissions a "0" except for the two she really likes which she gives a "5", thereby accentuating her affect on the overall average).
Lesson #4: Potentially, remove the Workshop Committee ranking process entirely and move to a community scoring model. However, given the limited number of time slots, and the benefits for workshop presenters (free admission), a community model might be a tempting target for vote pooling and other forms of influence. Also, because Workshops (i.e. for which there is an extra fee) must be selected far far in advance of the conference date, it will not be possible to bring in the opinions of conference registrants who are not members of the "usual" OSS community of interest.
While the Workshop Committee did the ranking of the Workshop/Lab submissions, for 2007 the final decision as to which Workshops/Labs would be in the conference was made by the conference organizing committee. There was some feeling in the Workshop Committee that once the Workshop Committee made it's selections, they should stand, and not be modified by the conference committee.
The Workshop Committee first selected the twelve 3-hour workshops, via a ranking process (see above). Submissions that were accepted as 3-hour Workshops and that also had entries in the 1.5 hour list were removed from that list. Then the 1.5 hour Labs were selected using the same ranking process.
The submissions that were only in the 3-hour list had a much harder time making the cut than the ones that were dual-listed. Some submitters would probably be "OK" with that, since their content would not fit into a 1.5 hour format. Others would have been happy to present in either format, if they knew they had the option when submitting.
Communication with Instructors
For 2007, after the Workshops/Labs were selected, Instructors were contacted. Shortly after that, communication between the Workshop Committee and the Instructors started, using a combination of the Wiki and a mailing list. As things evolved, certain deadlines for submission of materials, etc. were communicated to the Instructors, typically via an email on the mailing list, with additional details on the Wiki. Some Instructors missed some of the communications and/or deadlines due to summer holidays, while others just didn't participate much, or even pay attention to the communications.
Lesson: Have a clear plan, with dates, and communicate it to the selected Instructors as part of the first communication with those Instructors.
Lesson: Some evaluations felt that there wasn't enough "help" in the classroom. Perhaps have people that submit proposals for Workshops/Labs indicate their preferred number of attendees. As soon as it is known (for Workshops, you won't know until well into the registration process), communicate to Instructors the size of the room they will be in, in case they need to recruit additional 'helpers'.
In the document template used for the Call for Workshops, the submitters had the following choices:
- Provided Windows XP workstations
- Provided Linux VMWare machine
- Instructor-provided LiveCD
- Participants bring their own Laptop
- None
The majority of submitters selected 'Windows XP', and for those that selected 'Linux VMWare', we provided VMWare, and the Instructors provided the virtual machine. It was decided that 'bring your own laptop' wasn't going to be an option, as that might exclude those who didn't have a laptop to bring, so all classrooms were configured to maximize seating for the provided computers. Submissions that selected 'None' were typically not selected, because if they didn't need computers, they didn't fit the 'hands on' requirement we had for Workshops and Labs. The 'LiveCD' option caused two problems:
- most of the computers didn't have DVD drives, so when a the use of a LiveDVD was requested, we had to plan for that class to be in a specific room
- for some reason, one of the Instructor's LiveCDs would not work on the computers in the assigned classroom, even though a prior version had been tested, and worked - that necessitated the swapping of rooms with another class
While the initial plans were modest, as registrations for the Workshops grew, we expanded the computer requirements until we ended up reaching the capacity of the rooms we had selected for the Workshops. For the 6 simultaneous Workshops on 'workshops day', we had rooms with 42,42,20,20,20 and 15 computers, with 2 attendees per computer, for a total of 159 computers (plus 6 more - one for each Workshop Instructor) for a total of 318 Workshop attendees.
Almost all the computers were rented, with one room's worth being an in-kind contribution from one of the conference sponsors. The net result was that we rented 145 computers, and the rental agency could not supply that order using a single model of computer. They supplied three different (but similar) computer models. That necessitated the installation and configuration of the software needed by all the Workshops/Labs be done three times (on three 'master' computers), as well as one more time on the in-kind computers.
Lesson: Try and reduce the work of 'loading the software'. For 2007, there was a lot of time spent on doing this. One approach would be to only use LiveCD/DVDs, but that may not be practical.
Lesson: For 2007, we had two rooms of computers that, once setup, stayed as computer classrooms throughout the week. They were used for Workshops on Monday, and for Labs Tuesday - Thursday. The rest of the computers(about 125) had to be unpacked and setup on Sunday afternoon, and disassembled and packed up on Monday afternoon. It's a lot of work for just one day's classes. Asking the attendees to 'stay 5 extra minutes' at the end of the day's classes to disconnect the mouse, keyboard, and monitor helped save time.
Lesson: Demand for workshops was so high, that we could have probably run two days of workshops, running some classes twice, and had people buy as many workshop slots as they wanted (1 to 4). Doing so would have also substantially increased our workshop profitability, since the main rental cost was in getting the machines, not keeping them for extra days.
Lesson: Workshop profitability was probably close to zero. Taking the difference between Workshops & Conference price and Conference price, and multiplying by the number of participants gives about a $50K differential. But computer rental cost about $25K, and the conference center for the day cost about $8K, and lunch cost about $9K. Throw in other grab-bag expenses (insurance, security, etc) associated with having the conference open for that day, and the profit-making of the workshop day was relatively small, or nonexistant. Either increasing the price differential, or increasing the utilization of assets like rental computers, would improve the financial side of offering workshops.
Printed Handouts
- If the conference organizing committee is going to provide a service to Instructors to print their handouts, tell the Instructors the requirements (e.g. formats, deadlines) in the acceptance notification. Many Instructors will wait until very close to, or past, whatever deadline you provide.
- Print all handouts using both sides of the page, to conserve paper, and mandate the same for handouts that Instructors provide themselves.
213 presentation abstracts were received before the submission deadline. Of those 73 were received on the closing day, 39 the day before, and 13 the day before that. Basically a slow dribble until the last days, then a rushing torrent.
Submission Process
The submission form and database worked acceptably. Having the coordinates of submitters made for fun, with the KML outputs and so on. One item missing from the form that would have made it easier to build presentations into sessions would be a "category" that indicated whether the talk was "software / technical", or "business / case study". For example, a good case study of how Geoserver is used in MassGIS was tracked with technical talks on Geoserver.
Community Ranking Process
The ranking process was universally hailed as a good idea, and the results were considered good. However, it is hard to know how representative of the final attendance the opinions of the community were. The final program ended up fairly technical and software oriented, and in general the case study style of presentations did not receive prominent billing in the process.
The ranking numbers were used by the committee to choose the final 120 talks for presentation. Some redundant talks (topic or speaker) were demoted and some talks that appeared to be of special interest were promoted. In addition to the 120 accepted talks, 10 stand-by talks were selected.
Building Sessions
The ranking process gave us the raw information that we used to build the list of 120 talks that would be presented. However, they still needed to be grouped into sets of three for the planned 90-minute presentation sessions.
Every talk was printed (id, title, author, abstract) onto a half-sheet of paper, and given a color-code to indicate how "popular" it had been in the ranking process, and annotated with its ranking scores. Then the committee shuffled the papers around the board-room table, trying to create groups of three that were both (a) topically similar and (b) of similar popularity. The idea being to keep very popular topics together so they could be tracked into larger rooms, and less popular topics together for smaller rooms.
Each set of three was stapled together when the process was complete.
Speakers will cancel. In 2007, we had 7 speakers cancel before publication of the program, and 2 cancel on-site. As part of the final presentation selection process, we picked 10 talks to use as stand-by talks. When speakers were notified of acceptance/rejection, the stand-by talks were also asked if they were willing to serve as stand-bys. Being stand-by meant confirming that you were going to attend the conference, and would have your talk ready in the event of a cancellation.
The poster session was not planned in advance, but kept around as an option, and then brought forward as a salve for folks who were rejected as speakers. Most of the posters were based on abstracts that were submitted as talks but not accepted. We took every poster submission that was received before the poster deadline.
We had space for 40 posters but only received 28 submissions before the deadline.
The use of the OSGeo Wiki helped with various aspects of the conference organization. For example, the Workshop Committee used it for various tasks related to Workshops and Labs, and it was used to self-organize the people interested in having BOF sessions at the conference, and for people looking to share accommodation.
Lesson: Make sure all wiki pages related to the conference have a Category, so that there is a handy 'index page', such as this one for the FOSS4G 2007 conference
Conference Evaluation
As it says at the top of this page, "This is not a forum for conference attendees to comment on the conference.". Conference attendees had the opportunity to fill out a conference evaluation form, and the results of the tabulation of those forms will be in the FOSSG2007 final report. What this doesn't capture is feedback from people who didn't attend the conference. To capture that information, future conference organizers may wish to ask for feedback from such people, such as asking "if you attended prior FOSS4G conferences, why did you not attend the FOSS4G2007 conference".
Workshop Evaluations
Are all here: FOSS4G2007_Workshop/Lab_Evaluations
Onsite Staff
For 2007, the meeting management company, Sea To Sky, had three of their own staff onsite. In addition to that, there were volunteers that were assigned specific tasks. For example, Sea To Sky managed the Registration Desk, but always with volunteer help. Aside from the volunteers, we had some other 'staff' planned, such as the Volunteer Coordinator, the Workshop Committee chairperson, Workshop Committee members who had offered to 'help out as needed', people that were running the Demo Theatre, etc.
Lesson: Regardless of a lack of any specific plan to do so, in practice the Volunteer Coordinator and Workshop Committee Chair spent the entire conference as 'staff', dealing both with things that they had planned to do, as well as lots of other issues. It is almost impossible for such people to participate in the conference as attendees, so that should be taken into account when planning 'how to staff the conference'.
Sea To Sky provided radios for use by their staff and key conference staff such as the Volunteer Coordinator and Workshop Committee Chair, and these proved to be an invaluable communications tool.
The setup of the over 150 computers on Sunday (to be used for 'Workshop Monday') was done both by scheduled volunteers (i.e. was one of their "shifts"), as well as by other people who were able to help (e.g. some Workshop Committee members, some volunteers who weren't "on shift", and even some conference attendees who were already in town). On 'Workshop Monday' the tear down of the majority of the computers (leaving just what was needed for the Labs for the rest of the week) was accomplished in a similar fashion, however, it went faster than expected, because at the end of the afternoon workshops, we asked the workshop attendees to stay for an extra 5 minutes and to shutdown their PCs, and to disconnect the cables.


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text:
Fire up the Whizzer, because Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze is the Greatest Movie EVER!
Click on the movie poster or the title above to download our review of the film, featuring the Internet's Mike Toole.
Review in a Nutshell: Filmed in the 70s, set in the 30s, Doc Savage feels like a film trapped in the 50s. Hampered by a small budget and an inconsistent tone, this film could have done great things, but instead it ends up being relegated to a campy adventure film for the kiddies. I love it anyway.
This movie contains:
Ron Ely, Ubermensch.
Cartoon Snakes.
Filed under: Greatest Movie EVER | Tagged: Adventure Films, Doc Savage, George Pal, Michael Anderson, Paul Gleason, Pulp Adventure, Ron Ely |


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Story highlights
- The NBA's board of governors approves the sale of the Sacramento Kings
- Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ranadive heads the Kings' new ownership group
- Maloof family had deals to sell to a group that would've moved the team to Seattle
- NBA executives rejected those relocation bids
After a prolonged courtship with Seattle, the Sacramento Kings are officially staying put.
About two weeks after rejecting a sales bid that would have had the team moving 750 miles north to Washington state, the NBA board of governors on Tuesday approved the Kings' sale to a local ownership group helmed by Vivek Ranadive.
The vote was unanimous, the NBA said in a news release, and "the transaction is expected to close shortly." Terms of the deal were not released.
"Thanks to entire NBA for approving sale of Kings to our organization," tweeted Ranadive, the founder and CEO of TIBCO Software in Palo Alto, California. "It is an honor & a privilege to be part of such an amazing community."
The Maloof family -- known for ownership of properties in Las Vegas, such as the Palms, among other business ventures -- has been trying for months to unload its majority owner stakes in the pro basketball franchise.
The family members have on multiple occasions reached apparent deals to sell the team to a Seattle-based group, including investor Chris Hansen and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, only to be rebuffed by other NBA executives.
In January, these two parties reached a deal for that group to buy the Maloofs' 53% share of the team as well as minority owner Bob Hernreich's 12% stake. But the board of governors never signed off.
The Maloof family and Hansen's group, though, kept on talking, leading to another deal for a higher price and a vote earlier this month by the NBA board.
Public officials in Sacramento, meanwhile, never gave up on their efforts to keep the team.
Led by Mayor Kevin Johnson, who is a former all-star NBA guard, they worked on a stadium plan and collaborated with a group led by Ranadive that was intent on keeping the team in northern California.
On May 15, the 22 members of the league's board of governors rejected the Kings' relocation bid, while eight voted in favor. After that vote, Commissioner David Stern cited the existence of a "strong ownership group," a construction team and a plan for a new arena, plus strong support from officials and residents in the Sacramento area.
Johnson celebrated that day, and again on Tuesday.
Congrats to @Vivek & the new ownership group!" the mayor wrote on Twitter. "NBA's unanimous vote sends a strong statement of support for the Kings' bright future in Sac!"