To give everyone time to have a look at the schedule before booking, we’ve extended the Early Bird registration deadline to the end (in BST) of 14th June 2013. In the meantime, thanks are due to everyone who submitted proposals – there’s something for pretty much everyone, from the old hands to the ‘new to GIS’, and that’s what we were hoping to see.

Once the deadline has passed, the Community Voting period will start on Monday April 13th (the link will be added to the page when it’s ready to roll), to allow anyone to vote for the presentations they want to see at the conference. This will take place over a period of two weeks, before the Local Organising Comittee meets in Nottingham on 24th and 25th April to put together the full programme.

The deadline for proposals for presentations is just a couple of weeks off, on 12th April. After that we move into selection mode, with community voting on proposals taking place in the period between the deadline and the final selection process by the Local Organising Committee on 24th and 25th April.

In the meantime, look out for news of another major sponsor soon, and keep an eye on the Maptember web site for the ever-growing list of events which will make the UK the mappiest place to be for  four glorious weeks…

• Most of the keynote speakers have now been announced, and we’re delighted with the range of experience and perspectives of those who have agreed to help set the tone
• The Academic Track submissions period is now closed, and the process of selecting papers for publication and presentation is underway
• Proposals for workshops can still be submitted until the end of March, with another two weeks beyond this (until 12th April to be precise) for proposals for presentations – we’ve had a number of good proposals already, but we are keen to maximise opportunities for hands-on learning and sharing, so don’t hold back if you’ve got an idea!
• Early bird registration runs until 31st May, but some accommodation types are limited, so get in early if you want the best choice

In the meantime, we’ve busy working on facilities, entertainment options, the hackathon on 16th Sept, and attracting more sponsors (we’re pretty happy with those who’ve signed up so far). And remember, September has officially been designated Maptember in the UK with a whole host of great events, so book out the month now (assuming you haven’t already).

• 22nd February for the Academic Track
• 31st March for Wokshops
• 12th April for Presentations

Remember that one of the themes of the conference will be ‘Geo for All’, so if you’ve got something to say about how new users, developers, and others can be brought into the world of FOSS4G, we’d love to hear it.

As in previous years, there’ll be a Community Voting period in the second half of April when everyone will have the chance to review the presentation proposals.

And please share this news as widely as you can so that we can all get a great selection of sessions to choose from.

• The Academic Track team have issued the Call for Papers
  (1st Feb 2013 is D-day)
• There’s a winnner in the Logo Competition (Naomi Gale’s target/arrow)
• The LOC is busy working on the production version of the website, sponsorship packages, and detailed scheduling for Sept 2013

More soon….

Thanks to the almost 300 who voted in the short timescale (we needed to take a decision at our LOC monthly call), and here’s the official result. We’ll be talking to Naomi about how the logo can form part of an overall website design over the coming week or so. We’re also all looking forward to presenting her prize at FOSS4G 2013.

Here are the all the submitted designs, with thanks to all who submitted for a range of great entries!

Bow (unknown)

Flag (Nicholas Bozon)

Hat (Phil Francis)

.

Oak leaves (Barry Kaye/Barry Rowlingson)

Target (Naomi Gale)

So if you have some design skills and could help us to get something spectacular in place, we’d be eternally grateful, especially if we can kick this off within the next week or so. Contact us through one of the channels here or by email.