Hi
Only 48 days left till FOSS4G starts, if you aren’t getting excited you should be.
This is quite a long mail, please take time to read it as there is important stuff in here to help you make the most of FOSS4G
There has been a heck of a lot of activity and we have now finalised an incredible list of keynote speakers for the plenary sessions, you can see the full list at http://2013.foss4g.org/programme/keynoters/
t-shirts
How do you work out the size balance for ordering close on a 1000 t-shirts? Well we were wondering on that and we hope that you can help us. Go to http://2013.foss4g.org/t-shirts/ and tell us your size preference (including whether you want women’s or men’s style) and it will help us to get the mix right. This is not an order form so no guarantees but it should help. The form will be available for about 7-10 days.
Volunteering
We had a great response to our request for volunteers last week but we still need more. Imagine if 800 FOSS4G delegates all offered a bit of their time and unique skills.
FOSS4G is going to be colossal, over 200 sessions and workshops, unconferences, birds of a feather, entertainment etc across 5 days and nights, to make that run smoothly we need your help. We need volunteers to help with all sorts of tasks, you only have to volunteer for a couple of hours. In particular we are looking for people who are willing to “chair a session” – you don’t need any prior experience, just a willingness to introduce 2 or 3 speakers, facilitate the questions at the end of each presentation and keep the speakers to time – easy!
Whatever your skill or interest in helping, please have a look at http://2013.foss4g.org/volunteering-at-foss4g/ and sign up, then you can add the snazzy “I’m volunteering at FOSS4G” badge to your mail signature and we will give you a mention in the programme book if you sign up by 9th August and a special gift.
Video
Do you have any high end video skills within your organisation? We would like to get someone to make an inspiring video that we could use as part of the opening plenaries, can you help? If you can, please mail me.
A bit of local mythology
You probably know that Nottingham is closely linked to the tales of Robin Hood (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_hood for some background). We on the organising committee like the idea that open source software sort of fits in with the positive income redistribution activities of Robin and his Merry Men so we were very chuffed when Jo pointed us to this Robin Hood License http://www.laliluna.de/articles/posts/open-source-robin-hood-license.html
To extend the Robin Hood theme of FOSS4G 2013 we thought we would invite you to bring along a Robin Hood style item of clothing, a hat, a feather, be as creative as you wish (or don’t bother at all if that kind of thing makes you cringe). It would make an awesome opening session if we had 1,000 Robin Hoods in the audience.
Accommodation
Our records are showing that a lot of people have not booked accommodation through our system. That’s fine if you have made other plans but please note that accommodation is not included in any delegate passes.
You need to book your accommodation either through our registration system (you can log into your booking if you already have one and book university or hotel rooms) or you need to book accommodation directly.
That’s it from me for this week. I am looking forward to welcoming you to the Best FOSS4G ever in Nottingham in September.
Remember to follow us on twitter to get the daily news on FOSS4G, we are @FOSS4G
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Cheers
Steven
