Brazil with Fabiano/SERPRO

Some days ago I wrote to the Foundation list saying that I would not be able to organize a Plone Conference in Brazil by myself. However, when I started to talk with people here about this idea, only good feedback started to show and so, I decided to take a different approach: find people to do it in a greater initiative, not focused on me or in a company, but in a group of concerned "people". Thus, I'm writing now to lauch "our" proposal: Plone Conference in Brazil. First, who is "us" in this proposal... FYI: In the last few months I have been working for the brazilian government, at the "Camara dos Deputados" (brazilian parlament). Some days ago, we lauched our new website totally based on Plone (internet and intranet). So, my first guess was try to ask my boss about the idea and see what would happen. He liked the idea pretty much, but, inspite of the **REAL** interest in the conference, we had elections for the parlament president this afternoon (that why I took so much time to write) and the result of this election would make the "promisses" a bit "delicated". Thus, I started to ask around too. Some days ago, Paul asked me If should I call people from SERPRO (the bigest IT brazilian company, that went to the last Plone Conference too). I talked with people there and I had the same kind of answer: SERPRO would be able to help us on this issue. Finally, the most cool instutition that got involved: Interlegis, a federal project (part of brazilian congress too). Interlegis is, in a big picture, responsable for the creation of opensource software for the legislative institutions for all brazilian States (27 States). They are old and very experienced Zope/Plone users and would be really proud to help us. Thus, the proposal became: host the Plone Conference in Brasilia - Brazil - with the sponsorship of brazilian government. You should be asking yourselfe why people here would like to get involved... Well... in general, brazilian goverment has its own policies about software, in special about free software. Plone have been doing a great job on this scenario. Actually, Plone have been working as the //oficial CMS solution for the govm// here. When I asked my boss about it, he told me that sponsor a conference about some technology that they (the parlament) are using and "didn't had payed anything to use" would be a way to give something back to the community. For SERPRO, It is even better because It is all about money, lots of money. Well... to keep it small and objective, I will try to follow the guidelines written by Paul, where we have 10 points to clarify. 1) Cheap/easy to travel by plane/train. Is your city and venue easily reachable by people from multiple continents? Are flights cheap during the time of year you propose? Are there travel restrictions or abusive customs agents for the country you propose? Specifically, are there visa/customs issues, hassles, or security concerns for people visiting from abroad? Well... our proposal is do the conference in Brasilia, the federal capital of Brazil. Here, we have a really great international airport and, believe you or not, Brasilia is a really secure city to live (quite different from Rio de Janeiro, and that's why we are NOT proposing Rio de Janeiro as an option). VISA for Brazil is not a problem (really). Brazil is a country without enemies. We are very receptive with people all around the world. About prices, everything in Brazil is very cheap if compared with USA and Europe :-) 2) Reasonable lodging. In big cities, lodging costs more than registration or travel. Sometimes lodging is hard to find, or is so far from the venue that people accumulate new costs getting to/from the conference. Well... Brasilia is a big city, but a litle different one. Brasilia is an artifitial city, made to be the federal capital just 30 years ago and, this way, all the city was very well planned. For instance, all the city hotels are near, in the hotels sector. To go to the parlament, you only need to get a big avenue and go right ahead during... 5 minutes (in a car). However, I need to say that Brasilia is not a good place to know on foot. 3) Legitimate staffing. Have you ever organized an event before? Do you have enough personnel to do the myriad of crummy tasks, before and during the conference? The nice part on get help from parlament and SERPRO is they are used to organize events like this one. Interlegis offered us their rooms, ready to do conferences, with video conference support for all 27 brazilian States "for free" and staff to help on the organization. The same was with Camara, plus help about hotel and even live translation for Portuguese x English. More than professional staff, some people already offered his help (people from brazilian companies that have been working with zope, like me :-) 4) Legitimate logistics. Can you gain access to all the equipment needed, including reliable internet connectivity, display projectors, coffee/catering service, etc.? yes 5) Target size is 250-350 people. Feel free to choose an upper limit that best matches your venue and resources. It should not be a problem to have a conference for 350 people here. Interlegis has infra-struture to help us and Camara has it too. 6) Don't increase rates. If we have to choose between inexpensive/low-tech vs. expensive/slick, we'll likely choose the former. We have lots of people that can't afford expensive conferences. You can review the relevant pages for PloneCon 1 and PloneCon 2. Being pragmatic, do things in Brazil are not expensive is compared to do the same things in United States or Europe. Eventhought, with the amount of offers of infra-structure that I have been getting, I believe that the real cost of the conference will focus on travels, hotels and just a small part for the organization by itself. Talking about money, probably only India would be cheaper than here. 7) Venue. Can you describe the location for the conference? Does it have more than one room available, for multiple tracks? The conference would be hosted in two big rooms. The first would be the parlament auditorium, with place for around 350 people. If it is not enough, It would be move to a building near there, the senate auditorium for around 500 people. The technical talks would be held on Interlegis, a smaller place but with better structure (see video-conference above). 8) Cost of living. In big cities, everything is more expensive: meals, taxis, etc. How does your city fare on this? Well... Brasilia is one of the most expensive cities to live in Brasil. However, live here is quite unexpensive if compared to Europe. Some examples: * Take a taxi from the hotels sector to the parlament will be around R$ 10,00 (ten "reais"). It is around US$ 3,84. * A beer is a good comparision point: here it is around R$ 1,10 or US$ 0,42 (yes, 42 cents of dollar). * A really good meal will be around R$ 25,00 (US$ 9,6) * A nice hotel room (nothing too luxury) is around R$ 110,00 (US$ 40,00), but this price could be even lower duo Camara parthnerships with hotels here. 9) Sponsors. Both previous conferences leveraged sponsorship to make the money work out ok. Getting sponsors is the job of the proposing host, not the Plone Foundation. Yes. As I wrote, It was on of my concerns. The nice new is SERPRO has a good relationship with... Computer Associates. Of course, CA is not our single option. I believe that some companied would like to sponsor the conference too... It is a matter of ask around. 10) Marketing. Do you have any connections with local or national media, to advertise the conference and help spread the good word about Plone? Yes. Camara dos Deputados is the federal govment. They have their OWN TV channel, radio station, news channel on internet and so on...