Below, in no particular order, is my thoughts on how we can improve the State of the Map US.
- Call for proposals should begin now. Information that submitters need is a) how many people to expect, b) number of tracks c) budget, d) role of the local organizing team, e) time of year when the conference should held
- Hire a project coordinator early on. Ideally this person would be at the conference location, but having the same person year to year would be nice. Define roles for organizing committee.
- Use an app for the program. Printed ones are nice, but an app that could allow people to take notes and select talks they are interested in would be nice.
- Pick a theme for the next conference. Get input from the community on what the theme should be.
- Hire a media consultant.
- Advertise childcare in the announcement
- Banner ad on osm.org (Thank you Brian and Tatiana)
- Make Geo Ladies a regular social event
- Add juices and Glutten free options for socials and meals.
- Take a two pronged approach to fund raising. For those with strong contacts, they should be the point person. The remaining should be approached with a strong fund raising letter and follow up. Having more "small" sponsorships available might convince small firms to donate. Employing a part time Development person to handle the second category could pay off.
- Integrate transcription into the video recording similar to close captioning.
- From feedback on the survey "For scholars, I think a sort of mandatory reflection on the conference experience (be it a blog post or presentation to others about the conference) or a requirement to promote the conference to others would increase the impact of attending."