Also see the Evergreen Conference Site Nomination Process

The Evergreen International Conference will take place April 26-28, 2010. Projected attendance is between 150 and 225 attendees, representing Evergreen users, advocates, vendors, and others interested in Evergreen or open source.

Hosting a conference is fun and very rewarding, but is also a lot of hard work. There are a number of crucial time-sensitive tasks, such as sponsorship recruitment, selecting speakers, and reviewing programs, and the final 90 days prior to the conference will be very busy for the site committee. A conference is also a fiscal commitment that involves building and staying within a very tight budget that allows registration costs to stay reasonable while providing an excellent conference experience for attendees, vendors, and other participants.

For those interested in hosting the 2010 Evergreen International Conference, please review this information and use it to prepare a detailed written response describing your site’s qualifications. You may use Word, Open Office, or any other human-readable format.

• Name, organization, phone, and email of contact
• Name of primary contact(s) for site committee – the people who will take the lead in organizing the conference – and any prior experience with hosting conferences

Note your local capabilities. The site nomination committee will be contacting conference centers during their review process, so if you have contact information, that will speed the process.

• A conference facility with an auditorium or similar space suitable for 150-250 persons, plus four or more "breakout" rooms for 50-80, a registration area, and space for between 10 and 15 exhibitors. If you have several likely sites, feel free to list them all. You may want to contact them before submitting your application to ensure those dates are available.
• The facility must have either a catering company or be able to prepare meals onsite
• Wireless network in the conference facility available to attendees free or sponsored by the conference
• A host or hosts willing to manage local arrangements
• A commitment to help keep attendee costs to a minimum (which may require a combination of cost-effective sites, savvy contract negotiations, and early, vigorous sponsorship recruitment)

Please be as specific as possible in addressing these site qualities:

• Reasonably easy to get to, both cost- and travel-wise
• Some distance away from the last conference site
• Attractive, interesting surroundings
• Restaurants within easy access of the host facility (walking distance, shuttles, etc.)
• Attractive to potential site sponsors (keeping in mind issues such as shipping costs for exhibitor materials, travel costs, etc.)
• Prior experience hosting multi-date user conferences
• Note any other strengths of the local site and site committee

In your response, comment on your site's ability to do the following:

• Preliminary site visits to the proposed site and hotels
• Managing the program and events planning process
• Arranging and providing information about evening networking opportunities (e.g., interesting and/or good restaurants and bars and/or events)
• Participating in the effort to sign on conference sponsors

Equinox Software has agreed to be the fiscal agent for the 2010 conference and to assist with site visits, contract negotiations, etc. It is expected that the host site and Equinox Software will work closely together throughout the conference year.

Send your proposal to host the 2010 International Conference to events@evergreen-ils.org no later than 12 noon ET Friday, July 17, 2009. Late applications will not be considered.

Within three weeks of the closing date for nominations, the Evergreen 2010 site committee will announce its decision.

Andrea Buntz-Neiman, Kent County Library Ben Hyman, SITKA Cythnia Williamson, Mohawk College, Ontario Deanna Frazee, Killeen City Library System, Texas Jennifer Bielewski, Lyrasis Karen Schneider, Equinox Software Dawn Roberts, Equinox Software