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(Please note that the Host and Program Committee chairs sit on the Steering Committee and participate in much of the decision making there.)

Open Repositories Resources

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We have provided a template here for the EoI: OpenRepositories Bid EoI template (Google Document that may be downloaded as a word document).

After the closing date the ORSC will examine the EoIs and invite one or more institutions to submit a detailed bid. The choice of which EoIs are followed up will be influenced by a number of factors, including:

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For many OR attendees the cost of attending a conference is significant - especially where transcontinental air travel is involved.  The ORSC must consider the proposed location of a conference in terms of both travel costs and likely accommodation costs (although this latter would become clearer when a detailed bid is submitted).

Preparing a Detailed Bid

Resources

There is a range of resources available to those who are invited to submit a detailed conference bid.  In   In particular, bidders will be given access to the successful bids submitted in previous years and , where available, financial summaries prepared after each conference showing the actual expenditureinformation about previous years conferences. This handbook is also meant to be a resource to help ensure the bid meets the expectations of the OR SCORSC. The OR SC ORSC contains a number of individuals who have direct experience of preparing a successful bid for and, subsequently, hosting a past OR conference; they too are a resource that can be called upon if required.

Fiscal Responsibility

It is not the intention that hosting OR  should be a financial burden on the organising institution. Theirs should be a contribution in kind - providing staff time, and associated facilities, to organise and manage the event; the conference fees and sponsorship income should cover all other expenditure. That said, the OR SC recognizes that many organizations may have to put significant funds towards reserving a venue, for example, well prior to recouping the costs. The bidder should be cognizant that they will be bearing the financial risk of putting these funds forward and potentially of bearing a loss if the conference does not meet targets of sponsorship and registration. All but one OR conference (PEI) have had a surplus at the end of the conference. Please note that it is part of the host’s agreement with the OR SC that any such surplus be passed back to the OR reserve fund for the benefit of future events; It is not the intention that this fund be used to subsidise an unprofitable conference unless extraordinary circumstances can be cited. If providing the surplus back to OR is not possible due to organizational circumstances, we request that we are notified of that in the bid. 

Ultimately, since there is no legal Open Repositories organisation, the hosts are putting on a conference and using the Open Repositories branding. It follows that the hosts must take fiscal responsibility for any contracts that they enter into during the course of conference organisation and must ensure that they are covered by any appropriate insurances (including liability insurance).

Elements of the Bid

The Steering Committee anticipates that the financial element of a bid will be supplied as an Excel spreadsheet or similar. It should cover the costs of all aspects of the conference that will require funding. It should include a reasonable estimate of income from sponsorship (based on previous years' actual figures), and it should break even based on a realistic but conservative estimate of attendance. It is the responsibility of bidding institutions to consider past bids in detail and come up with their own itemised list, but it should include the following:

• Daily meals and refreshment breaks

• Two-three evening events (on other evenings delegates make their own arrangements) - see https://www.diglib.org/dlf-events/dlf-social-event-checklist/ for a useful set of guidelines on social events

• Ideas Challenge Reception (often underwritten by a sponsor) - Please note that this did not occur in Hamburg and was instead wrapped into the Poster reception. That would be an acceptable alternative.

• Poster reception

• Banquet dinner

• Travel, accommodation costs, and a small honorarium (usually about $1000) for keynote speakers

• Conference venue rental and associated costs (if not provided for by the host)

• Facilities rental and setup (AV equipment etc)

• Website costs (if not provided for by the host) - Please note that this may be managed by the Steering Committee in the future so costs for this should be tentative.

• Event recording/streaming costs

• Conference 'swag' including small printed programmes, badges, etc

• Transportation costs (if applicable, perhaps to/from banquet)

• Insurance costs (if applicable)

Elsewhere within the bid document, the following is appropriate:

• Brief details of other conferences that the team has organised

• Proposed dates for the conference (see below)

• Details about the campus and/or city hosting the conference (this may well be scans of an official brochure)

• Details of the hotels that are likely to be used by delegates with approximate costs and a statement that there will be sufficient accommodation available during the proposed dates (see below)

• Details of the conference venue (see below)

• Details of the workshops venue(s) if different (see below)

• Details of the proposed Host organizing committee

• Details of how the conference website would be maintained

• Details of how social media would be utilized

• Ability to provide visa letters to attendees as needed

• Evidence that the institution would be able to arrange travel for the fellowship recipients in case the recipients would not be able to do that themselves (this cost may be reimbursed to the institution or taken out of surplus costs)

The bid should not exceed 15 pages. Any further details can be provided in appendices if necessary.

These are not intended to be complete or exclusive lists and are offered only for guidance.

Dates and structure

The organizers should ensure that the dates they propose for the conference do not clash with any events that might potentially draw from the same pool of delegates (remembering that delegates come from a number of countries) and ideally do not include national holidays for any of the major countries represented by delegates.

From 2015, the Open Repositories event has spanned four days, Monday to Thursday, with the first day being given over to workshops.  The main conference has then typically filled 3 days. We no longer have a separate day for interest groups; these are instead integrated into the conference.

Hotels

The hotels recommended to delegates should be reasonably priced and be within comfortable walking distance of the conference venue. As they are attending a technology conference, delegates will expect that all rooms will have free internet.

In arranging discounted rates with local hotels, organisers of conferences should try to ensure that negotiated special rates include the Saturdays before and after the conference.  In particular, return flights from European destinations are generally much cheaper if the stay includes a Saturday night (transatlantic eg $1200 instead of $3000) but the "Saturday night rule" is evident in airfares elsewhere too.

The conference venue

The conference venue should have a single meeting space comfortably big enough to accommodate all the delegates during plenary sessions. It should have further rooms to accommodate parallel tracks when the conference splits into two or more strands (Hamburg had five parallel sessions; generally we are seeing about three to four).  The conference venue should have a large open area where delegates can gather for refreshments during breaks and in which sponsors and other organizations can have exhibition tables, with monitors etc. as necessary, for delegates to visit and browse. It is likely that this area will also be used for registration.

The venue will need a place that lunch can be efficiently provided for delegates since often the schedule only allows an hour for lunch; in the past this has sometimes been a dedicated dining room, but the open area described above has also been used successfully. If the open area is to be used, a reasonable amount of seating will be appreciated if possible.

It is essential that the venue have good wifi. Poor wifi is probably the biggest single source of complaints at OR conferences over the years. Organizers and venue staff should not underestimate the demands that 400+ technology-oriented delegates can make on a system, and standard conference venue wifi, particularly in hotels, may not be sufficient for a tech heavy conference without adding supplemental bandwidth and access points. The wifi should support VPN and IRC connections. In the past some venues have been able to provide for presenters cabled network connections with priority access to the system or a separate wifi network not available to delegates thus ensuring they could reliably give demonstrations.

The location of the poster reception should be discussed. There are clear advantages to having the posters in the conference venue (where they can be browsed at times other than the reception) but some organisers have placed them elsewhere so that the reception can be in a different (and usually impressive) location.

Workshops

Elements of the Bid

The ORSC has provided a OpenRepositories Detailed Bid template that can be used to provide the expected information in a bid. The bid should not exceed 15 pages. Any further details can be provided in appendices if necessary. The following are not intended to be complete or exclusive lists.

Narrative Elements

• Dates

The organizers should ensure that the dates they propose for the conference do not clash with any events that might potentially draw from the same pool of attendees (remembering that attendees come from a number of countries) and ideally do not include national holidays for any of the major countries represented by attendees.

From 2015, the Open Repositories event has spanned four days, Monday to Thursday, with the first day being given over to workshops. The main conference has then typically filled 3 days. We no longer have a separate day for interest groups; these are instead integrated into the conference.

• Expected number of attendees

Using previous OR conferences as a guide, estimate your target number of attendees.

• The conference venue

The conference venue should have a single meeting space comfortably big enough to accommodate all the attendees during plenary sessions. It should have further rooms to accommodate parallel tracks when the conference splits into two or more strands (Hamburg in 2019 had five parallel sessions; generally we are seeing about three to four). The conference venue should have a large open area where attendees can gather for refreshments during breaks and in which sponsors and other organizations can have exhibition tables, with monitors etc. as necessary, for attendees to visit and browse. It is likely that this area will also be used for registration.

The venue will need a place where lunch (and potentially breakfast) can be efficiently provided for attendees; in the past this has sometimes been a dedicated dining room, but the open area described above has also been used successfully. If the open area is to be used, a reasonable amount of seating is needed. Be aware that the lunch slot in the conference schedule is sometimes only an hour and so needs to be as efficient as possible.

It is essential that the venue has good wifi. Poor wifi is probably the biggest single source of complaints at OR conferences over the years. Organizers and venue staff should not underestimate the demands that 400+ technology-oriented attendees can make on a system, and standard conference venue wifi, particularly in hotels, may not be sufficient for a tech heavy conference without adding supplemental bandwidth and access points. The wifi should support VPN and IRC connections. In the past some venues have been able to provide for presenters cabled network connections with priority access to the system or a separate wifi network not available to attendees thus ensuring they could reliably give demonstrations.

The conference venue should be accessible. See https://www.sigaccess.org/welcome-to-sigaccess/resources/accessible-conference-guide/ for more information on providing an accessible venue.

The location of the poster display and reception should be discussed. There are clear advantages to having the posters in the conference venue (where they can be browsed at times other than the reception) but some organizers have placed them elsewhere so that the reception can be in a different location.

• Workshop venue and management

Generally workshops are held the day prior to the conference start and are a combination of half and full day workshops. We have had as many as five to six parallel sessions of workshops. Organizers will need to use their local knowledge to decide where, and how many of these workshops can be managed. The total number of attendees attending such workshops will be somewhat lower than that attending the conference proper, and it may not make financial sense to use the main conference venue for them. Whatever venues are made available should have good wifi, projection facilities, and be close to places where attendees can get lunch or be catered. Ideally they will be close together and close to the main conference venue (or within easy public transit reach).

• Accommodations

Accommodations recommended to attendees should be reasonably priced and be within comfortable walking distance of the conference venue. As they are attending a technology conference, attendees will expect that all rooms will have free internet. If a room block is expected to be required as part of the venue negotiations, please mention here; we strongly recommend that any room block is required that it be as small as possible.

• Social Events

Provide potential venues for the conference dinner and poster reception (if not held at conference venue).

• Larger environment

Describe the area where the conference will be held. Why would this location be appealing for people around the world to travel to? You may include as an appendix an official brochure.

• Host Organization experience

Please include information about the host organization’s experience with hosting previous conferences. Also include who is likely to be chairing the OR HOC and who might be members.

• Communication and marketing

The ORSC will provide a website, Twitter account, and Facebook account, but the OR HOC has primary responsibility for managing these during the lead up and during the conference. In addition, the Host will be expected to contract for and manage the registration site (such as EventBrite) and mobile schedule (such as Sched). Please describe your experience managing both websites and social media accounts.

• Sponsorship

Please describe your experience with and approach to securing sponsors for conferences or other events.

• Miscellaneous Items

ORSC relies on Host Organizations to be able to do some things that come with holding an international conference. For example, we sometimes will need a Host to provide visa letters to attendees or to arrange travel for fellowship recipients (this cost would be either reimbursed by the ORSC or taken out of the conference surplus).

• Contingency Plans

Please describe your ability to manage contingencies if the environment rapidly changes (for example, switching to an online conference or moving the conference forward a year if necessary). If your organization would require event insurance, please describe that here.

Financial Elements

The ORSC anticipates that the financial element of a bid will be supplied as an Excel spreadsheet or using the table in the Detailed Bid template. It should cover the costs of all aspects of the conference that will require funding. It should include a reasonable estimate of income from sponsorship (based on previous years' actual figures), and it should break even based on a realistic but conservative estimate of attendance. It is the responsibility of bidding institutions to consider past bids in detail and come up with their own itemized list, but it should include the following:

Costs to the hosting institution:

1. Conference venue rental costs: This should include space for both the main conference and the workshops (these are often in separate spaces). For workshops, it can be useful to budget for some supplies such as easels, pads, and markers. If using a hotel and a room block is required, please include information about the costs if the room block was not met.
2. Catering Costs: Generally this means at the least coffee in the morning and at the mid-morning break, lunch, and a refreshment break in the afternoon. Depending on the venue and the accommodations, some conferences also provide a hot breakfast. A range of options should be provided including vegan and vegetarian options.
3. Social Event Costs: Two evening events (on other evenings attendees make their own arrangements) - see https://www.diglib.org/dlf-events/dlf-social-event-checklist/ for a useful set of guidelines on social events.
   1. Poster reception: Generally drinks and appetizers on the evening of the first day of the conference (not the workshop day). This is sometimes in a different venue than the main conference but often is in the same location.
   2. Banquet dinner: Generally at a venue different from the main conference. Include costs for rental and transportation costs if needed. Some hosts have itemized the dinner as a separate cost for participants.
4. Keynote Speakers: OR generally has two keynote speakers and provides an honorarium to each (usually around $1000) as well as travel, accommodation, and per diem.
5. Mobile and Registration Platforms: While the ORSC provides the primary conference website as well as the conference submission tool (ConfTool), the hosts will need to provide a registration platform as well as a mobile site such as Sched.
6. Event recording and streaming costs: ORSC expects a limited number of sessions (keynotes, plenary sessions) to be recorded and live streamed, but not the entire conference.
7. Bandwidth and wireless costs, if needed: OR attendees often are using several devices to connect to the internet; securing adequate bandwidth is critical to the success of the conference.
8. Conference swag and supporting material: While interest in ‘swag’ has declined over the past few years because of sustainability concerns, small printed programs, badges, and lanyards are generally useful to have.
9. Event Insurance, if needed: It may be useful to purchase event insurance to protect your financial outlay (in some cases, parent institutions may require it).
10. Other: Any other costs associated with the conference. For example, some host institutions have hired a conference organizer.

Income:

1. Registrations: Registration should cover the costs of the conference to the hosting institution once sponsorships and any other income are subtracted. The ORSC does not expect large profits and would rather see the cost to attendees kept as low as possible without the hosting institution suffering a loss. 
2. Sponsorships: Estimate the amount that you expect from sponsors in order to offset costs.
3. Other income: Any other income that will offset the costs of the conference.

Costs per attendees:

1. Travel costs: Include approximate costs for attendees including costs for international attendees. If additional costs are involved to travel from the airport to accommodations, please include those.
2. Accommodation: Include approximate costs for a range of accommodations for attendees. If reserving a hotel block, indicate the cost per room. 
3. Per diem: Include approximate costs for per diem.
1.  If helpful, the United States Department of State publishes per diem rates for foreign cities: https://aoprals.state.gov/Web920/per_diem.asp. See the cost of meals and incidental expenses rate (M&I) as an estimate, while noting that the conference should be providing some meals). 
4. Registration: Please include the estimated registration cost per attendee.

Review process

Submitted bids will be reviewed carefully for the criteria required with close attention to the budget, logistics, and experience. The criteria for selection may vary from year to year primarily because of geographic considerations. In areas that need further clarification, the ORSC will seek clarity from the bidder. The successful and unsuccessful bidders are notified usually within two months. In general, the ORSC aims to select a bid in time to make an announcement at the conference; when this is not possible, we try to make an announcement no later than the end of the summerGenerally workshops are held the day prior to the conference start and are a combination of half and full day workshops. We have had as many as five to six parallel sessions of workshops. Organizers will need to use their local knowledge to decide where, and how many of these workshops can be managed. The total number of delegates attending such workshops will be somewhat lower than that attending the conference proper, and it may not make financial sense to use the main conference venue for them. Whatever venues are made available should have good wifi, projection facilities, and be close to places where attendees can get lunch. Ideally they will be close together and close to the main conference venue.

And if your bid is accepted?

If your bid is successful it will be important that you gather together a Host Organising Committee OR HOC as soon as possible. In particular, the OR SC ORSC will want to know the name of its Chair as soon as possible so that (s)he they can immediately become party to the wider planning process.The expectation is that the Chair of the OR HOC will begin to participate in calls as soon as selected since much can be learned from the planning of the previous years conference; however, regular . Regular participation is definitely expected from the call in July forward the year before the conference will be hosted. The Chair will also be added to the appropriate email lists, and given access to the wiki and social media sites for publicizing the conference. We also hope that the Chair(s) can attend the conference immediately preceding their conference as there are at least two meetings (a debrief and a standing OR SC ORSC meeting) that are useful for knowledge exchange, and it is a tradition that the Chairs or their representative give a brief presentation on next year’s conference in the closing plenary session.

The Annual Cycle

(Starting in July or August after the annual OR conference)

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