Hi all
For some reason (probably because TEDx could never be mistaken for anything close to academic) this option never occurred to me. Speaking to Graham on Friday, he seemed quite confident that this could be argued to be a UCT-hosted conference, aka with enough academic relevance. If we can get the conference channelled through UCT (in effect making them a sponsor, I think), that would make our lives sooooo much easier, mainly UCT-related admin-wise and cost-wise.
Just as an example, the accommodation by itself (not considering potential food savings, no venue savings etc):
R283.00 - non-UCT
R 247.00 - UCT hosted. [1]
Difference of R36.00 per person per night
So conservative estimate of, say, 200 people for 7 nights of DebConf = 36*200*7 = at least R50 400.00 savings (=~ 3 600 EURO saving).
This would almost certainly negate Heidi' s fee, and resolve the TAX issues.
For now, I will hold off taking this thread's questions to Matthew Walton's office, until we have chatted to Heidi Tait, unless you feel strongly otherwise.
Side-note: I suspect some of you at least may feel uncomfortable at the 'paid conference organiser' aspect of this, but I suspect also that the exact nature of her services can be negotiated, and should in my opinion be limited to her knowledge of UCT's systems, and how they interface with our requirements, rather than 'doing everything'. I do feel strongly that economically speaking alone could be enough to seriously consider this option, and I am also very confident that this would not mean the local team would back off from the organising aspects at all!
regards
B