On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 5:36 PM, Bryen M Yunashko <suserocks@bryen.com> wrote:
On Thu, 2012-01-05 at 15:53 -0800, Drew Adams wrote:
Hey Andres,
We chatted a bit on IM a few days ago about getting some swag for SCALE. You said you would find out a little more info as to what the quantity was from last year's event. I just want to follow up with you and see where we are on that... Also, I have CC'd this message to the openSUSE-Ambassadors mailing list so we can keep this process a little more open. If you could also CC your response here, that would be a great help.
Thanks,
-- Drew Adams Ambassador, openSUSE
As I was the one who arranged for all the supplies for the booth last year, including swag, I can give some insight here.
First of all, it should be realized that what we spent on last year was pretty much a one-time thing specifically meant to heighten visibility and bring in new community locally. That you're stepping up to do this is proof the investment worked.
In addition to the investment made, there are also budget cuts over the past year since that time, which affects our ability to ship the full gamut of booth gear we had in the past:
SUSE Studio Kiosk - This was exorbitantly expensive but well budgeted last year by the Events Coordination group at Novell. That's no longer possible. 42" Plasma TV - Also not feasible this year Backdrop - This needs to be requested early in advance so the Events Coordination can be sure it is not used by some other event. I believe Alan was scrambling yesterday to find out if it can be shipped since apparently no one was inquired about getting the backdrop.
T-Shirts - Inspired by our actions at FOSDEM, we mirrored the same at several events since then including SCaLE where we sold the t-shirts and donated the funds to event (in this case SCaLE.) We had about 120 shirts and raised somewhere around $500 iirc. Keep in mind we "lose" money doing this but we gained in good relations with the event.
Because we gave such support to SCaLE, SCaLE later promoted openSUSE during its roadtrips around Southern California.
Jos will have to fill us in on whether we can continue doing that, but as it was quite a financial outlay for us including shipping, I'm doubtful we can do it in the same quantity as the past. More than likely you might get fewer shirts which can be given out rather sparingly.
Penguins: We gave out LOTS. We gave out the larger-sized Penguins that we normally don't give out. We were in fact depleting the stock that Novell had for these large penguins. I have no idea whether Provo has restocked on any of the plushies since then. Obviously people want plushies and many were stopping by just to get a plushie and run.
It got to the point where I would playfully bribe them by telling them they can get a free Penguin if they donate $5 for tshirt to SCaLE or another line I tried was You can have a penguin if you promise to also take a DVD home and install openSUSE. :-) It did work as people appreciated the humor in it and they willingly then took me up on those offers and we were able to deplete our supply much faster.
Travel Electrical Outlets: I believe we had about 200 of these. Though I believe this was also end-of-stock in Provo. People liked them and asked for them and we thought we ran out of them quickly but then someone discovered an extra box at the end of the show. Ay yi yi. :-)
The Weird Walkman Wrap: This is something we seemingly can't get rid of for years now. No one wants them. I only used them as cake decorations on launch party cake. That's about it. :-)
Print Materials: Everything we printed was generally adhoc created that week during the hackfest. We didn't have formal brochures or anything and as far as I know, we don't have anything printed in the stockroom these days.
DVDs: Most important :-) As this was just before 11.4 was launched, we had the remaining stock (1,000+ iirc) shipped to L.A. I believe we gave out about 500 and we also gave about 2-3 boxes to LUG groups that requested them so they could give out to their next meetings. In addition, we printed up labels to put on the DVDs about where to upgrade to 11.4 upon release date. As the formula generally goes, you want to figure about 1/3 of expected attendance at an event for supplies. So SCaLE was about 1500 attendees, and 500 handouts was about right. But if you anticipate more events in the year, order a bit more so you can have a leftover supply to use elsewhere.
That's the best I can remember off the top of my head. I'm wishing everyone who is going to SCaLE the best of success and look forward to hearing more about it afterward. In fact, I would encourage, once you have all your details nailed, that you submit an article to news.o.o so we can advertise and get more people to visit SCaLE and openSUSE booth. Someone on the marketing team can help with writing that if you don't feel up to it, but just be sure to include bullet points of your plans for the weekend.
Thanks for your hard work! Bryen M Yunashko
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Bryen, Thanks you so much for that very detailed and clear reply. So, according to Andi, it looks like we wont have any shirts for SCALE this year. I spoke with Stephen Shaw yesterday and he said he will talk to someone at SUSE for me and see what they can get together in the way of swag. I have not spoken with him yet this morning but I am sure he and I will talk later and I will update on the mailing list. As far as the backdrop goes... I didn't even think about that! I will try to find out more about the status on that from Alan. I guess if we have to do without it it's not really much of an issue, however I do think it would be a nice touch to have it. It's funny how you mentioned the "Travel Electrical Outlets" and how there was a bunch left over after the event last year. I took most of those home with me and I have given quite a few out at school and other Linux or tech events I have gone to (mostly LUG's and such). I still have some I could bring with me back to SCALE this year, however, they say Novell on them... that might confuse some people but I am more than willing to bring them. What do you think? Above ALL, I want to make sure we can get plenty of promo DVD's to give out. I am VERY proud of 12.1 and am looking forward to sharing it with interested people at the event. I know I am not the only one who feels that way and, it seems like we are going to have a great group of people at SCALE this year... I have a feeling that last years investment into SCALE will continue to pay off. Thanks again for the info about the swag from last year. -- Drew Adams Ambassador, openSUSE IRC Handle: Druonysue Skype ID: Druonysus Skype #: +1(714)725-SUSE Phone: +1(951)444-UNIX eMail: druonysus@gmail.com openSUSE User Profile: http://en.opensuse.org/User:Druonysus openSUSE Connect Profile: https://connect.opensuse.org/pg/profile/Druonysus -- This message sent via Novell Evolution on openSUSE 11.3 with KDE 4.7.1. Get openSUSE completely free at www.openSUSE.org and "have a lot of fun!" -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-ambassadors+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-ambassadors+owner@opensuse.org