Hello, on Dienstag, 5. Juni 2007, Martin Lasarsch wrote:
Instead of sending a "thank you" mail, i wrote something in my blog: http://www.novell.com/coolblogs/?p=896
I also did some blog entries (german, with some pictures) on http://blog.cboltz.de/ BTW: If you want all pictures I took for the openSUSE gallery, send me a mail (off-list).
Now something different, let me sum up some things which went good and not that good. [... several points shortened ...]
* booth setup
- to much unused space in the middle of the booth, we should have a table with chairs next time.
ACK!
- "only" cboltz from the community was there helping us. It's not about that we don't want to send SUSE/Novell employees to the event, we want the community more involved and such an event is perfect for this.
Well, I didn't feel lonely - but meeting other community members would be nice ;-)
- no theme on the booth. One desk with "Xen for beginners" or "How to use the obs" for example would be nice next time.
Indeed. Henne's mail has some good ideas.
- booth look was pretty generic. We had only Novell/openSUSE stickers on the walls and a big Tux. Posters or Paper where people can write suggestions down would help.
Yes. However the usual way should be to talk - because it's easier to ask back if things are not clear.
- softdrink situation: we had first big bottles, which was bad because most drank only a small amount of the water and let it rot. After that we had small bottles, with the same problem. Next time give drinks only out with a name written on the bottle. Yeah, we have problems ... :-)
I liked the LPI booth much more: They offered wine (to drink, not to execute M$ programs ;-) , other drinks, some cheese and other small snacks. This is a good way to make people visiting the booth ;-)
- on cebit there is a policy "no laptops on the booth, no email reading". I don't want to force that, but it is not very professional: the visitors don't want to interrupt somebody reading emails and go away ...
Yes, that's a problem. However, there were always enough people available (aka "not at the laptop") IIRC. And LinuxTag has more of a community image, so the laptops aren't as problematic as on cebit which has a more "serious" image.
could be better with a table.
Indeed. And, very simple but important issue, install more power plugs in the "back" of the booth ;-)
* openSUSE day [...] - no community talk this year :-(
Maybe you should give out some ideas next year. Not with the call for papers (if someone has a good idea himself, it's even better), but if there's no reply after some time.
- date: please not again on the first day of the event, it's a nightmare to get the booth running smooth and have all the talks.
There's another problem with the first day: there are usually less visitors than on the other days. However, I'm not sure if it's possible to change - the $distribution days usually don't change the weekday.
* merchandising - make a plan how to give away the shirts or other valuable goods. If we have them next time again for free, one plan could be: charge 5€ for a shirt and donate all the money to a OSS project or EFF, FSF or even openSUSE (travel costs for community etc.).
Why not? (But you will need less shirts, so less people do "advertising" for openSUSE.) Another idea would be to do something like a small quiz and give them away as price.
Some other projects are not really happy that our shirts are free.
Well, if they find someone who prints "sponsored by..." on the back, they can do the same ;-))
* other ideas - make a live irc meeting on the event, with video streaming :-)
Yes, could be cool. However, the problem is that it makes all people at the booth busy - and unavailable for visitors. Maybe it could be done in the evening, after LinuxTag closed its doors officially...
- do an official irl meeting with the community, dinner at least, paid by Novell
I won't object ;-) Regards, Christian Boltz --
"Frontpage" is a M$ WYSIWYG web page creation program. Would you like some Wine with that ActiveX? You must have a different Outlook(tm) on things, I thought it was an Excel(tm)lent Word(tm). [>> Carl Hartung and Peter Flodin in opensuse]
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