[Blackpool] Fwd: Linux Presentation Day in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

[M Hewitt]

Hi folks -
here is the reply from Hauke:-

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Hauke Laging <hauke.laging at linux-presentation-day.de>
Date: 8 December 2015 at 13:18
Subject: Re: Linux Presentation Day in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland
To: M Hewitt <admin at pcrecycler.co.uk>


Hello Mike,

Am Di 08.12.2015, 12:34:46 schrieb M Hewitt:

> We have a couple of people interested in getting involved.

three should be enough (in Berlin at BeLUG only two people, including
me, were really involved). Usually the problem is finding organizers. On
the event day probably many people (LUG members and non-members) will be
interesting in helping.

Publicly stating (on the future event web page which you should set up
as soon as possible in order to maximise attention) that you are looking
for helpers (even if you don't need any more) may bring you more
members. Supporting this event as a helper is a good "pretext" to get in
touch with a LUG.


> I have forwarded your latest email to our list, and asked our members
> to reach out to any other LUGs they are in contact with.

Let's hope that works better for you than it did here.


> I'm not sure what the format of the German event was/is proposed to
> be, but I attended a very similar event run by MANLUG last year
> opposite their MadLab venue in one of the bar/cafe's over the road.

So their change was to use a more public venue than their own location?

The Italians are thinking about the possible approach to do their event
completely in public: on the streets. I don't think that this helps but
I assume it makes the organization worse (computers outside, theft risk,
wheather, transportation of desks, permit by the authorities to do so).

I don't believe that "walk-in customers" are an effective target group. I
assume that between 1% and 5% of the Windows users is seriously
interested in Linux. Maybe 20% will have a look it they happen to hit
such a public event. But that would mean that talking to 90% of the
visitors is more or less useless.

1% of the Windows users is more than enough. They just have to know
about the event. It's a much bigger number than you or we could handle
today. That's 500,000 people in Germany, 25,000 in Berlin...

Furthermore I assume that the connection of the visitors to the hosting
organization is better if the event is in the usual location of that
organization.


> Whilst not overwhelmingly successful in recruiting new users, it was a
> great idea and well worth trying out.

I am always almost for trying out. But if an idea seems worse than I
would rather try it out on a smaller scale (a few cities).


> The idea of running two each year sounds interesting, but the
> challenge is to generate sufficient publicity OUTSIDE of our own
> community and draw some new faces in.

There is no need to participate twice a year. The consideration is that
on the one hand once per year is too seldom and on the other hand the
media probably would not cover more than two events per year.

I think having an event in half of Europe, nationwide events in
countries with more than 300 million inhabitants should be enough to be
mentioned by the media twice per year. You have two chances: nationwide
media (not for the first event) and local media. Having one of them
should be enough. We are just learning how to get the media interested
(until now we mainly learnt how not to, though...). Blackpool seems big
enough for more than one location. Getting public institutions involved
helps with the local media and general awareness: schools, universities,
libraries, adult education centres (the German ones are very interested
in the event).

The overall conclusion from the German event is: Minimise the effort for
the location and the agenda but maximise the effort for public awareness.


> If we can overcome this hurdle

I am sure we can. The question is how and how fast. The Italian event is
now on nationwide TV and in nationwide news papers.


CU

Hauke
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-- 
Best Regards,

Mike Hewitt

PC Recycler Ltd
Unit 9 Brinwell Road
Blackpool
FY4 4QU

07711 736899

http://www.pcrecycler.co.uk
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