[cumbria_lug] Re: LinuxWorld Expo writeup

[Richard Smedley]

On Fri, 2004-10-08 at 14:56, Schwuk wrote:
> Richard Smedley wrote:
> > I think the main problem was that the event was poorly 
> > publicised to the business audience at which the shows
> > are all aimed. Visitor numbers were low, but the layout
> > and visitor demographic seemed to work very well for us
> > on the .Org stands :-)
> 
> Yes - the .Org stands were almost continously swamped. If someone could 
> figure out how to turn .org into a full show...

Well if anyone has an exhibition centre that
they don't need for a couple of days... ;-)

[snip]
> > Which table were you at? We weren't overly impressed,
> > but had quite a good time :^) Yes, the social side is
> > very important - lots of people know each other online
> > but only get one opportunity a year to put names to
> > faces and relax with a drink and talk about other things 
> > to someone they only know through a project that both
> > parties work on. 
> 
> I was on the big table in the restaurant - about a dozen of us. The food 
> was ok-ish - Wookey and I shared a mixed grill - essentially a BBQ with 
> salad and rice.

Ah - I was on the next (smaller) table. I just had the houmous, as 
I'd only got to eat lunch at 5pm =-/

> > Sorry I didn't get to meet you when you appear to have been 
> > in the same restaurant as me :-/
> 
> I did look for your name badge (not knowing what you look like)

I try not to put pictures of myself anywhere, it just
depresses me ;^) However there's a rare wearing-a-tie
shot at the end of:
http://www.publicservice.co.uk/pdf/cg/8/CG8%201704%20R%20Smedley%20ATL%20Amen.pdf

>  on the 
> AFFS stand but didn't see you the couple of times I was there.

I wasn't there `til noon on Wednesday, and had to spend 3hrs
of the afternoon in a meeting :-/
Thursday was good for us - in fact our stand was busy both
days. I think after a year of news stories on SCO and on
patents people are realising that Free Software can't be taken 
for granted, it needs to be defended and promoted with vigour 8-)

> There's always next expo (if it survives - apprently LUDEx is gone now).
> 
> [1] http://www.jonobacon.org/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album16

I think we can be quite confident that the event will
happen in some form next year - I just hope it's a
little bigger :-/

 - Richard

--
Association For Free Software
- keeping the freedom in software
http://www.affs.org.uk/