[HLUG] Software Freedom Day / possible new smaller events

[Julian Robbins]

Hi

I'm emailing from a nearly sunny Newquay on holiday with my family.

Just to updat everyone on SFD. At out last meeting in July we decided
unfortunately that we didnt quite have enough folk who could provide input
on the day and with the behind the scenes preparation and publicity and
that it would be better to try contacting other local lug groups to see if
they were happy to team up with us to put on an event.

I contacted the Powys LUG who are quite active nowadays and although there
eas some initial interest from them I did not hear anything further. So as
time has moved on we will not be able  to put on an event this time for SFD
unfortunately..

But i had an idea .. At the regular Friday Market in Leominster which is
always quite busy you can get a stall as a non profit / voluntary group
with the cover etc for a special rate of just £10 for the day. Often
voluntary groups do take a stall as its a good way to get to talk to the
public about your group whether it is the local credit union or historical
society.

I think it might be a good idea to try somethong like this. It has low
upfront organisation requurements ie publicity as folk come to you.
Likewise as its on 10 till 4 you dont need many people to man your stall
perhaps only 2 or three at a time so we dont need as many folk as at SFD.

On the other hand as the stall is smaller you won't be able to show so much
off on computers probably only two or three demonstrating on the stall.

Of course we can still do some publicity but the burden is greatly reduced
as the footfall is high.

I think these days the general piblic is aware of Linux and Open Source but
still has an outdated view of it ie its hard to install (untrue) not many
apps (untrue) or you need the cmd line a lot (untrue).

We would have to put up some well designed banners to try avoid looking
like a bunch of geeks hidfled round our laptops to get folk interested on
seeing what we're doing . but we can do that.😀

Likewise the market runs all year round so we dont have to be ready in a
rush so we can make sure we can put on a professional looking stand when it
suits us.

I'd like to thonk what others think .. Crap idea or great one ?

Please reply with your thoughts

Julian
Ps Next lug meeting is next week when we can discuss further.ill post more
detsils nearer the time but it will be at the Courtyard in Hereford
(assumong theyre open in August that is )