[Infopoint] Feedback from Sunday's InfoPoint at Jamie's Computer Club

[Tony Whitmore]

As you are probably aware, Sunday was our first attempt at running an
InfoPoint. We did so at the Jamie's Computer Club sale in Southampton. A
report on the day is available at [1] and a photo gallery at [2].

It's fair to say that the sale was a lot quieter than both Jamie's and
we had anticipated. However, we talked to the majority of "punters" who
came in to the sale. One gentleman in particular was already familiar
with Linux and was interested in attending meetings in the future. The
Windows-loving staff at Jamie's also liked some of the software on
display - with one in particular being very taken with LBreakout2.
(Cries of "They've got Breakout on Linux! Look!" were heard.) On the
other hand, two student-y types were heard to mutter, "Linux? Ha!" to
each other whilst perusing the Windows 98 computers on offer....

Sunday was really the culmination of several weeks' work in preparing
for the stand, with about 10 LUG members being involved in one capacity 
or another. (TBH, I've still not really recovered from the weekend's 
double-whammy of an all-day Bring-a-box meeting followed by the 
InfoPoint the following day.)

The stand itself was well-staffed throughout the 4 hour sale period. It
also looked pretty good, apart from a lack of posters on the display
boards. (Our volunteer to make the posters let us down.) Afterwards most 
of us discussed what we need to take away from Sunday's experiences for 
future InfoPoints, and these notes are also on the wiki[3]. It's fair to 
say that there were some things that didn't really go to plan on the 
day, depsite all our best efforts at planning in advance. However, we'll 
know what to plan for next time.

Personally, I think InfoPoints are a worthwhile activity and would be
interested in doing some at "proper" computer fairs in the future. I
would still be willing to do them at somes Jamie's sales too, because
they have been much busier in the past and we do have a good
relationship with them as an organisation. I would envisage trying for a
computer fair in January for the next InfoPoint.	info

Tony

[1] http://www.hants.lug.org.uk/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?InfoPoints/5thDecember2004
[2] http://www.hants.lug.org.uk/gallery/infopoint_12_2004
[3]
http://www.hants.lug.org.uk/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?InfoPoints/FutureEventsDiscussion