[Sussex] A Vista of opportunity

[Steven Dobson]

On Wed, 2006-11-01 at 08:46 +0000, Nik Butler wrote:
> Gavin that sounds great , im just wondering though since I wasnt at the 
> meeting why we dont just arrange this with the BCF guys. They have 
> always said we can use the back room ( coffee area ) to do exactly this 
> sort of thing ?

We looked into this and it didn't work.  In those days both coffee areas
where free of stalls, so we had the area to ourselves.  We appeared to
talk to less people and as a result sold less CDs.

True we didn't do a talk, we were preparing for that.  However, I came
to the conclusing that a talk wouldn't work at that venue.  I thought I
discussed it with you, maybe not.  It might have been with Karl/Colin 

The reasons I don't think a talk will work are:

1). The punters have the wrong mind set - they are they to buy hardware.
The BCF is not an expo - the mind set is different.

2). We wouldn't have a private area.  The outer coffee area now has
stalls in in, and the inner area is all that's available for people
wanting to take a break.

However, if you think to can make it work JFDI.

> we want this to occur but the stand and table are 
> not the place for it because it lead to to much confusion and 
> overlapping of activity.

Lately I think that stall has lost it's edge.  When we started we had
much more things happening on the stand: MythTV, OOo demos and the like.
Theses days it just appears to be a couple of laptops on which nothing
much is happening.  We need to create better intrest in the stall
itself.  I've seen to many people in the last few months just take one
glance at the stall and walk on by.

Steve W said he'd try and be there demoing GLX - that would be a big
help.  But we need more demos.

One thing we could do is get some laminated signs made up.  Two which
say:

   This PC is running Linux.
      Go on give it a try.
         We dare you.

and:

     Get the power of the 
       penguin in your
            PC

would be a start.

I also think a few quotes from our members might work out quite well.

    I switched because I was feed up
    of Windows crashing when I was
    recording my music.
               Gavin S, Musican, Nutley

    I switched because I didn't like
    Microsoft's asumption that I was
    a theif.

          Ronnie Briggs, Entrepreneur,
                              Parkhurst

I think we need quotes from non-ubergeeks.  Me or Nik saying why we
switched is not going to convence the man in the street, but non IT
people might.  I also think giving your location in Sussex will show
that if people near them are switching then maybe it is worth them
giving it a go.

> I know Steve and I will be at the BCF this 
> weekend to promote the Club and Linux and Free and Open Source Software.

Hang on.  We we talked last week you said that the Nov BCF was on the
12th not the 5th.  This Sunday is the 5th - which is it?

> Id love to see the group become more energetic and active in terms of 
> technical demonstrations and public awareness, so count me in.

Agreed

Steve