Rob Beard schrieb:
It would be great if we could have details the date for next year. Our local LUG had an open day in Torquay, Devon, UK although due to last minute planning and lack of resources we only got a couple of visitors.
Sounds familiar. Same here in Kiel, Germany. I talk a bit about what went well for groups doing similar things in the future: One thing I wanted to make sure is to not pack the schedule full of talks for some reasons - firstly I have read a lot about Unconferences and also from my experience of conferences the bad thing is if one speaker get pressure to finish because the next wants to start. So I said we give every slot one hour including speach, discussions and breaks. This was a good decisions because nobody got any pressure and all talks could start at the time given in the program besides my first talk as an introductions because some people needed to get their things in order: I learned - peope who do not have internet can not listen to a talk ;-) ... Somebody brought a coffee machine which was working in the back of the room - although it was a bit noisy it also brought a little home feeling to the rooms and we always got hot, ecological coffee also thanks to the guy who always set up new coffee and filled two coffeepots. That also brought me to the idea to maybe ask a local coffee shop if they would sponsor the event and pay the posters etc. There is one shop that rents big, professional coffee machines and pots which would have made things a little easier. Maybe non-tech companies are also better partners because they think differently? We had too few people marking the building as the location where things happen - so this got done by a teacher who was one of the first visitors. Geeks are more interested in messing with tech mostly and some people already did other important stuff. Somebody would need to have a priority list and find at least some people doing the important tasks first. Its a bit embarassing if the first visitors do the jobs you should have done. ;-) I would also do this things differently: * Less theoretical talks * More like handsond workshops * Give the workshops even more time like 2-3 hours but then maybe have more than one room and have those workshops in parallel. * Allow people to come and go and chat anywhere, drink coffee, tea. Like we had an hour long spontaneous unplanned discussion about schools, education and Linux in schools. If we would have planned that really it maybe would not have happened. So my approach would be to better prepare and better do the basics but do less control and to encourage more active involvment of participants. Actually I think the most important thing is that people go with the feeling of "that was nice" or that they have learned something. It is good to have space so that people get attention to the notebooks and can ask questions which are not on any list. So we also had a spontaneous live Ubuntu installation and somebody showing of dwm window manager . That maybe sounds all a bit contradicting - more preparation and less control - but I think its logic. People habe many questions and also many skills. Nobody can know that and you need some space to let things happen. The problem with highly packed schedules is that people maybe hear 5 interesting talks - but maybe they can not relate to it and also its an information overkill and so they forget half of what they heard. Atmosphere and interactivity help people to learn better and also to have more fun. People cant be quiet all the time. Sometimes they need to chat. A less strict schedule allows just that. Schools seem to be a good place, because you at least make Linux a topic in that very school and you already have some infrastructure - and everything in the development of man starts in schools. You also have the chance that the school will advertise the event and so you can share some costs. Thats more complicated on other locations , at least in Germany. Liek universities. Funny thing is when I look at SFD reports is that many countries that re not as highly industrialized as Germany seem to have more visitors, more creativity, more possibilities to use great locations (I especially liked the building in Iran). In Germany often SFD happen on the streets or in some remote locations. Maybe its because Linux is often more seen as a danger for the status quo instead of something that helps - at least thats true for official organizations. So the people leaning towards free software are more "tired" of Windows or do not like the Microsoft monopoly - so often its more a private interest - people dont see Linux as a big learning opportunity, which in fact it is. enough for now. Regards, Thilo www.sfdsh.de -- Thilo Pfennig - PfennigSolutions IT-Beratung- Wiki-Systeme Sandkrug 28 - 24143 Kiel (Germany) http://www.pfennigsolutions.de/ XING: https://www.xing.com/profile/Thilo_Pfennig - LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tpfennig