-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 (BCC: Gabriel Cossette, SFD 2012 organizer in Quebec city / CC: LibrePlanet QC mailing list) Hello, This year we had exceptionally low participation at SFD 2012 in Montreal and Quebec city. In Montreal we had a full day of activities on Friday Sept. 14: http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2012/Canada/Montreal/LPQC In Quebec we had a smaller event, "happy hour" in a bar on Saturday, Sept. 15: http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2012/Canada/Quebec/LinuQ I was leading the Montreal event while another free software activist here, Gabriel Cossette was leading the Quebec city event. This was advertised only a couple of weeks before the events, although it's not unusual in our context (lots of events in Quebec, last-minute volunteer organization). In Montreal very few showed up, two were presenters. One of them was a blind, long-time GNU/Linux user. Instead of following the schedule we made the best of our time, trying to liberate an Android phone, testing Trisquel for accessibility, testing new USB keys I had created with multisystem (http://liveusb.info/dotclear/) and generally talking about community reinforcement and advocacy ( a new local Mozilla community is coming up ). The venue for Montreal was graciously offered by the /Consulado General de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela en Montreal//,/ they have a beautiful place equiped with multimedia equipment and Internet. While a bit disappointing in attendance, low numbers meant we had lots of time to discuss one-on-one and experiment / test / exchange. On the positive side, I reviewed past year's communications, updated a few wiki resources, and kept open that important contact for the venue - free (as in beer), "compatible" venues for free open source software events are not easily found. In Quebec city something similar happened. I am told by Gabriel their meetup there started at 6 PM and lasted until 11PM, lots of informal discussion and exchanges: few people showed up but a great time was had :) I blame the low turn out on lack of proper planning beforehand - but specifically on my choice of Friday for the main event. The venue we had available for Montreal on such short notice was only available on Friday so I took a bet (and lost). The Quebec event wasn't coordinated with Montreal's - although I know Gabriel well the usual cooperation didn't happen. We missed the deadline for registrations too so promo material wasn't available other than what I produced on my own. This serves as a reminder we can't improvise, and we also need to coordinate better events between different locations. Last year we had prepared for over a month and the event was on a Saturday, very different (great) results. Keeping all the above in mind, I hope I ( or anyone else doing this in Quebec province next year) can avoid such mistakes for next year. tldr; lack of preparation and coordination resulted in low turnout, hopefully we learn from this and nail it next year Happy Hacking, Fabián Rodríguez http://fsf.magicfab.ca -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) Comment: PGP/Mime available upon request Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://www.enigmail.net/ iEYEARECAAYFAlBcabYACgkQfUcTXFrypNVjUgCg1UUfQB/fRHDL+ylwR3HZyiml y+AAoMjBXSSPtW6zU01jYEPXWZ95a5XK =zBhG -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----