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(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
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