On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 1:33 AM, Daniel Gruno <humbed...@apache.org> wrote: > Hi folks (cc press@), > > Thank you so much for an amazing FOSDEM last week! > This was the first time the ASF has had a presence as a foundation, but > even though this showed a bit, I think we had very productive > interactions with people (never a dull moment!) and showed them what the > ASF was about. > > This was also the first time we had the opportunity to showcase our new > visual identity, which was very well received and was quite the talking > point in many a conversation. > > I'd like to extend my most sincere thanks to especially Alexander > Bezzubov, Andrus Adamchik, Michael & Mechtilde Stehmann and Sharan > "Super Trouper" Foga for their tireless efforts at the booth. I'd also > like to thank Roman, Claude, Greg and Rich for lending a helping hand > when needed. We totaled 18 hours at the booth (plus setup) during the > two days (10 + 8) and spoke with...well, a LOT of people about the > foundation and its projects. We also had many interactions with other > foundations and companies about our project and theirs (and how they > could work together). > > While I was mostly sitting _behind_ the booth, I also got the > opportunity to take a few photos of it, which can be seen at > https://imgur.com/a/8beqB > > As for swag, I am both pleased and surprised to say we managed to run > out completely _2 hours before FOSDEM ended!_. We gave away more than > 800 powered-by stickers (760 or so), a few hundred project stickers, 40 > t-shirts, 100 pens, 50 key chains, 200 fridge magnets, 50 beer coasters, > a few mugs and around 30 badges. We clearly need more swag for next > FOSDEM ;) > > For the nicer items, we came up with a rule; "One conversation equals > one free item", which worked super well. Compared to other conferences, > even ApacheCon, we had a super busy booth, and only rarely had some free > time without anyone asking us a question about the foundation and/or > projects. We also had a nice cooperation going with the OpenOffice team, > who decided to stay for a bit longer (and thus fill some of the big > booth, so we didn't have to be 4 ASF people at it all the time, which > was nice). > > As for the lessons learned, we definitely need to start organizing > earlier next time, and get more of the prominent projects to join us - > we especially had a lot of queries about Mesos and Spark at the > conference. We would also really appreciate it if the foundation could > send Melissa (or someone else) to be there in an official capacity. > Doing this strictly as volunteers made us a bit jumpy as to who will > watch over what if one has to go to a talk. > > We also desperately need one or more brochures about the foundation and > its projects!!! > > The giant ASF banner has been passed on to the Stehmanns and will be > used in other conferences in Europe.
Daniel thank you very much for a very nice summary and your tireless efforts around FOSDEM. Here's to an even bigger ASF presence next year! Thanks, Roman.
