On 8/25/05, Jacqueline McNally <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Ian Lynch wrote: > > On Thu, 2005-08-25 at 12:36 +0800, Jacqueline McNally wrote: > > > > > >> There were too few people able to commit promised resources to the > >> previous event. > > > > > > I thnk the only thing we really lacked was artwork etc for the booth. > > And I still have lots of long threads in my mail box from volunteers > returning from DLS, saying that they didn't have "this" and didn't have > "that" - none of which they prepared to take with them prior to the event.
How about I try to prepare. With the time frame I had with the NEA conference I was able to get a sponsor and some items that were usable for the booth. All we can do is try. > > > I supplied this for the NEA conference and that was just me and Adam > > and I think was fairly effective. > > I consider two people as the bare minimum, and if the booth attracts a > lot of traffic not enough. It is also hard work :) Also, if people wish > to contribute to the event either by attendance or in materials they > need to know whether they are contributing to OpenOffice.org and or > another vendor/organisation. > > Adam and yourself were able to wear both the INGOTs and OpenOffice.org > hats comfortably. I realize how much work this will take that's why I was wanting to get an early start. As far as contributing they would be contributing to OpenOffice on this one. INGOTs was a good fit for the NEA conference. I don't know if it is a good fit for DLS, that's up to Ian, but I feel it is better word of mouth there. I don't look at sponsorship for the sake of sponsoring. I look at it from a cross marketing situation. So I would approach sponsors that I feel it will benefit them to sponsor. > > > > >> I think that unless there really IS a core body of people to make > >> it happen, then these few resources are probably better channelled > >> into other activities such as OOoCon 2005. > > > > > > I think there is such a core and its quite some time off, well after > > OOoCon 2005. Adam isn't going to OOoCon and has volunteered to > > coordinate things so I can't see that detracting from OOoCon2005. I > > doubt Jason is making the trip to Europe either. Ryan? That gives a > > definite lead group that won't detract from the main conference. > > I don't think simply turning up is effective. When an organisation takes > a booth at a conference, it is not that one event that is marketing. > There is the lead up press releases and direct marketing to their > clients to invite them to the booth. > Agreed, and that's something we have to work on. > > Personally I'll contribute, I'm not 100% sure I can attend though but > > I'll make the effort because we need events like this outside > > Europe. > > We do attend events outside Europe, but perhaps just not "like this". > Michael Robertson has said previously that they didn't wish to sponsor > OOoCon2004 as it was not an area they wished to tackle at that time. Then why did they sponsor us at DLS 2005? Really because they are a US company as opposed to a global company. They market still locally and it costs them very little to sponsor us for their conference. I still got a bite for the NEA conference from them. I think they are interested in sponsoring, but they want the best bang for their buck. The DLS gives them that. > > [snipped the reasons why we attend conferences] > > > I don't think we can just rely on one conference a year in one place. > > > We don't, but I would add that if we don't give some special preference > to OOoCon, then many of the reasons you listed as to "why attend" are > rather moot. I agree that OOoCon gets special preference, but not all companies can afford to fly someone out to Europe and that's the ONLY place OOoCon is at. I feel the US market is important to OpenOffice, maybe that's because I live here, but we need a stronger presence here and the DLS is a way to do it. > > > So maybe we should plan a specific set of events that we target to > > attend to provide a geographical spread and also a spread of time of > > attendance. > > This happens to a certain extent, but new volunteers will not know this > as they are only documented throughout this mail archive now. This is > what the Events page is about. Note to self: Get this up ASAP. > > > We plan early and raise money if necessary to make sure they happen. > > I initiated the 100 Club for OOoRegiCon > (http://marketing.openoffice.org/conference/regicon/100club.html). It > was not well supported, and one of the reasons was that people > (particularly organisations) felt that they were sponsoring individuals > rather than OpenOffice.org. I thought I was quite clear that it was to > assist volunteers to get to OOoRegiCon, but they said the messaging was > confused. Also, PayPal was an obstacle to some firms. Something to work on for this year. > > Anyway, I still feel it comes back to a core team for each event to do > this. If enough people do not get visual in the physical (i.e. away from > their keyboards) to do this and it boils down to a couple of people then > I find it difficult to justify attempting to engage 100s of silent > members and subscribers with the activity. > > I'll get an Events page up, but discussion about specific events needs > to be on [EMAIL PROTECTED] This has been cross posted to there. > > All the best > Jacqueline McNally > Lead, OpenOffice.org Marketing Project > > -- > OOo in Slovenia > OpenOffice.org Conference 2005 > 28th - 30th September, Koper - Capodistria, Slovenia > http://marketing.openoffice.org/conference/ > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > -- Adam Moore Community Volunteer OOo blog: AdamMooreOOo.blogspot.com
