On Wed, Jun 30, 1999 at 05:53:48PM -0700, Mike Higashi wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 30, 1999 at 03:20:38PM -0700, G. Crimp wrote:
>
> > On Wed, Jun 30, 1999 at 04:27:51PM -0500, David Champion wrote:
> >
> > > Question: since we have corporate sponsors who already have booths, any
> > > chance we can get in with one of them?
> >
> > I think this would be a much more efficient. Organizing a booth
> > requires a lot of energy and organization. Organizing a booth at LinuxWorld
> > to advertise an event like LDD is like organizing two events at once.
> > Whereas I think a lot of people will show up to a Linux Demo Day, I don't
> > think that we would get much traffic at a larger show devoted to Linux. I
> > was at the last Linux Demo Day. Most people hang around the big name booths
> > that have big flashy displays with Harley Davidson motorbikes and Volkswagon
> > Beetles, and that give out free CD and various Linux toys. The return we
> > would get for our investment is minimal.
>
> Well, remember what the target audience would be at LinuxWorld. It won't
> be the average expo attendee, instead it would be the other exhibitors,
> user group officers, and the press.
>
I don't think we need a booth to contact other exhibitors. In fact,
I don't think that a show is a great place to be soliciting support from
vendors. They are already busy trying to flog their wares, make contacts,
build their business. Everyone is running around nuts at shows. Most will
not be terribly well disposed to dealing with some loose group coming around
looking for handouts. But, once again, we don't need a booth for that
anyway.
I don't think it is a great place to meet the press either. My
experience trying to get coverage for Debian was that most rush in and rush
out looking for the quick story that will help sell their paper or their
show. Some, usually smaller or specialty productions may be interested, but
most want the sexy shot of the sexy booth with lots of fancy equipment.
It would be a good place to put the word out to potential LDD
attendees or other participants such as the LUG reps you mention. I don't
think we need a booth of our own from them. In fact, I don't think many
of either group would visit our booth. We get far better coverage by either
having someone present in sponsors' booths, or having some posters or
pamphlets available there.
> During the expo it would be great if one or two volunteers could go
> around to the other exhibitors and solicit materials, such as CD-ROMS,
> for redistribution to the participating user groups. If LDD had space
> of its own, we could then use it as a drop-off point for exhibitors
> who want to donate materials. If we could get a sponsor to pay for
> shipping, the LDD volunteers could then repackage any materials as in
> comes in to the booth. Then at the close of the show, it would all be
> shipped out to the LUGs.
Good idea, but I don't think we have the organizational structure to
deal with this. Who would you distribute it to ? How would you keep track
of all the hundreds of user groups around the world who might yet come on
line ? I think it would be far easier for each local organization putting
together some LDD activity for their community to look after such details
themselves. Especially those outside of the US who would have to deal with
import tariffs and duty on shipments coming from US companies.
>
> The disadvantage of using part of a vendor's booth is that you lose the
> signage that identifies you as a separate entity. In addition, the larger
> booths that could accommodate us are designed well in advance, and we
> wouldn't have any say in how much space we have or how we could use it
> (i.e., for storage or otherwise).
>
Gerald
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