OSCON 2011
OSCON was kind enough to grant us a booth, a session pass, and a few exhibitor passes for the 2011 conference.
What Went Well
We had a lot of interest from a lot of people from all over the world. I think we got our name out to a number of people who can do good things with it and will promote it in their own lives. Our booth looked fantastic, especially considering the lack of notice and prep time we had.
Thanks and Pictures
Things to prepare for next year
I think we should assume that we'll be at OSCON next year and start preparing in advance, rather than be caught by surprise when they let us know we're in at the last minute. Here are some of the things we can do:
Swag
- T-Shirts! Obvious, but very important. We need lots of t-shirts in every size and color. I think selling them was a good choice; $10 is cheap enough that many people bought it, high enough to cover our costs, and nonzero enough to make people value them a little bit more than the freebies elsewhere (IMHO).
- Stickers! We did very well on this: we gave away lots and had lots left.
- Bags! Several people independently suggested (or complained about a lack of) swag bags. Our shopping bags could do the trick.
- DBAN CDs! There were a few people who were asking about donating, and in particular data security; we give them away in the store, so we should give them away at OSCON.
- Thumb drives! We had these at the 10th Anniversary party. We could include Free Geek literature, media, and maybe a bootable Ubuntu. Sell or give away? Probably depends on how much it costs us.
Partnering
We did this a little bit with PLUG, at least in part because we were booth neighbors, but I would like to have a bit more cross-promotion.
- Current relationships:
- OSU OSL – we use them for our installs, and Curt Pederson is on our board
- PLUG – we host PLUG meetings
- Perl Foundation? - we host Perlmongers meetings, I'm not sure if that's the same thing
- Other groups we host, such as PostgreSQL, Linux Clinic, and so on (who may not be at the conference, but whom we should promote anyway)
- Vendors we use:
- HP – switches and printers
- Dell – servers
- Ubuntu – on nearly every computer we build
- Xen.org – on our servers
- Apache – on our servers
- SugarCRM – we're considering using them
- Nonprofits
- Linux Fund – we've granted several strange and wonderful things to them over the years
- Kids With Computers? - did we grant something to them? If not, should we offer?
- Democracy Lab? - they expressed an interest in working with us
- Other nonprofits – we can offer them a grant if/when we get the list of exhibitors, and request permission to cross-promote
Exchanging t-shirts and signs might be mutually beneficial.
Literature
There are two areas where we didn't have literature that people wanted.
The most frequent question I heard was, “Are you in <city>?” We had a few sheets of paper that we could refer to so that we could start to answer that question, but personally, I felt woefully under prepared on this subject. It would also be nice if someone (mythical, productive person that that is) did some research on east coast recycling centers and provided alternatives, because that seems to be an underserved area. I also feel like we should get in contact with the other Free Geeks a few weeks before the event and give them a heads up, double-check how they're doing, and have their contact info ready to go.
The other pamphlet I felt would have been useful would inform potential corporate donors about how to donate: things like Jessa's email address, tax information, drive security, shipping policies (which I don't believe have been fully developed yet), and so on. An easy, all-in-one brochure could only help, I think. In related news, we ran a bit low on Jessa's business cards, which this could address.
Tours
We could have a series of prescheduled tours over the course of the expo, and transportation between OSCON and Free Geek. I'm not sure how many people would participate, but I think those who do would be fairly completely sold. Given the audience, the tours would have to be given by (or include a portion with) people familiar with both the technical side of Free Geek (that is, software, hardware, specs, etc) and the social side (volunteers, partnerships, grants, and so on).
Party!
As I understand it, we had lots of beer left over from the summer party this year, and having OSCON folks over to drink and eat would be a good way to promote Free Geek. Again, transportation would be needed, and perhaps this could be tied to the tours: take a tour, then you get beer.
This to do Differently Next Year
Make sure to talk to the people in every single booth! People can be potential donors, potential grant recipients, and potential promoters for Free Geek. At least one company who did not attend OSCON was referred to us by an exhibitor. We can learn about what the exhibitors are doing as well as promote Free Geek, plus lots of places give out free stuff, so... Use the map as a checklist.
Chairs in the booth: while the camping look was kind of interesting, I think having chairs in made the booth a bit too crowded and swung a bit too far towards the unprofessional side of the spectrum.
Booth layout: the table was essential for giving out stickers, brochures, and for selling t-shirts, but I feel like the placement kind of closed the booth off. Many of the more interesting booths at OSCON were very open and placed the table or tables along the walls, which is much better than having a barrier between us and attendees. 10' x 10' is not a large space, but there should be a way to balance between open and crowded.