Re: Linux Presentation Day, timing.

I agree with Patrick on almost every point. Given the open-endedness of
the date official, Jan 7 is as good as anything. There's nothing
preventing us from doing it again in April and October, if those turn
out to be the months for the US first and second events. By doing it
1/7, we serve as a prototype for those who do it later: They can
reproduce what we do well, and stay away from our mistakes.

Now that the hall has adequate Internet connectivity, this is a chance
to introduce all Linux interests in Orlando to the new,
guaranteed-Internet Installfest hall.

Now that the date is set at 1/7, we have one heck of a challenge
adequately publicizing this thing in only 3 weeks. Here are some
organizations I think need to be fully briefed on this:

* UCF
* Valencia College
* Seminole State College
* Familab (maker club)
* Big gaming stores like Cool Stuff Games in Maitland
* All computer language groups
	* Both Python groups
	* ORUG
	* The Node.JS "meetup"
	* The Wordpress "meetup"
	* OJUG

Does anyone have other ideas for publicizing this?

I commit to handling Seminole State and Familab. Can anyone else step
forward and commit to handling one, both before and after the holidays?

Here's a question for all of you. When publicizing to a college, which
departments do we publicize to? Comp-Sci is obvious, but that's just
one. There could be ten or twenty more: Who knows: Maybe lots of people
in the English Department might be interested in an alternative to
Windows and Mac.

Does anyone have an "in" at UCF? We need somebody like you!

Thanks,

SteveT



On Fri, 9 Dec 2016 10:58:05 -0500
Patrick via Tech <[email protected]> wrote:

> A major reason for our dates of meetings is that we rent the hall,
> that can have 100 persons, for all day every month on the First
> Saturday, from 9AM to 5PM.
> 
> But, a good reason to host a joint Linux Users Group meeting on
> January 7th, 2017, is to start off the New Year with announcements,
> labs, and networking of all who desire to teach, learn, meet others,
> and it is our continued effort, since 2002, to also be open to the
> attendance of all who are wanting to participate throughout the
> entire year!
> 
> I was late in opening up, only one time, because I had just had Open 
> Heart Surgery, on Feb. 1st, and opened the doors 6th, 2010, at 10 AM.
> 
> I am dedicated to helping everyone convert their computers to
> GNU/Linux and all the FLOSS that is available.
> 
> Thank you all, for your efforts and help!
> 
> 
> On 12/09/2016 02:07 AM, Hauke Laging wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > Am Donnerstag, 8. Dezember 2016, 15:54:28 CET schrieb Steve Litt:
> >  
> >> Here in Orlando, Enrique Gomez, Patrick Berry and I have set up
> >> a Linux Presentation Day for 1/7/2017.  
> > that is great but you might reconsider the date; especially...
> >  
> >> Radios using Linux. Now we need to publicize.  
> > ...for this reason.
> >
> >  
> >> I just read that you wanted these Linux Presentation Days to happen
> >> approximately all on the same day, but you didn't specify that
> >> day. A lot seem to happen in October.  
> > We do not set international dates any more because that creates
> > more problems than it solves. But there is an international time
> > frame: The events shall be in April / May and October / November.
> >
> > The interested organizations in the US should agree on an "official
> > date" for the US. That is the date you tell the nationwide media.
> > Those events which cannot be on that date should rather be after
> > that date than before because only that way you can profit from
> > nationwide media coverage (which is most probable in the IT media).
> >
> > Based on the current responses I assume there will be 20 to 50 US
> > locations for the first event. For comparison: We had 65 locations
> > in Germany for our first nationwide event. Italy had 20 but they
> > have a similar event in autumn with nearly 100 cities. The
> > next-highest numbers are five cities in France and Poland. In order
> > to have a really comprehensive event which is close to most of the
> > population and has enough capacity for visitors in the large cities
> > I assume we need about 1,000 locations in Germany. Due to the other
> > level of distance problems that adds up to probably rather 5,000
> > than 3,000 in the US.
> >
> > The local media seems not to care much about that a local event is
> > part of something really big but the nationwide media needs to be
> > impressed by the number of countries, national locations and what
> > you are heading for with this. Doesn't work in Germany yet but the
> > Italians are on TV and covered by nationwide newspapers.
> >
> >  
> >> I imagine the Orlando Linux Presentation Day will be the first of
> >> 2017. Are there any special things we can do to make things easier
> >> for Linux Presentation Days that come later? Any suggestions for
> >> getting publicity, and who to try to attract as our audience?  
> > If you want to stick with your January date then I would suggest to
> > plan for a small event. That is less effort and stress and you make
> > some experience wich allows you to have a bigger event in April /
> > May with little effort. And you could consult the other US
> > locations.
> >
> > We have learnt that defining a target audience doesn't make tthem
> > the majority of visitors... We don't know what the reason is but
> > many German hosts were surprised that the majority of visitors were
> > men from 40 to 60. I have heard similar from abroad. That may but
> > need not turn out similar in the US. After all the LUG response to
> > my mails differs incredibly from the rest of the world.
> >
> > It's probably a matter of attitude whether you decide
> >
> > a) to focus the "advertising" on men from 40 to 60 because you
> > might get the most visitors this way
> >
> > or
> >
> > b) focus on all other groups because you would like the visitors be
> > closer to the population average...
> >
> > We have also leant that posters and flyers in the public have
> > hardly any effect; same for online advertising. That may change
> > when the event name is better known. Two things are known to work
> > great:
> >
> > a) media coverage (how surprising...)
> >
> > b) Posters in a public location for the event (e.g. a public
> > library).
> >
> > It can help a lot to cooperate with organizations which have good
> > access to the local media like adult education centers (the
> > second-largest group of hosting organizations in Germany) or
> > universities. A library may not have good access to the media  but
> > if you have 50 visitors then it may not feel like a problem that
> > most of them are regular library visitors. And for the next event
> > you can tell the media that the former event had 50 visitors...
> >
> > In Germany we prepare a press release template for the local media.
> > Meanwhile we have learnt that the press release for local media
> > should be very different from that for nationwide media because you
> > have to explain to the nationwide media why the LPD is such a great
> > event but the local media are scred off by too much text. If the
> > national organizers manage to raise some sponsor money then it may
> > be possible to have a press agency write (and spread) the press
> > release. In April 2017 the support period for Windows Vista ends.
> > My impression is that nobody here uses Vista any more but if the
> > non-IT media cover that then it might be a good idea to spread a
> > press release at that time.
> >
> >
> > CU
> >
> > Hauke  
> 


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