OK long post, LOCATION.
At vfxweb.com which is at 2221 Pegasus Way NE. Turn North off McKnight Blvd onto McCall Way ( between the Aero Museum and Tim Horton's ) Then turn right as if going to Tim's, go past Tim's and immediately left onto Pegasus Way, go past the warehouse with the outline of the Plane on it and its the next one on the right, beside the car parts place. ( I'll get the name of that later ) Should be lots of parking on the street and car park on Saturdays, I'll contact the other companies around there and make sure we don't step on any toes. TIME & DATE Its on Saturday 18th Oct 2003, probably 10am to 5pm though time isn't fixed yet and they will probably be flexible about kicking us out. They tend to keep weird hours themselves SETTING Its the front of there store which will have room for at least 6 tables maybe up to 8 or 9 but I want to keep enough circulation room. There is plenty of power and at least 8 wall mounted outlets for net access, we may be able to split that up for more if necessary. They have a wireless point and will probably open that up to us as well ( Have to check on that ) PLANS We will of course be able to install the Distribution of choice on anyones machine, in addition the idea of a mini presentation to the curious ( Or Brave? ) about LFS or Gentoo etc. is great, go for it! I would suggest picking one so as to avoid to much confusion. Paul has said there should be no trouble setting up 4-5 reasonable spec machines from stock with monitors ( maybe printers? ) with installed and configured versions of SuSE, Mandrake, Red Hat, Libranet? etc. I will set up SuSE and if someone can step forward to do the others? I hope to be able to do that on Wed, Thus, or Friday evenings after work. There is plenty of wall space so I wonder if we can come up with a couple of posters saying what Linux and Open Source is, why choice is good and why people are seeing such a confusion of Distros etc. the Preinstalled machines will be on the shelving around the wall leaving space for the install tables. ***POINT! I don't see anything wrong with this, i suggested Paul work out a price for the preinstalled machines and stick it on them with the clear explanation that anybody was quite free to install on their own machine of course with no charge. Any objections?*** I think this will bring it home to people who have just wandered in from curiosity that they can get a *Complete* setup with all necessary software for the price of a retail copy of WinXP Pro. Can we do some badges for those willing to wear them Saying, CLUGG, your name and "ASK ME" ? I would like it if we can get several copies of the various distros to give with the installed machines. i am going to buy a stack of discs to do some concentrated burning and printing of SuSE. Does anybody want to take some and do Mandrake, RedHat etc? Wednesdays presentation on CL cd burning gave me an idea, if Paul can put together a machine with 3 burners we can set up a burning station to mass produce the copies? DONATIONS Can I have the Executives response to this? A donation jar marked " completely voluntary" CLUGG donations, or if that is not regarded as legal or desirable then for Cancer Research? The idea is if someone gets their machine set up they can show their appreciation. No big deal, no pushing just stuck up on the counter somewhere. ITEMS to DEAL WITH Chairs, we have enough tables but if anybody has folding or camp chairs please come forward! I suggest anybody lending stuff puts a piece of masking tape on the back with your name. Posters, anybody want to volunteer? Badges, I can probably do them if the exec thinks its a good idea and people step up to wear them. Coffee, I can get at least one machine , I will get a sack of decent stuff from Starbucks and cream Paul may step up for cups etc I will ask. anybody got another machine they can bring? donations of coffee, cream, cookies? Whatever else I have forgotten. ADVERTISING Suggest we put it in the paper as for the meetings, also on the website obviously and dropping it on a couple of the local newsgroups, calgary for sale, calgary announce etc. I dont want to go nuts here, the last few installfests have been getting full and I think we could easily swamp this bigger location. If it does get as popular as I think it might maybe we can scrounge some warehouse space and try for a real big one with a media blitz? COMMENTS A lot of my thinking here is that we do not make it very easy to drop in, get a taste and try out some distros and chat without the less computer literate getting somewhat swamped with what is to them confusion. This is not to say we aren't friendly just that for the less geeky it can be all a blur. Whaddaya think? -- Graham "A person is smart. People are dumb, dangerous, panicky animals and you know it." Agent K, Men in Black.
