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.
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 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.
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.
[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.
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.
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]
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/
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