Open Day
From MelbLCAWiki
Open Day 2008
Things we did right
(For those who don't know me. When I mention "Paul" below, that's my husband who helped me stacks, but only for the last week before the conference, and during the day itself.)
Saturday
I think having the Open Day on the Saturday was a great idea. It allows parents to bring their children without school or work getting in the way. It did mean some vendors were uninterested in showing their stuff, but that's more fool them! Many delegates dropped in before running off to catch their flights.
Best-of talks and Lightning Talks
The talks were extremely popular with at least 200 people in the room all day. Making these talks open to the public and adjacent to the other activities was definitely a good idea.
Talks and Open Day separate
Having the talks in a separate room made it easier for visitors to find the talks, get to the talks, and also for the talks volume to easily be loud enough without disturbing neighbouring stands.
Leaving me off the Team list
This was both good and bad (see below). By leaving me off the Team list, I got to avoid reading (and possibly getting involved in) all the other stuff that was going on and being organised.
Friday afternoon pre-work
With some help from various volunteers, I was able to get more than half of the tables set up on Friday afternoon. This made it much easier to get the rest of the organisation done on the Saturday.
Hiring monitors/projectors
Having big monitors and bright projectors made stands more visually appealing. This added to the flow of people and their enjoyment and participation. I'd happily spend my budget on this kind of thing again.
Note: I hired 2 monitors out of the Open Day budget (one for the Gaming stands and one for the Open Source Design stand). Tim Ansell paid for a third (so that the Gaming stand had another) and Rusty Russell paid for a projector. There was also a big TV/monitor that had been hired by Steve (I think) and used in the registration area for most of the conference, this was loaned to Bill Farrow for the MythTV stand (rather than leave it sitting behind a table) and was also well appreciated. Tim's and Rusty's hires could have fit into the Open Day budget without me exceeding it, but they were willing to pay.
Printing Gutenberg CDs
Having free Open Day swag which didn't come with branding or catches, and which wasn't in the conference swag bag; made both delegates and visitors feel like they got something special for coming to Open Day.
For those who don't know. I printed the Best-of Gutenberg CD from April 2003, and the current Gutenberg Science Fiction CD. I created my own covers which I intend to release under CC as soon as I can work out where to store them.
Vegetarian food
All of the sandwiches and quiches were vegetarian (at my request). This made it very easy when I took a tray around to all the table organisers. They were also extremely yummy. (Vegan and Coeliac options were also available).
Whole fruit
Whole fruit during the full conference was awesome. Again, having whole fruit (in this case the plums) made it easy for me to take around to the table organisers.
Water
We did temporarily run out of water at one point, but Paul fixed that for me. Having lots of cold water was great. However it would have been more awesome to have some stands of cold water sprinkled around the open day area too.
Table organisation
I had most of the information for the power, network, tables, chairs beforehand and thus was able to create a floor plan in the week before the conference and got this up on the wiki. I still had last minute table requests, but it was helpful to know whether I had space for them or not.
Wiki
Having a wiki where other people could add table descriptions, requirements and the like, was awesome.
Table descriptions
Getting a paragraph description from all the tables was great. I didn't do enough with them though.
Inviting everyone
I sent out invites to all the speakers, all the mini-conf proposers and to all the Victorian IT-related user groups I knew of; inviting them to participate in Open Day. This gave us access to a number of stands I don't think I would have otherwise have asked for. I invited them to tell me how much they space they needed, and attempted to give them that number of tables, chairs etc. I gave everyone the number of tables they asked for (and had a few left over which were snatched up by Gaming) and that was great! I also sent another invite to the User Groups to come to the Open Day. I know that was instrumental in getting some of our guests.
Whiteboards
I hired a couple of whiteboards, and used one to keep the program information on. This enabled other volunteers to run the talks for me. :)
Things we/I did wrong
Saturday talk organisation
I wasn't aware that the talks plan for Saturday wasn't being organised by anyone in particular until Thursday afternoon. This is something that probably could have been planned before the conference, and probably should be. Letting people know early that there will be more lightning talk slots - for example - would have helped.
No record of attendees.
I wanted to provide a mini-survey to get an idea of who came, and what they did. I didn't have time, so it didn't get done.
Only me
I wasn't able to drag Paul in to assist me with Open Day until the week before the conference, and I didn't seek someone else to help me. Thus there were a lot of things I didn't do. I didn't seek more radio interviews, I didn't advertise to schools (much), I didn't accost Joseph Sirucka from Fairfax while he was wandering around on Tuesday to see if he'd be able to get something in before Saturday. I needed someone else to do Open Day publicity for me (thank you Donna and Sarah Stokely for what you did!) while I dealt with room plans, catering, and organisers.
Leaving me off the Team list
This was both good (see above) and bad. By leaving me off the Team list I didn't have a good idea what state the conference was at and I had difficulty getting answers to my questions. Additionally as I felt less involved I didn't know of advertising deadlines etc.
PA system
The PA system was set up as an after thought just before the visitors arrived. It wasn't audible in most places, but should have been.
Airflow
Several hundred bodies and a lot of computers, plus poor airflow made it hot. Had it been other than a mild day outside it would have been unbearable. I wouldn't be surprised if some visitors and stand holders think it got to unbearable pretty quickly. I suggest that unless Open Day is being held in something like a shopping centre (with massive air conditioners) that you hire industrial strength fans just in case.
Floor plan
I didn't receive the current floor plan of the Open Day area until a few days before the conference, and thus I had to re-work my floor plan to handle having less room than I'd anticipated. Having this sorted sooner would obviously have been a good thing.
In fact we hadn't decided on the area to use (inside or outside of the Union House) until only two weeks before the conference. Had we had a firm hold on this earlier, advertising and planning would have been a little easier.
Website
The floor plan and list of tables + descriptions went up on the main site on Wednesday or Thursday (of the conference). Obviously this should have been sooner, but I ran out of time.
Pre-registration
People told me the registration form was hard to find. Seeing as how we only got registrations for 50 people (23 registrations) there's probably something in that. Further, some people told me (before Open Day) that they'd registered, yet I never saw their registration, so I think there may have been a day or two when such things got lost.
Further, there wasn't any feedback upon successful or unsuccessful registration. No acknowledgement email, no "thank you for registering" on the page.
- Apparently the lack of feedback did actually indicate a temporary error, and that most people would have gotten feedback.
Rego desk
I put this in a dumb place (at the end of my desired traffic flow rather than at the start). This is clearly where people are going to want to go first (to get their cool stuff).
Conference schwag
I was under the impression that there was to be 50 conference bags for me to give away at Open Day. These never appeared. Instead I gave away the remaining drink bottles, some Builder-Au t-shirts, drink coolers and Catalyst(?) wire tidies. There weren't 50 of any of these, so the later people appeared, the less they got. Fortunately as I hadn't told people what to expect, I didn't see anyone get too upset.
Friday afternoon craziness
While I was setting those rooms, I had access to, up for Open Day, weird and wonderful things were arriving right into the middle of my space. I was not told what to expect, whether I could use it or if I was just to store it, etc etc. A banner came without a bag, (hopefully since found), OLPCs were hidden in the corner, spare boxes of programs hid under desks... I think it essential that the person on the receiving end of this kind of shift should be given a checklist of what's coming so that discrepancies can be spotted straight away.
Saturday afternoon craziness
As I didn't expect any of the Friday afternoon deliveries, I didn't expect to be responsible for that stuff at the Open Day tear-down. Fortunately a few committee members were around to take ownership of a lot of it, but things in the keynote area were left there, because I didn't know better. (I hardly visited the room all day). I had my own mental checklist of areas and things I had to take care of, and the keynote room wasn't on it. Hand-over of this kind of responsibility is essential.
Power and networking
I tried to get this right. I asked table organisers what they needed, and on average they wanted 1 powerboard of 4 ports per table they asked for. I tried to cluster all the tables asking for wired access in one area, but some people just said they needed "internet" without specifying wired or wireless (then wanted wired). What I didn't do was organise anyone to manage getting power out to all the tables. Steve Walsh and his team did an awesome job providing the network and I ended up dumping the electricity issue on Grant Diffey because he was standing near by. This should have been pre-arranged.
Things I wish I/we had done
- Had a "real" rego desk with a map of stands.
- Established a timetable for Saturday (with best-of talks left open) as part of the conference timetable. Arranged various short talks from the table organisers.
- Created a "passport" for all open day attendees to fill in. This would have included name, occupation, how they heard of the Open Day, level of experience with FOSS. The idea was that the Open Day would be divided up into 4 or 5 sections with all the tables in that section receiving an identical sheet of stickers or stamp. Visitors would then have to collect 4/5 stamps/stickers on their passport, and when they returned and handed it in (with the basic demographics on it) they'd get a small prize (such as the Gutenberg CDs)
- More advertising. I needed someone else managing the advertising for me.
- More water. It would have been good to have more drink fountains, or water canisters around the whole Open Day area rather than just the one fountain beside RedHat and the rest of the water in the Grand Buffet.
- Website. I didn't get most of the table descriptions until a week before the conference, and I didn't create a main conference-site page for this kind of information until during the conference. Getting at least the table names and a rough plan (or even just the empty floor plan) on the main site would have given me something to point reporters at.
- Signs. We needed more signs saying things like "Toilets in basement and Grand Buffet", "Food in Grand Buffet" and perhaps a handout of the days' activities (floor plan + talks schedule).
- Brochure. I didn't have most of the information until just before the conference, and in fact I was asked for tables at open day *during* the conference (I said no), but I should have been able to get enough information to put together a brochure anyway, that groups could then download and use to show off themselves and the day.
Feedback (and suggestions) from others
Vik from RepRap
Jacinta,
Thanks for all the assistance at LCA and the Open Day. It was an enormous success, and I'm sure the Catalyst guys were a little envious of the crowd that my end of the table accumulated!
Vik :v)
Bill Farrow, MythTV
Hi Jacinta, You did a fantastic job organising the Open Day this year, we had a ball showing off MythTV. Thanks for the extra TV, large LCD displays turned out to be better than the projector for our display :-)
Thoughts for next year:
1. Open Day advertising fliers should be available for download and printing at least two months before the event. This way they can be printed and distributed at LUGs and other forums that have a Christmas break.
2. Keep the public out of the venue prior to the official opening time. My stress level went up a few notches when people started asking us questions at 10.30am and we were only half way through setting up. I had to assign one team member to act as a buffer/decoy while we completed the set up.
3. Providing lunch was fantastic, especially with the Uni food shops being closed.
4. Was there any public Radio or Newspaper advertising ?
Thanks again, Bill
Mark Kowarsky, Gentoo
I think that having a more open space would benefit Open Day. Not sure if was considered, but perhaps the Keynote hall would have been good.
Another thought I had was to have Open Day at the beginning of the conference, rather than at the end. This would enable people to question/discuss/meet others with a similar interest, as well as possibly motivate people to 'do something cool' in open source during the conference.
Other than that, I can't say I have any suggestions. The variety of booths was large, quality of them high, people manning them also put in a solid job of promoting $PROJECT.
Cheers, Mark
Kanchana Wickremasinghe, FOSSMART
Dear Jacinta,
I would like to thank you on behalf of FOSSMART. Although we didn't get a chance to meet you personally, you have done a great job organizing the whole thing.
We really enjoyed it and also there were very interesting people who visited the stand and it was really fun.
We wish you a great year ahead and all the best with your company too !!!
Tim Ansell, Gaming stands
I had quite a bit of fun at the Open Day and we got a strong response at the Gaming stand.
My only real feedback is that the choice of venue was not optimal. Otherwise everything else was very good.
Ultimately the space was not big enough for the number of people who turned up. It was also very hard for people to get around, specially when people stopped to talk at stands.
I think probably a large open area, like a gym or expo hall might work better. There should also be sufficient space that is a large crowd collects around a stand it doesn't block people going past.
Leslie Hawton, Google
To give credit where credit is due, all your thanks should go to Cat, as she was responsible for making OpenDay happen for Google. I want to personally thank you for making the event so well organized; having all the resources known in advance and being able to add information to the wiki for all participants was invaluable.
Cat is still traveling, but we can put our heads together later and provide you with more detailed feedback. Take care and thank you again for all of your great work!
Cat Allman, Google
Thank *you* - and your volunteers - for setting up such a terrific event! What a crowd - you must be very pleased :)
Frankly it was so busy I didn't really have much to think of what might have been better - some fans to move the air around is the only thing I can think of, and it's not like you could plan the weather. All in all - GREAT job.
Thanks for having us :)
Ed Borland, RRR 'Byte Into IT' presenter
Congratulations on a super day, I had a ball and got to speak to heaps of people there. A great vibe, informative and lots of fun!
Nothing like some good publicity to get people through the door!
thanks and cheers,
ed :@)
Daniel Langenhan, attendee
I visited the open Day last Saturday in the Union house and I would like to share my impression of it with you.
It was a bloody disgrace to the Linux community in Australia.
How do I arrive at this? I visited Sydney 2007 and a lot of conferences in Germany and I never ever encountered such an unprofessional display. The rooms where badly ventilated (and reeked of sweat), no global players (exempt some very lost looking RedHat guys), unprofessional setup and no coordination.
As a contractor I did not have the leisure to take the time off to visit the events under the week but I heard that the scheduled talks where good. BUT (and that’s important) the OpenDay is how Linux presents itself to the people and what they saw where Nerds central. I don’t think we do yourself a favour if we show people that Linux is for Nerds only. How do we get more people to start a carrier in Linux if they can’t see that global players are actually interested in them and that Linux is not some exotic OS that no ones uses?
You are aware of the skill shortage in the marked here, you know how hard it is to get senior Linux/Solaris personnel currently. Getting Engineer grade personnel is currently a problem after IBM/Telstra sucked the marked dry in November.
I would strongly suggest to keep the OpenDay of the Conference more professional and business focused.
Testimonials YOU can use
Brianna Laugher, Wikipedia Foundation
Open Day was a great opportunity to meet lots of people, find out their experience with Wikipedia and help them with that, as well as introduce some aspects of it to people who would probably never otherwise find out about those things. As someone who is deeply involved with a project, getting that less-involved perspective is extremely useful and helpful - and attending an open day booth is way cheaper than getting a focus group. ;)
The day itself was exceptionally well-run with power, wireless, tables and chairs all provided. Congrats to all involved on that front.
The only comment I would make is perhaps it could have been six hours instead of four! The people traffic was non-stop.
Thanks again to Jacinta & everyone else involved with LCA for such an excellent event.
cheers :) Brianna
Mike Carden, attendee
My brother joined me for Open Day. Tony works in a Windows / Web / Database world in the education sector and has some familiarity with Linux and Free and Open Source Software, but mostly works in a Windows environment. So he's not exactly a 'non-geek' but is a knowledgeable person interested in learning more about what FOSS can offer.
We toured the Open Day exhibits and spoke with many of the exhibitors. Each of us had reasons to chat with the firewall guys, we couldn't drag Scott away from his CMS customers, and we enjoyed the kitchen-themed FPS game. Tony took on the 'Frets on Fire' game via a flaming wireless guitar and persisted to a high score.
We each dropped a coin in the Wikimedia commons box for a DVD of beautiful images and moved into an adjacent room to collect Ubuntu CDs and ogle at OLPC laptops. Tony is keen to use the XO's in his work but no brochures were there, so I gave him the URL. We moved on to watch Rusty abusing a Wiimote with an LCD projector and some infrared LEDs to play pong - where Rusty was laughing as hard as the audience. This is hard to appreciate without seeing it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkfiXCY55qU
Next a brief look at the PC recycling display where I realised what my garage is full of, then on to the Gentoo corner. Minor amusement ensued while I tried to rile the Gentoo people with 'riceboy' characterisations while extolling the virtues of binary packaging (which ended with me collecting a Gentoo sticker - aka I lost) before one of the Gentooers engaged us in a long chat. Geoff teaches game programming at RMIT and we had an excellent long talk ranging across all manner of topics. Thanks Geoff - we're still jealous of your job.
Thirsty and hungry (Where had 2 hours gone?) we headed downstairs in search of food and found to our surprise that Open Day had been catered. Yay! Food and chilled water - thanks LCA organisers!
We socialised a while in the hall over food then watched Doug Chapman's repeated robot talk (yay, my 'best-of' vote got up). Another trip around the displays where Jacinta cheerfully handed us each a pair of Gutenberg text CDs. The perfect thing for a couple of book-heads, but I'd love to find a nice ASCII reader for a Linux desktop other than a web browser or text editor.
Back to the hall for lightning talks where we were fortunate to see Paul Fenwick reprise his 'Fixing the Web' offering to yet more applause. He went past the three minutes this time but it was worth every moment. The Geek Toy give-aways were repeated and moments after I'd amused Tony by describing the 'rules' of the give-away game (who wants one of these? okay, it's yours!) - he was the proud new owner of a nice little Ethernet switch.
We walked away from Open Day with ideas buzzing back and forth. Tony's enthusiasm was obvious and the Hobart crew's showbag was getting serious attention. He mentioned a couple of times that he was jealous of those of us who'd been there all week, immersed in more of the same thing.
So I had an awesome LCA08 Open Day and it's my hope that in 09 I'll be geekin' out in Hobart for a week with my brother.
Requirements
I tried to give everyone as many tables, chairs and power boards as they requested. This lead to about:
- 46 tables (promised size about 1x2m)
- 100 chairs
- 48 power boards
I was free to use all the chairs and tables already available on the floor, which gave me about:
- 48 1x1m (ish) square tables
- 16 light-weight 1x2m tables
- More chairs than I could deal with (we hid the extras)
- 1 big meeting table
I generally substituted 3 small tables for most community groups requests of 1 table, and 5 for such requests of 2 tables. I then hired 10 heavy-weight 1x2 m tables and we were covered. The gaming stand probably ended up with 1.5 - 2 times as many tables as originally requested.
Monies spent
Room hire: $2600 for the lounges
$1800 for the Grand Buffet (required for the AGM, and then used by us for the rest of the day)
Security: $950
The above were not included in my budget of $5,000.
My costs were:
Catering $2500
Table hire - 10 tables $ 150
White board hire (2) $ 0 (turned out complimentary)
CD Duplication $ 917.40
Monitor + projector hire $1326.12 (includes extra monitor for Tim, and project for Rusty)
Table cloths $ 100.00 (plastic ones from a party supplies shop)
Masking tape $ 9.60
Postage $ 2.35
Parking for the day $ 5.00
Tim Ansell's monitor hire ($ 240) Tim paid for this
Total $4770.48 ($229.52 under budget!)
Total cost of Open Day + LA AGM $10,120.48.
The $2,500 catering was only supposed to be enough for 400 people. It all got eaten, eventually, but not until almost 4pm, and it was incredibly yummy, so clearly they overestimated how much food we'd need. I think this was partially because most people would have eaten lunch before they came.
Notes from Open Day 2007
This section is all the wiki notes from the 2007 Open Day, mainly for 2009 Open Day planning to have a record of both previous events in the one place.
http://linux.org.au/conf/2007/OpenDay.html for the archived page which included the rego slip at the bottom. (It doesn't look quite as noce as the original page for some reason).
Introduction
2007 was the first Open Day at lca. We had approximately 750 attendees, with about 300 being conference attendees. Most of our attendees came through the advertisements in the magazines (and we allowed people to register for a number of people, rather than individual registrations, so teachers could register their class for instance). We had a lot of kids nad young students attend which was brilliant.
Rego
We got everyone to register at the desk to get a food ticket, and the rego was directly in front of the door so we got most of the people coming through. There were some people on top of the 750 who registered who just came through, but if they wanted foor and a drink they had to get a ticket. We had the web registration list and the conference attendees list on the rego desk, and crossed people off as they came through to ensure multiple food tickets or counting wasn't happening. The first 300 web registrations got a bag which was also handled by rego. Speak to Suzy Hodge about rego as her team did an amazing job with it.
Utilities
All the PA, electrical gear were taken care of by the Uni (I think), and Benno organised our volunteers to sort out tables and moving of furniture. Ultimately, almost the whole Seven team ended up pitching in to get Open Day off the ground on the day as it was a lot of work putting it up and pulling it down during the normal conference. The 2008 idea of having it on a Saturday was much better.
Spiel
- Great demonstrations of fun technologies including rockets, cars, virtual 3D gaming, gaming consoles, developing movies and more!
- Interactive computers will be set up with fun software for attendees to play
- A large penguin will be giving out showbags and is also available for photographs
Open Day is a chance for the Open Source community to celebrate their successes and show off cool projects with posters and demonstrations. We invite people to apply for a poster booth as there are limited numbers.
Breakdown of table types
Tables
1X1m table with white tablecloth, up to 1x1m poster and goodies available on table (no extra furniture) for tables.
Sponsor tables
Space (with optional table or bring your own), standing banner and different coloured tablecloth for sponsors.
Major exhibits
IBM, HP, NICTA and Wayne (3D virtuali reality) get space.
Schedule
| 12:00 | Hall setup, booths and such | |
| 13:30 | Briefing for demonstrators | |
| 14:00 | Welcome and Introduction | |
| Hourly demos at each booth | ||
| 2 hour cycling talks | ||
| 18:00 | Free Dinner - Sausage Sizzle | |
| 21:00 | Close and packup |
Confirmed Exhibits
Tables
- Conrad Parker - Digital music showcase
- Andy Fitzsimon - Digital graphics showcase
- Bdale Garbee & Keith Packard - Home made rockets (of the flying variety) (RECONFIRMED)
- Matt Ebb - Blender 3D
- Rusty Russell - Wesnoth gaming booth
- Debian booth - anibal to confirm who
- Tim Ansell - Open Source & Gaming, also Doug Warouw - GP2X gaming console demos
- Tim Ansell - Open Source & Gaming (2 tables)
- Mikal Still - MythTV demo
- Steve Walsh - Monitoring and SMSing demo
- Vik Ollier - RepRap http://reprap.org/
- Rachel and Jeremy Fitzhardinge - Constellation <rachel@goop.org> (needs dark area) http://www.goop.org/constellation/
- OLPC talk and demo - Chris Blizzard
- Ubuntu - Melissa Draper
- Open Office - Jim Watson <jim@amarooas.com.au> (RECONFIRMED)
- James Purser and Jono Bacon - Podcasts for everyone
- The Sydney Linux User Group - Ken Wilson (0428 502 805)
- Albatross: Open UAV Project - Hugo Vincent & John Stowers (RECONFIRMED)
Cancelled:
- Mark Phillips - Embedded systems demo?
Sponsor Tables
- Babel
- Trolltech - Green phone
- Fujitsu
- Red Hat
- Novell
Space
- Wayne Piekarski - Virtual reality showcase
- NICTA - robots people & others, going to techfest to find some :)
- IBM - Playstation 3 on Linux (?)
- HP - ???
- Geoffrey Bennett - Open Source Segway
Need to keep 15 for sponsors (initial max guess number)
Yet to confirm Exhibits
- Robotic orchestra - NICTA - speak to Benno
2 hour cycling presentations
- Wayne Piekarski - Virtual reality showcase
- Conrad Parker - Digital music showcase
- Andy Fitzsimon - Digital graphics showcase
- Bdale Garbee & Keith Packard - Home made rockets (of the flying variety)
- Jono and James - Making a podcast with FOSS
- Tim Ansell - Open Source gaming
We thought that having short 10-15 mins talks on a cycling basis meant that people would likely hang around. It worked out reasonably well and people knew the talks well in advance to they could plan their trips.
Other Potential Events
- Questionnaire and draw with prizes - liase with poster people for useful questions :)
- Prize ceremony
these worked well, however we had the event at the end of Open Day, which for an evening event was too late.
Specific Attractions
- NICTA solar powered car (FOSS powered)
- Sony dogs
- $100 computers
We felt it important to have some big attractions as well as all the great FOSS stands to really draw people in.
Stuff to give out
- OpenCD??
- Information packs
- SFD 2007 posters
- Prizes
- Invited stands to put something in bag.
The first 300 attendees were given an lca bag, and this was advertised. As such before we even opened the doors we had about 100 people queuing up to get in. It was fantastic! This kind of announcement to your audience gets them in early and keeps it busy for the entire day, particularly if you put your awards thing towards the end.
Showbags is for about 300 bags, and we can say "the first 300 attendees get a showbag!" :) Need to invite sponsors and community groups (eg, SLUG, OSIA) to put stuff in bags.
Target audience
- Young geeks
- "It's not just you" :) targeting families of geeks
- Teachers - and their classrooms (specifically high school)
- University students
- Selective schools
- Partners programme
Marketing
Places to advertise
- Atomic, gaming magazines and other magazines - got a full page ad with them
- UNSW and other summer schools - had posters put up
- Telegraphs and SMH "what to do in the holidays" - done
- Uni Computer Clubs - done
- School magazines - Education Today, Schooldays - got full page ads in both
- Send to existing lists of students
- Got full page ad in Linux Magazine - contra
- Also, Open Day was easily visible on our front page as we knew people interested in Open Day had to be able to find the page immediately and kind of seperately from the lca foo.
Marketing Plan
- Posters up at the uni from october (at the latest)
- Pamphlets at Software Freedom Day
- A few small teams to go through Randwick and around uni campuses the week before with information and posters
It is really important to have up on the website the tables, specific attractions and the talk schedule well in advance so people can plan their visit. Also, the "first 200 get blah" trick works well.
Venue information
http://www.sydneypartyshop.com.au/ for tablecloths, balloons and decorations
A big airy environment is great where possible, also try to plan the venue to actually get crowd flow. In Sydney we had a horseshoe shape which was perfect as we kept people moving through.
Food
Pie's and drinks for 600 were catered with drinks. We also had several big water fountains distributed throughout Open Day.
Furniture
- Existing tables and chairs for poster sessions (to confirm with Benno)
- Need so sort out furniture for large displays
- Need data projector, screen and chairs for talks display
- Everyone brought their own
We would suggest hiring (or purchasing and reselling) loads of largish screens.
Branding
- Poster booths will have up to one a3 sized poster hanging on the front of the tables with a computer or gadget on the table (tablecloths and such welcome). Table is only 800x800mm
- Sponsor tables are larger and they can also have a standing banner, and 2x1 banner hanging behind the stand
I suggest you have preprinted posters for each stand in case they don't bring their own so there is _something_ to identify them by.
Ghost Notes
- "it's bigger than my bedroom"
- "hacking with the stars"
- free access is important
- give hackers a chance to 'pimp my project'
- explicitly non-commercial, but sponsors allowed. Non sponsor companies approached us and we politely declined as it was inappropriate.
- put it into your "what to do in your holidays" guides
- start at 2, run til 8
- 20 minute slots - centre stage
Budget
These figures are only a first draft.
| Venue | Base Venue cost | $1500 | ||
| Dinner | $1500 | for ~300 people | ||
| Equipment/furniture | $500 | |||
| Promotions | Pamphlets | $200 | ||
| Prizes | $200 | |||
| Advertising | $3000 | |||
| Signage | $200 | |||
| Schwag | Showbags | $600 | ||
| Printing | $200 |
Total: $7900
We paid for some full page ads in school/education magazines. The rest was contra or our own efforts.
---
PiaWaugh
