9:18 p.m.
Thanks for sharing this on the CommBlog, Andrew! It's making the rounds
on the social media outlets now. :)
https://twitter.com/fedoracommunity/status/669339803209478144
Favorites and retweets welcome for those on Twitter!
--
Cheers,
Justin W. Flory
jflory7(a)gmail.com
On 11/24/2015 09:16 PM, Andrew Ward wrote:
All,
Below is the report for the recent event in Orlando Florida. Also
attached is the PDF format that includes photos. You can also read the
write up
on the event page as well. Report is also located here;
https://communityblog.fedoraproject.org/
--------------------------------------------------------
Fossetcon 2015 Orlando Florida Lake Buena Vista Hilton 19 – 21 November
2015
Ambassadors Report for Andrew Ward (award3535) and Julie Ward (jward78)
The event is the second annual event in Orlando and the surrounding
areas. The Free/Libre and open source software expo/technology
conference (FOSSETCON)
was based upon free open and diverse expressions within the community.
The events main focus was directed on the open and free aspect of
software and technology.
The event’s organizer Mr. Bryan Smith is a very enthusiastic and
dedicated individual that strived for nothing less in the conference.
We arrived in the area early Friday morning on the 20th to set up for
the Expo portion of the conference. The first day comprised of training
and talk sessions without any
distractions from expo booths. After checking in with the registration
booth, Bryan and discussed the expected attendance and what he expected
from the attendees this year.
We also discussed the advantages of this conference over the larger and
more expensive conventions that are currently the standard. He had some
good points.
We also discussed why the venue was changed from the previous year’s
event. There were some complaints about the amount of time for meal
breaks and the
availability of other dining areas outside of the hotels available
facilities. Bryan relocated the event to a more fluid area with access
to many varieties and closer to
popular attractions for after hour’s entertainment. A wise decision in
my opinion to move the event to the Hilton, everything you could think
of for foods was a
5 minute walk to a variety of restaurants and 10 minute drive to even more.
We had the booth set up prior to 8 a.m. and were ready to roll. I would
like to throw out a thank you to Ruth Suehle for dropping off some extra
swag.
It made the booth more attractive to those who really had an interest
in the product and those who weren’t but would listen to pitch. It is
fact that the more
appealing your table is, the more you will draw towards it. People in
general will not visit your area if you have nothing to draw them in. By
placing a few
different items on the table sure made a difference in who appeared in
front of you. I could tell just from the simple fact that those who were
interested
in Fedora or who were just interested in getting free items, but here is
where the separation of might and means began. In order to get the more
eye
appealing items you had to answer a trivia question or historic question
regarding Fedora, and if you showed any general interest in the product,
you
would be successful in receiving the swag. The other usual items were
available and were also popular with the Fedora enthusiasts, but it was
the more
eye appealing items that brought the crowd to the table. Again thank you
Ruth Suehle.
Once the day began, the first sessions got underway and the expo area
became quiet. Gave us a few minutes to restock the items and get some
coffee.
There were quite a lot of new faces this year than from the previous
year and the repeats as well. We went through an entire box of media the
four hours of the
event, then an additional half a box the rest of the afternoon. Our
success was not gauged alone by the amount of media disturbed but by
inquiring the customers
about the product and if they currently use Fedora. We were quite
surprised on how many have already downloaded and currently use Fedora.
Two thirds of the individuals we talked to were already using Fedora and
was absolutely satisfied with the product and the vision of where we
were headed.
Of course you always have those hardline individuals that will only use
what flavor of Linux they are on currently. We did in fact meet a few of
those individuals
that wouldn’t even come towards the booth. So when approached, they
would either tell us they were not interested or they would make
statements of why
should I change from what I am running. We did have one individual that
approached me on Friday that asked me tell me why I should change, and
show me the
difference from Ubuntu. I asked one question right back, how do you feel
about technical/customer support if you have a problem, and how easy is
it to get a
question answered when you need it? This person’s interest I now had.
How much documentation and resources do you have with the other
distribution?
How many different desktops do they support? How many specialized models
do they have? His reply was there were only interested in the cellular
device issues.
After a few minutes I had this person looking at our webpages,
documentation, help sections, and lists of individuals willing to help
at a moment’s notice.
He walked away from the table without a word and walked down to the
other table (Ubuntu) and spent about 5 minutes there. He then walked
back and said,
ok you sold me, and may I take the media. I replied with yes of course
as many as you would like, and then handed the young man a T shirt, USB
Key, and one of
the few remaining ball caps. He smiled and said thank you. And just
before he left I also showed the Labs directory to him as well. He was
quite impressed and
said that he did not know those existed. This seems to be the theme I
have noticed from Conference/Festivals that at least a few individuals
have left what they
believed in for many years because of either a lack of support or
willingness to grow with the times expanding (leading as well) with
their own distributions.
The role we as ambassadors carry is critical to the success of Fedora in
communicating with customers and the market.
As the day went on, we continued to have a steady stream of faces at the
booth as well as some repeat customers asking more questions and sharing
their
experiences with Fedora. By the end of the first day I had thought the
accomplishments were excellent with respect to introducing Fedora to new
users and
hopefully those who were not quite convinced to at least try the media.
Starting the second expo day, the booth was ready to go the next morning
at 9 a.m., although there was a schedule change that the expo area was
not going to open
until 10 a.m. we were ready non the less. As the second day began I
expected to see more attendance than the previous day’s events. We saw a
lot of the same faces
we saw the day before, and just a few new faces in the crowd. There was
two individuals unexpectedly asked if they could get involved in the
project. We gladly took
their information and I will be contacting them shortly on how and what
they are interest is within the project. One individual is from the
Miami area and got wind
of this event and made the 5 hour trip up to attend the conference, and
was an avid Fedora user since FC1. This individual also stated that
there is nothing for Linux
users in their area other than the south Florida LUG in the area. There
was no advertisement for FOSSETCON in the area as well. He is from
Miami and can’t wait to
get involved with the project. As the day moved along the expo hall
became less populated and gave us the chance to really talk with the
event organizer. We focused
in on a very sensitive subject of attendance and the LUGs. The event had
invited several LUGs from Florida and Georgia. One point that was
discussed is that there
were some LUGs that declined to even think about recommending the event
with their users. That is a trend that I saw in the
Jacksonville Florida LUG. Some of the chairs of the group didn’t think
that any other Linux outside of what they were using was even
considered. The trends of LUGs
loosing members are directly related to diversity and open minded
individuals lack thereof. There seems to be a changing trend, new
leaders are getting involved and
diversifying. I in fact saw this same response with a few hard lined
users, it is not what they are using, and no one should use it around
them or within the group.
In my experience I have tried just about everything out there, and
settled on the one that suited me the best, not short changing everyone
else.
As the second day began to wind down, the crowd became smaller within
the expo hall. I begun to look at what was left for media, shirts, and
the amount of items I gave
away over the weekend. Since most of the people we talked to downloaded
the media on a regular basis, we had given away 250 pieces of media,
approximately 40 USB Keys,
stickers and case badges were too numerous to count, and the T-shirts we
only had about 5 left.
During the event I also asked individuals if they would fill out a
voluntary questionnaire with a few general questions and a few specific.
Most declined but it did get a few to fill them out.
To summarize the event from the view at the expo booths attendance was
twice the amount from the previous year’s event and a pleasant attitude
of all staff members.
The feedback on talks/training was also very positive as well as
informative. Many of the comments from the keynotes were also
impressive. I think that FOSSETCON
will continue to grow with time and popularity. The event has the
possibility of great things and larger attendance just needs a little
larger advertisement/information dissemination.
I plan to attend next year’s event as well.
--
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