[Ambassadors] Event in Aveiro, Portugal

[Nelson Marques]

 Hi all,

 I am planning an event to perform in Aveiro, Portugal. So far, this is
what I thought about it:

 - 2 day event (to be decided friday/saturday or saturday/sunday)
 - Each day will the following schedule: morning (9:30/12:30), afternoon
14:30 18:00). I'm considering night time as well, but that depends on
further decisions. For now skipping it.

 For a small background this is what I have the following to point:

 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universidade_de_Aveiro
 - http://www.ptinovacao.pt
 - http://www.portugaltelecom.pt
 - http://www.ipam.pt
 - http://www.cm-aveiro.pt

 Regarding Aveiro itself, it is the capital of Technology in Portugal.
Some designations that are used towards aveiro are the following:
"Portuguese Venice", "Portuguese Silicon Valley", etc.
 Aveiro holds PT Inovacao (former CET, Center for Telecommunication
Studies), home of some path breaking in IT development (for example
first GSM pre-paid card in the world, TMN Mimo), which has over 2000
companies gravitating around it and some of the most brilliant
professionals in Portugal.
 
 The University of Aveiro also is one of the highest technological poles
in Portugal in the IT segment and Phisics (NASA recruits here as well).

 This is the perfect background for a GNU/Linux promotion event, as it
is widely used by local Industry. According to some old data (2006),
Aveiro's economy is 80% based in the services sector.

 What I pretend to do?

 - Mornings >> Linux Install Fest/Party, manpower provided by GLUA
(local LUG).
 - Afternoons >> Conferences/Presentations

 Audience Universe:

 - Local IT Professionals (corporate)
 - Local IT Professionals (free lancers)
 - Local IT superior schools students
 - General enthusiasts
 -- Estimated visitors (200 to infinite)

 Institutions that I'm planning to contact:

 - IPAM (Portuguese Institute for Marketing Management), my University.
Through it I plan to deliever corporate invitations to all national
industry (over 240.000 small/medium business enterprises), can provide
conference rooms, rooms with beamers for side events, space, internet
connectivity (to be used for event to go zero cost).
 - Universidade de Aveiro - Prestige, open some doors to the local
industry and we should be able to rally a lot of people from here. Some
of their LUG members are currently package maintainers and developers
for FOSS.
 - Aveiro City Hall, I want this event to be advertised in the local
cultural program. I want as well that the political power should be
sensible to this causes.
 - PT Inovacao, as a GNU/Linux technology enabler at the highest of
levels with operations in the 5 continents. I want them to be present
and provide speakers to hold a conference.
 - GNOME, already got official representation of GNOME by Luís Medinas
for GNOME and also a Brasero maintainer. He can also represent Caixa
Mágica, national linux distrobution in the corporate market (they
provide services for a the Army's Criminal Police for example).
 
 Currents offers:
 - Caixa Mágica (national linux distro), I am reticent in allowing
official Caixa Mágica representation on the event for the following
reasons:
  -- I personally don't like ADETI neither Caixa Mágica.
  -- They are a corporate company and direct competitor to Red Hat, our
sponsor.
  -- Mandriva based?
  -- Some of their founders have strong relations with the radical left
wing political party. For me, politics do not enter this event.
 I do have pro's as well for letting them in:
  -- Huge market penetration.
  -- Official business partner of the Portuguese Governament in
e-students programs.

 
 What I wouldn't mind having:
 
 - Red Hat official representation
 - Fedora official representation

 Concerning this two points, since I'm hitting the full industry I see
this event as a powerful way of introducing ourselfs and eventually the
possibility of establishing several things, which are to be faced as
goals as well:

  - Possibility of establishing business for Red Hat with local
corporations.
  - Possibility of establishing a stronger Fedora Community. Notice that
if we are officially labeling this event as a Fedora Event, this will
path breaking in the Portuguese Scene.
  - Establish a foundation for a official PT_PT Fedora users group.
  - Bring maintainers and developers to Fedora.
  - Brainstorm everyone!


 As a side effect I would like this event to be as well the opportunity
to accomplish the following:
 - Sensibilize the Industry for Open Source
 - Approach my university and Aveir's university to FOSS
 - Brainstorm the local industry about FOSS.
 - Documentate everything for the Fedora Marketing Team.
 - Alert that FOSS beneficts everyone, not only technology geeks and
promote interaction from non IT Personel to Fedora.


 I am not running budgets on this event because of the following:
 - The event itself should be free for any fee's to participants.
 - The logistics and spaces required should be provided by sponsors.

 There are costs though for people to come here. I can't cover those as
I am not collecting money from any source. To relief this I'll try the
following:

 - Get competitive and nice costs for bed and roof (maybe by having a
local Hotel to sponsor the event).
 - I am also trying to get a Disco/Bar into the scene for closing the
event with a "party" for people.


 My questions to this list:

 1. If I want to advertise this as a Fedora event, what are the
guidelines I must follow?
 2. Can Fedora bring official representation?
 3. If we're aiming to gather new contributors, can anyone provide a
presentation about the tools we use and how fun is contributing for
Fedora? (this is something that needs to be very well think of).
 4. Through Fedora can we bring official Red Hat representation for the
corporate market attending this event?
 5. Distributions like Caixa Mágica (which is our competitor and Red
Hat's competitor) on the local scene, should I allow them to be
officially represented?
 6. I'm planning to bring in local hardware manufacturers, can someone
prepare to engage them as well? This could be fun for Fedora Spin's as
pre-installed machines for instance.
 7. Technology we promote that is a key element for Fedora as a
competitive stronghold in FOSS, like SE Linux, could we manage something
around the technology we highlight on our distro?
 8. Anything else not covered here feel free to bring it up.

 
 - DATES
 I have no dates for this yet, but I was thinking in May (which means
double efforts from my side getting this prepared). Shortly after F13
release to promote?


 - Considerations
 Event Name: I have not thought a lot about the name, but I was thinking
on something outside what we've been doing like: Aveiro Fedora Showdown
2010.
 Promoting place, product, price. The event itself is "promotion". The
perfect Mix. Showdown, because I want it to have a certain impact.

 - Personal Stuff
 This event is not only to promote Fedora, but also to promote myself in
my institution (IPAM). In fact I see it as a liberating effort to cause
impact and take the fight into another level. With my final paper coming
within less than a year, this is also meant for me to gain some grounds
for my future paper which will be completely different for what we are
proposed. From my side, there is no room for mistakes or failures.


  This is a primary and basic draft for a document I will issue later on
my project webpage and on a Wiki page.

  I will point later on when I have something to trully advertise.