[seul-edu] Our presence at trade shows

[Doug Loss <dloss@suscom.net>]

I think it's time we talked about this in general rather than on a
specific basis every time the possibility of attending a show
arises.

We've had a presence at three Linux shows now--Linux Expo Montreal,
Linux Expo Canada (in Toronto) and LinuxWorld Expo San Jose.  In
addition, SEUL was represented by the Linux Knowledge Base (another
SEUL group) at LinuxWorld Expo New York last year, and members of
SEUL/edu were at LSM in Bordeaux (although not particularly as
SEUL/edu representatives).  And just yesterday I agreed to be on a
panel at LinuxWorld Expo in NYC in January, which I guess means that
we'll have a presence there too.

The problem that we (and probably many other dot orgs) face is that
we are essentially a virtual organization.  We have no actual
physical or legal existence, so when it comes to putting in a
real-world appearance anywhere we have to fall back on personal
contributions by the individuals making the appearance or on
donations by generous people or organizations (thanks, Eugene and
Mandrake!).  Because of this we seem to be "reinventing the wheel"
for every show.

I'd like to get some discussion on what shows we should attend
(worldwide), what kind of presentations we should put on, and how we
should make all this happen.  It would be nice if we can develop
some sort of "speaker's bureau" for these shows so we can provide
some continuity from show to show and from year to year.  Pete has
put the slideshow presentation he and Odile used in Montreal up on
the SEUL server (I don't remember just where at the moment; Pete?),
and Bill Ries-Knight has the flyer he used to hand out at San Jose.
These should give us a good beginning to regularize our
presentations.  I'm no salesman, but I recognize the importance of
defining your main points and staying on topic as much as possible
when presenting information to the public.

So what do you all have to say about this?

--
Doug Loss                 God is a comedian playing
Data Network Coordinator  to an audience too afraid
Bloomsburg University     to laugh.
dloss@bloomu.edu                Voltaire