Re: [seul-edu] Our presence at trade shows

[Harry McGregor <micros@azstarnet.com>]

On Tue, 29 Aug 2000, Doug Loss wrote:

> 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.

Don't forget the CLIQ, even though it was an OSEF presense, it still
counts in this context.
 
> 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.

This is one thing that we did correctly with OSEF, we are a legal
buisness, and are on our way to getting 501c3 tax exempt status.

It *might* (need to talk to other board members) possible to bring
SEUL/edu under the unbrella of OSEF, thus giving SEUL/edu some more "real"
status.

> 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.

I would be happy to work on this, and turn over a lot of the slide shows,
etc, that we have used in Tucson, and in Denver.

I would also be interested in working on default presentations for
SEUL/edu.

			Harry
> 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
> 
> 

--
Harry McGregor, CEO, Co-Founder
hmcgregor@osef.org, (520) 202-OSEF (6733)
Open Source Education Foundation, http://www.osef.org