[Ubuntu-be] Ubuntu at the Mega Micro Computerbeurs

[Snulkid]

From the Ancient Ages archive, in case it could help..

----------  Message transmis  ----------
Subject: [belgian-lugs] reaction on [ LUGs on PC Markets?]
Date: Jeudi 24 Janvier 2002 19:50
From: "Christophe Van Reeth" (...)

Hi,

I just subscribed to this list and read the big <grin> archive of this
 list. Especially the thread about 'LUGs on PC Markets' drew my
 attention.

Why? Well, because I have the answer (well, at least partly, because I
 can only talk about the Flemmisch part of our little country :)).
As some people might know, Dipro is the big name. Apart from their
 markets and fairs, there are only some minor Pc-markets.

I have no experience with the others, but Dipro gives free stands on
 their 2 major ComputerFairs (Infomedia and Hobby & Microcomputerdagen,
 both in Antwerp) to computerclubs. I don't know exactly, but I believe
 that they don't do that on their small markets.
The reason for this is: when they took over the organising of the
 HCC-fair in Belgium, the contract told that HCC-groups should get a
 free stand on that fair for some years. Apparently, Dipro acknowledges
 that computerclubs are good for their image and they kept the free
 stands for computerclubs and even expanded it to their other fair.


My experience:
==============

Our LUG, TINA, will be present this year for the 3th time in a row at a
dipro-fair. While I must admit we don't get many new members this way,
 it;s clear that many people stop by to look and ask some questions
 about Linux (like: "Is it really true that I can just copy it from the
 internet legally?"). It's simply a fact that we get the respons the
 normal computerclubs can only dream of (even though they almost all
 have their own Linux-subgroup, wich in most cases isn't that good at
 all).
I think this because we have lots of stuff to show to people and some
 of our members are really working on their machines: apart from the
 usual stuff like KDE ("look! its just like windows! is that really
 that free OS?"), we show things people think of like win-apps. The
 last fairs we had things like: games, HAM-radio, StarOffice, Gimp, a
 kernel-hacker porting Linux to StrongARM...  This year we have someone
 who will make music, using Linux-apps. !
Besides that we also have some 'impressive' and weird hardware with us
 like: SUN Sparcs, an old Apollo, Macs, a very kewl transparent PC, ...

As an example, here are some pics of last year:
http://tina.kangaroot.org/meetings/events/beurs2001/index.html


How do you get in and what will you get?
========================================

Simple, you just send an email to  dipro at wol.be  and ask for a stand
 for your computerclub.

If you're accepted (space is limited), you get:
- a stand of at least 8 by 4 meters (this can be more if you ask and
 there's space left). Last year we got 16 by 4, but it was too large,
 even though we were there with 12 people!
- Power (off course): 16A
- Tables and chairs: be sure to be there in advance, because they don't
garantee that they will be set up. In fact they don't make any promises
 ;-) - Free entrance-passes and some parking-cards. It depends how much
 you get. We get normally 3 parking-cards and around 25 entrances, wich
 is enough :)


Drawbacks:
==========

- You cannot sell stuff. Well, it's not that strict, there are
 exceptions. I believe members can sell their old junk.
- You cannot distribute flyers of your sponsor if he hasn't a stand at
 the fair. But they don't say anything about our big banner we use.
 It's a gift of Kangaroot and has their logo on it twice.
- You got to watcj out for some other computerclubs. Some of the bigger
clubs are quite snobbisch and think they deserves the best place. Eg:
 last time we put tables, chairs and tableclothing in place on the
 evening before. Apparently, after we left, an anonymous club came,
 liked our work, whiped out the chalk-markings of the organisation and
 placed their strucure there! This year, we will prepared and every
 construction at our spot will be removed, by demolishing it if
 necesairy!

Well, that's was what I wanted to say. It seems a little bit long :)
(...)
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