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LinuxFest 2000 : More Penguins Than People
"I thought the show could have been a lot more successful," said Christofer Bell, a Sprint Systems Programmer, Kansas Unix/Linux Users Association member and LinuxFest attendee, "I think the people that did attend had a good experience for the most part. However, there were very few people there, far fewer than I would have hoped for an event of this type. When I walk into a Linux showcase event and [Eric Raymond] is giving a speech and only a third of the seats are filled, I am embarrassed, not only for Linux, but for my LUG, whose name, however tenuously, is connected to the event."
In talking to the local LUG after the fact, I find that the two most-used words in describing the show are "disappointed" and "embarrassing." The biggest fear of the local Linux community in the Kansas City area was that people would come to the show, see the poor attendance and draw the conclusion that Linux is dead. The greater Kansas City area is not only one of the most conservative areas in the country, it's also an area where proprietary software reigns supreme in both server and workstation markets. A lot of the local LUG members were looking forward to LinuxFest as a large, well-funded tradeshow to give their favorite alternative OS some equal time.
Dario Landazuri, Senior in Computer Engineering at the University of Kansas, talks about his experience at the show. "I was very disappointed. I'd been hearing rumblings about possible problems with this event, about how it might go badly. Unfortunately, those predictions came true. I was astounded to hear of Red Hat and Informix pulling out within the first two days. I volunteered to work with LinuxMall one of the days, as it gave me a chance to attend for free. I worked Friday for LinuxMall, and was appalled to see every remaining exhibitor pack up by 5 p.m. Friday. People began to show up around 5, and walked around asking where everything was. It was kind of embarrassing to have to explain what had happened."
Still, hope abounds. Most everyone I've spoken to still believes that the greater Kansas City area is a fantastic place for a Linux trade show, as long as it's done right with support from the community and decent marketing.
Derek Moeller, Linux enthusiast and attendee, shares his thoughts: "The worst effect that was seen during the show was a harsh underpopulation. Unfortunately, many people will see this effect without seeing the cause, and will mistakenly assume that any Linux show in Kansas City will demonstrate similar effects. We believe this to be incorrect, as the cause of the effect seen here was mismanagement to the extreme. A decently managed show in KC would be much more successful. In this case, the show was underattended to the point that Informix left after the first day, and they had full right to. Red Hat left as well, and although it was mainly pinned on hardware problems, they certainly had little reason to spend a lot of money on overcoming those problems. As a result of all this, vendor apathy was prevalent. Shall we say, the convention was not filled with smiles. Those who do not study history are condemned to repeat it. In that respect, we can use this show to send a message to other hopeful LUGs out there. Not all shows are good shows. The existence of a bad show is worse than no show. When a show is planned to occur, always look into the past of the maintainers. Look at the structure with which the show is being managed. Compare it to successful shows. Are they similar? Different? If the LUG feels that the show is destined to fail, and to take a fair amount of respect from outsiders with it, then do everything in your power to stop that show, or at least minimize the impact. As many companies have learned, and as perhaps many LUGs have yet to learn, not all PR is good PR."
Dustin Decker, Network Sysadmin for Preferred Physicians Medical, enjoyed the time with the community more than the trade show that created it. "I would say the best part of the show for me really wasn't the show itself at all. I spent a good portion of time with Eric S. Raymond, sharing some meals and a net connection in addition to firing fully automatic weapons at his Geeks with Guns gathering on day two of his trip. Eric is a truly down to earth guy, with a wonderful ability to explain how the open source movement works. Of course we all know he's very involved in the Linux cause, but it was just really neat to have him in the Kansas City area and to have face to face access to him. Please note: I'm not a teenaged groupie geek type, I just like to meet neat people. We Linux users also had dinner at the Plum Tree restaurant in Lawrence, Kansas on Friday evening, with a turnout of about forty people. Dinner with that measure of my tribe was of course a very joyous occasion -- better than a Baptist revival."
Frank Wiles, mod_perl programmer for The Lawrence Journal World, discusses the benefits of a failed trade show to his LUG. "It really charged me up about the community. I met a lot of the people who I had previously only read about, or read their writings online. I feel that LinuxFest really breathed new life into KULUA, because of the pillars of the community that we got hang out with, as well as the fact of being semi-forced into saving the show. It really pulled us all together, and I realized that the 'pillars' of the open source community are real people, removed a lot of the 'star struck'-ness. And I realized, that these people are really wonderful people. Actually all the people that I have met in the open source community are really great, fun to be around people, and not just because they are geeks!"
Since I was at the show, I think it's only fair that I get to add a couple of quick thoughts to the end of this story. When I finished my keynote speech, Greg Palmer pulled me aside and said, "I want to do this again next year, but I want to do it right." The biggest problem for the show was the lack of infrastructure and foundation, a foundation that could have built with the rampant volunteerism of the local Linux community. There are some smart people out there who were all but begging to be involved with the planning and rollout of the show. Use them, Greg. I'll do whatever I can to make sure that happens.
I would also like to take some time to thank the members of KULUA, the Kansas Unix/Linux Users Association. When they felt the planning of the show was taking a dive, they invited me to come out and attend the show, and they paid my expenses out of the pockets of their members. These people saw a problem, and took it upon themselves to fix it. I had a fantastic time at the show, and I got to meet some of the coolest Linux enthusiasts in the world. The members of KULUA represent the finest sensibilities of the Linux community with a strong volunteer ethic, and endless amounts of optimism. While I was in Kansas, I slept on the couch of Joe Larcher, an intelligent, kind lawyer (lawyer!) who offered his place, bandwidth, transportation and refrigerator to someone he'd never met before. Dustin Decker, who I quoted above, performed the herculean task of pulling himself away from Geeks with Guns to pick me up from the airport. Sean and Kevin from Tummy.com bought me lunch when I showed up, lent me a wireless NIC, and updated my kernel. Cory Bosley drove me from the show to Joe's place, and got me a Coke. Frank Wiles, also quoted above, gave me the tour of Lawrence, from Java Break to the Granasty to the Tap. Randy Reames kept me knee-deep in Simpsons references. I met so many people that week, it's hard to keep track of them all. If I met you in Kansas, consider yourself thanked. You're all Aquamen.
Politicians and companies have spent years and millions trying to penetrate America's heartland with products and ideology. Normal people living normal lives and working normal jobs, representing the very core of conservative middle America. I never would have thought that one of the strongest outcroppings of community spirit I've ever seen would come from Kansas. The spirit and community of Linux and Free Software are alive and well there, regardless of one mismanaged trade show. I look forward to seeing you all next year.
Background.
:)
I was raised in the rurals of SouthEast Kansas, in on of the most agricultural (read 'poor') counties in the state.
I had the distinction in the mid 80's of being about the only person in the whole county with a computer, and certainly the only geek in my school district, maybe the whole county.
I've lived in Lawrence for the last 11 years. Here's my take on the whole thing.
1. Emmett hit the nail right on the head when he said "The greater Kansas City area is not only one of the most conservative areas in the country, it's also an area where proprietary software reigns supreme in both server and workstation markets."
This is not 'conservative' as in political or religious, but in decision making. Kansans/Midwesterners as a whole are very resistant to change. Not a horribly bad thing, but when it comes to things like technology and Linux, it can be a very hard sell.
Now, having said that, every place I've worked in the last few years, I've made converts to the One True Way. Places like Sprint have lots of pockets of Linux, but completely unofficially. Heck, my primary workstation was 'illegal', since the first thing I did when I got there was wipe 'blessed' NT install off the system, and install RedHat. There could be a lot of interest in Linux in the area, if they can be shown how it helps them, and that it is not a dangerous thing for them to pursue. Which leads to:
2. No one knew about the show.
I didn't know about it until is was already in progress, and it was talked about here on Slashdot. Unfortuately, I was in Dallas at the time, and couldn't attend.
ESR comes to friggin Lawrence, and I couldn't be there...AAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHhhh! And I would have brought my guns, too!
But also, local trade shows don't do horribly well in KC. People are hard pressed to justify taking off a day or an afternoon to attend. Employers don't like it, and unless it is a big event, it just doesn't happen.
A previous employer of mine did one of the small trade shows in the KC area, and it wasn't worth it.
So again, Emmett is completely correct in is statements. Using the grass-roots resources in KC could make for a good show, but it would be much better if it were more of a conference and training event, than just a trade show, like USENIX (which, BTW, was also last week). That would bring people in.
Anyway, I'm sorry I wasn't there to help, or even know about it until after the fact. And it makes the whole area look bad. There are actually a lot of talented, hard-working people in the KC area, not just a bunch of hicks.
so here i am in maryland, just like you. in carroll county, actually (where the men are men and the sheep are SCARED.) what is there around here for us linux dorks? i have exactly two friends around here that use linux, both of whom were introduced to it by myself. i'm sure at least i would like to go to a decent gathering around here, but i'm not aware of any in the area. my budget is also *extremely* limited (i'm poor, that's why i use linux!). any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thanks.
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i read all replies to my comments
What's going on? Where's the thrill? I know: the so-called Linux stocks have tanked. So -- some would-be profiteers take a dive in stock price and the "buzz is gone?"
People: quit looking at the stock pages! Linux isn't about IPOs and stocks -- it's a technology. Use it, promote it, develop it.
Oh, and a little organization never hurt a conference. I remember BITNet conferences in the 1980s that were better attended than this.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Yes, you can get a huge draw on the coasts (like I keep hearing), but how many businesses in the midwest are going to foot the bill for you to fly out to the coast to attend a trade show? Not very many (I know mine won't). There are a huge number of companies in the midwest that might be interested in sending someone if they could do it in a reasonable fashion. The best way to do that? Make it a centrally located show that is close to the midwest. Kansas City isn't the center of the midwest, but it is close enough that I and many like me would have gotten a chance to go (had we heard about it before it flopped).
I realize you weren't attacking the midwest, but saying the midwest should be ignored because it isn't interesting isn't really the best thing to say either. IMO there are still plenty of people in the midwest that are interested in technology. Isn't that the focus of a trade show/convention/conference? I know I would go for that reason, but maybe I'm in the minority.
Bite my yammer.
The coincidence that Kansas City is close to the geographic center of the US has little to do with the sort of Middle America I was refering to...
The Middle America I was refering to is more of a cultural, social and economic concept.
Certainly Washington State is Middle American: the rape of the Lake Sammamish Plateau to construct acre after acre of yuppie faux-mansions for M$ workers, all driving their Lexus SUV's while chatting on their cell phones, is the consumate new-school Middle America.
Kansas City represents the old-school Middle America, certainly, and I *still* don't think it's ready for Linux...
t_t_b
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I'm on PJ's "enemies" list! Are you?
I think trade shows made more sense for proprietary software in the pre-Internet days. As the PC shows show, some people still live in that world, but for Linux it is bound not to work too well.
What gatherings like that could still be good for is technical discussions, planning of new open source projects, etc. But for that, you don't need 60000 sq ft of exposition space. Instead, you need a convenient, pleasant, easy-to-get-to location.
I think not!
t_t_b
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I'm on PJ's "enemies" list! Are you?
> that and we only have one baseball team here :)
So does Chicago. The Cubs only approximate a Major League team, for wide tolerances of such.
There were any computers in Kansas.
I wonder what kind of turnout we could get there, if we arranged to drop a farmhouse on Bill Gates?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Wait a minute! This implies that people had to pay to get in. People who don't want to pay for software are supposed to pay to hear someone talk about the free software?
I don't think so.
You never really know how close to the edge you can go until you fall off.
You mentioned only attracting old, dead bands.
Newsflash!
Creed, the #1 rock band in the US right now, held a contest where the largest number of online votes regiesterd from any city would win a free concert. The winning city... Lincoln, Nebraska!
There are plenty of rock shows in the midwest, especially in Omaha, NE; Ames, IA; and Kansas City, MO.
As for computing, as soon as a new product comes out, I can just as easily get it in Lincoln as anywhere else (okay, so we don't have "Fry's" in Lincoln)
The one exception, those cute little GM electric cars. I imagine they'd be a big hit anywhere (damn oil industry is keeping down the electric car, methinks, possibly the metric system, too).
As a footnote, I currently reside in Sunnyvale, CA (the heart of silicon valley) and work for a company that makes very attractive blue UNIX boxes.
Mike
Intel transfer the difficult from Hadware to software, for get more power, programmer need more technology. -- chinaitn
Have the event in a city that is easy to get to and/or has some draw.
Amen. Who the hell wants to go to Kansas? (Really. That's not a flame. It's just fact.) It's not convenient to anybody. I guess if it were on the west cost, easties would complain, and vice-versa. So some genius thought "hey, let's have it in the middle, so that everybody can come!"
Instead, nobody came.
-Waldo
Maybe somebody should write the "Linux-Conference HOWTO" based on the suggestions in this thread.
>Start small and build it into something greater,
>not the other way around.
I think that is likely the reason that the show didn't do too well. I don't think that the show being in KC was the problem, just that KC isn't ready to support a show of this magnitude.
Trade shows and conferences aren't things that can simply be put together at the last moment. A good TS/Conf is something you grow. Now I'm no event organizer, but it seems to me that there is a logical series of steps that have to happen to get things going.
- Call it a Conference instead of a Trade Show.
This puts more of an emphasis on learning and networking (the social kind)than on marketing.
- Focus on local/regional Linux companies/vendors.
Having Red Hat and Informix maybe a real coupe, but if the show is a waste of their time then they're going to be hesitant about coming back.
- Market the hell out of it. Not the expensive glitzy kind, but send out info to all the big Linux portals on the net.
- Drop the price to a more reasonable $20.
- Set reasonable goals for growth. Try to progressively increase the conference content/speakers/vendors each year and the next thing you know you've got a rocking Conference/Trade Show hybrid in the midwest. That ought to get the gospel of Open Source out in the midwest.
Like I said, I'm no event organizer, but it seems pretty logical to me, successful expos don't just happen overnight.
Good luck, I may not live in the midwest, but I certainly like hearing about successful Linux shows anywhere they happen.
"The words of the prophets are written on the Slashdot walls."
I guess part of the mismanagement was bad advertising.
Darn it.
I have never been to Kansas myself, however, the reputation of this state is not the coolest possible. I know quite a fair number of people that would not attend any event in Kansas, no matter of interesting the event is.
hah 300 people 60000 square feet
sux 2 b whoever bankrolled it
I don't want people to get the idea that the local LUGs are responsible for the poor execution of this show. There basically would have been no show at all on Friday if not for KULUA pitching in to get Emmett here. I can't imagine that the three vedors that were there would have stayed in the absence of any speaker whatsoever.
I can't comment on LinuxFest 2000 since I didn't attend. Indeed, I didn't even know it was happening.
Obviously, something happened that made LinuxFest a bust. Location? Possibly. Organization (or lack thereof)? Probably. Lack of advertising? I'd say so. But condemning all Linux shows to failure because LinuxFest bombed is silly. People so far have posted comments to the effect of, "There are too many Linux shows!" I don't think that's the problem, however. The 1999 Atlanta Linux Showcase was a huge success, even though the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo drew more fanfare. The ALS was incredibly well-organized, and I'm sure most of the people that attended are planning to come again this year.
Others have suggested folding the Linux trade shows into Comdex or the other big PC trade shows. That's fine, but then you make it difficult or impossible for the "average Joe" without a company expense account to attend.
I live in St. Louis, Missouri - but our company even has a plant located in Kansas City. I definitely could have gotten permission to attend this one. I'd welcome it, in fact. Finally, a show I don't need to buy plane tickets to see!
But no - I heard not a word about it until now.
This really was mis-managed to the max!
I live in the midwest and get sick of seeing people say that if you want to do something cool you have to stay the hell away from the midwest. For a couple of years I've been wondering if there would ever be a Linux conference in driving distance. Now I find out about one after the fact. Why didn't they advertise? If they had, they would have gotten a really good turnout.
You know, I just don't understand why California and New York are the only places in the US that should be allowed to experience "real-time" advances. Over and over I hear people say that the midwest is not meant to have technical advances, or any advances. Concerts in the midwest are of bands that were statistically dead about 20 years ago, new bands tour the coasts (maybe they hit St. Louis), technical conferences get horrendous turnout because no one says they are happening until after they fail, and people just keep saying the midwest is for farmers only.
Yeah, fine. I don't think it was as much location as people keep implying. I think you need to advertise to bring people into a show like this. Even if you were in LV or LA, if you throw together a conference and just expect people to turn up it will fail too. The really sad part about this is that if the general computing press gets ahold of it we will be hearing for the next three months about how Linux is dead. Great, perfect planning guys.
Bite my yammer.
Lord, you gave us feet to waddle
A tux for tails and bods like bottles
But 'scuse us if we find no levity,
'Cause you also gaave us gravity.
But to adversity we say "nuts!"
And as we try to fly the coop
We flap and beat to lift our butts...
And we're left as waddling nincompoops.
So Lord, I'd think you much more wise
(and me much less a jerk)
If for once you might provide
Some penguin wings that work.
(I'm sure I slaughtered a couple of lines. It's been a good eight years since I've read it in person.)
obTroll: I will take these hot grits from you with my hand, and pour them down my pants.
But I recently attended a 'Big Day' show by Microsoft, which was basically an intro/feature show/demo for Win2k. And let me tell you, attendance was *way* down from 'Big Day' shows from previous years in the same city. There were perhaps 50-60 folks at this one. And I was a transient. It was dead ass boring and I left after perhaps less than an hour.
Previous shows at the same city might have netted 200 or so attendance. So I don't think I'd attribute the attendance to some Linux phenomenon.
I saw you at the show, Emmett. I only got to go Saturday, so I missed most of the good stuff. You kept my trip from Wichita from being a complete waste.
Next time you are in Kansas City, take the couple of hours to drive down to Hutchinson and see the Kansas Cosmosphere. It is one of the few items we Kansas Geeks can crow over: the most respected space artifact restoration center in the world, one of the largest collections of Russian space artifacts outside the Commonwealth, and all pulled into existance by the will of a few good men.
Also, you might want to explain the "Aquaman" reference. Post a link to an explaination on your web page or something.
And, at the risk of a -1: redundant, I'd like to also add my voice to the choir: not all of us live within driving distance of the Valley, or Research Triangle Park! Kansas is at most 2 days drive from anywhere in the Continental US, and most of the US (geographically speaking) is a day away. Gas (even at today's prices) and a hotel room is still much cheaper than air fare, and not everybody has a high paying job. Also, let us not forget that to "win", we must make Linux usable by the masses, and make the masses aware of that fact!
www.eFax.com are spammers
I'm on NTLUG's emailing list, and I drool over several of the meetings I see. However, for a less than one day event, the drive from Wichita down just isn't worth it anymore. Back when the SuperSaturday computer sale was worth it, I would drive down Friday night after work, get hotel room, get up in the AM, go to the show, the NTLUG meeting (and the Atari meeting. That's the kind of weirdo I am), and then drive home. Now that a) SuperSaturday isn't super, b) SuperSaturday isn't on the same day as the NTLUG meetings, c) the NTLUG meetings aren't at the same place as all the others, well....
/. or userfriendly.org, or had a story in LJ, that would have been better.
It seems to me that one of the biggest mistakes the KC show people made was in not getting the word out: I found out about this by a chance reference on ZDNET, and wouldn't have otherwise. Yes, they advertised in LJ, but that was a half-page ad buried in the back with all the other ads I might read if I have a bought of constipation. Now, if they had pushed for a mention on
Better still would have been to work with NTLUG, ACLUG, and all the other LUGs within a day's drive, to get the event in the local papers, on the local radio stations, and talked about in the local communities. Then they might have had enough people coming in to keep everybody around.
But this "Build it and they will come" attitude will fail every time.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Okay--so this conference was a total bust. Somebody in Kansas City did a wretched job organizing a conference, and the conference was wretched.
Do not let this get you down. In fact, the conference may not have been all that bad. Imagine being the 14th person in that opening presentation with Bruce Perens--a whole lot better communication than being one of 2000 at a mega-conference on the west coast, no? When LinuxWorldExpo draws 30,000 attendees you're not going to be firing automatic weapons at a Geeks with Guns gathering, lest it bring out the National Guard.
This may well be a sign of a maturing Linux community.
I've been a Visual Basic programmer since the day the product shipped (I've been programming in Basic since the days when it was an acronym). When VB first shipped it generated a positively electric buzz--it was phenomenally cool. But after the initial hype, after the initial thrill, and after a few developers noticed that there were some serious limits to what you could do with VB1, there seemed to be a plateau....
Right about that time Microsoft organized a conference in New York City with Boston University. Big deal, big ticket conference, with a huge fee to attend. And approximately nobody signed up. Microsoft called me up personally to invite me to attend, and the person asked me if I had any friends who'd like to come along too. For free. (And bear in mind--this was organized by professional conference organizers, in midtown Manhattan. This wasn't some poor guy in over his head in Kansas.)
Even with the last-minute scrambling, there were something like 40 people there--maybe less. Microsoft people openly worried about looking that stupid in front of the entire New York IT world. It was a cast-iron disaster.
Except that it wasn't. During the early buzz of Visual Basic there was a small group of self-employed programmers using the tool, and a larger group of corporate programmers who were playing with it at home. By the time this conference rolled around, a lot of those guys had jobs as VB programmers, and couldn't get the time to go to the conference. Or didn't feel the conference would tell them anything they couldn't hear online. VB has gone on to huge things in New York City and elsewhere, of course, and a poorly attended conference in 1992 hasn't made the slightest bit of difference.
That may well be the same thing with this Linux conference. Sure--poor promotion will hurt. But poor attendance by the locals may well mean that people are using Linux at work, and that in turn means that Linux is infiltrating the corporate world.
You may see more conference reports that show poor attendance. It doesn't mean that Linux is in trouble--it probably just means that a lot of Linux users have been to a conference or two, heard the speeches extolling Open Source, and are biding their time (and keeping their money) until there is something new! and exciting! about Linux to come hear about.
That may be coming: Borland/Inprise is now projecting that Kylix, their cross-platform version of Delphi, will ship later this year. When developers can take advantage of a visual development IDE and deploy on Linux, there may be a phenomenal explosion of interest. And when corporate IT managers discover that the boys in the back room have been running the company proxy server on Linux for months, you may well see an explosion of interest in Linux all across corporate America.
I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a Linux evangelist. But I would not, at all, consider this conference (or Roblimo's similarly pessimistic views on PC Expo) reason to get discouraged about the potential of Linux.
The penguin may just be sitting on the tip of the iceberg....
Namely that the main point of a trade show is to spend a few days on the company dime in a place where you take advantage of one or more of the following
Last time I checked the only one of these KC has is the latter and you can drink anywhere outside Utah. Put the next Penguin event in Vegas and you'll be mobbed. OK midwesterners, flame me I guess I deserve it. ;)
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Nothing to see here. Mooooove along...
Doesn't help. 3D Expo, which used to be in San Francisco and is now held at the Santa Clara, California convention center, is like that. When it was at Moscone in SF, there were about three aisles of exhibits surrounded by drapes. Duck behind a drape, and you were in a multi-acre convention hall. It still looked stupid.
While i'm by no means from The Kansas Territory (little Colorado joke ;-) I do have a lot of experience from the state, having lived on one side, Co. for 19 years and a year long stint in the greater Colombia, Mo metropolitan area (translation == jesus that state is humid)
:P )Certainly, if you're going to throw a linux expo, you'll want to throw it somewhere where you KNOW it's going to succeed. Perhaps somewhere a little more progressive. Denver? Seattle? Any California city, NY? Atlanta?
As you said, Kansas is a very conservitive state, as is much of the midwest, and I wouldn't have a linux expo in KC for the same reasons i wouldn't have one in Des Moines or Lincoln. They're nice enough places to visit. Hell, i'd even consider living in KC if it weren't for those damned Chiefs! - but what linux needs right now is what it's been using for quite some time, a newer, more (dare i say) hip approach. The midwest seems to, like it or not, bring with it images of, as you said, grass-roots, stability, tradition. Linux seems to represent some of the opposite characteristics. A break with tradition. (ok - everything except instability
These all seem to me to be good choices. Oh well, i suppose i'm just sad i didn't get to make the 9 hour drive out to see ESR. my bad!
FluX
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i can't agree with you more about your evalution. i attended the show. it was difficult to contact any about registration,poorly planned and overall disappointing. if someone would like to do a linux show they should you the linux expo in raleigh,nc from 1999, that was a great show. great speechs, wide choice of great lectures, entertaining evenings, and wonderful exhibits. this show could have been great, but it seems to have been run by people who don't use linux and don't belong to the gnu community. just another person trying to make it big off linux!
They would have added hundreds if not thousands of ravenous activists to their audience!
sulli
sulli
RTFJ.
Whether the show is managed properly or not, the fact is that a lot of people will go to a show in a popular location because of the other attractions, and a lot of techies nearby will go to a show because it's close.
This show didn't have the first, because there's very little that your average techie wants to do in Kansas City other than the show.
It didn't have the second to the degree that places like Silicon Valley, New York, Austin, Orlando, Atlanta etc. do, because it's freakin' Kansas City.
You can overcome these problems, but only if you don't conflict with any other shows (they did) and put on hellacious advertising (they didn't).
Next time, go in with Chicago or even St. Louis on a joint show, and watch your scheduling.
Or, hell; since you're gonna fly anyway, go in with Orlando.
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>While i'm by no means from The Kansas Territory ;-)
:)
>(little Colorado joke
If you look at old maps, the 'Kansas Territory' used to extend to the great divide of the Rockies. That's right, Mountain-Boy, unless you live on the west side of Colorado, we used to own you!
Ironicly, I'll be moving to Boulder in about 3 weeks.....
The problem is that if the show "bombed," people that don't understand show organization will "blame" the locals, even if it's IDG or some such "event" group that was truly responsible.
The fact that responsibility isn't completely clear is part of why NTLUG hasn't proceeded; we've heard enough horror stories of conference organizers playing political games that this plays into a reluctance to encourage an event to happen.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
Sure ways to kill any con.
Blog
I decided not to go to this event on the basis of the fact that it looked small. Very small. Like major supporters (such as Red Hat) were dragged kicking and screaming into supporting the event, and then (as I predicted) left early. What can I say? There's a couple of problems:
Why did this guy get +4,Insightful for bringing up location? Everybody jump on the bandwagon. The midwest sucks. It's full of hicks and farmers and doesn't deserve a trade show.
I and many others would have been there if we would have heard of it. I can't afford to go to the coast (East or West) just to attend a Linux conference, and my company can't afford to send me there. But they would consider sending me to Kansas City, which is relatively just across the way.
Advertise your show, and people will come.
Bite my yammer.
I generally ask any LUG or show who want me to speak to find a local sponsor who will fund transportation and lodging, but I do not ask for any honorarium. If the show is well-funded, sometimes I ask them to bring out my wife and child as well.
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
As a resident of KC, I can promise KC isn't boring, and it's not even a matter of knowing where to look.
... that and we only have one baseball team here :)
.sig is a good .sig)
Mind you, when compared to Chicago we might look a little (ok, a lot) quiet
As for advertising, I didn't see jack! I work at the Sprint Campus RIGHT NEXT DOOR to where it was held and the first notice I saw that it was happening was the prior Thursday. Did I see this notice in any of the local media? Nope, Linux Weekly News (www.lwn.net). I'm surprised anyone in KC knew the event was happening.
Bret
(No
I can't comment on LinuxFest 2000 since I didn't attend. Indeed, I didn't even know it was happening.
I didn't know it was happening either. I was in Kansas City to see my old friends and parents. I would have killed to bring my family and friends to a LinuxFest if I knew it was happening in my home town.
Where was the advertising?
First of all, I've been on many linux web sites but I never see anything about any of the tradeshows. Even at the main page for my LUG seems to be slacking lately. This is the first I've heard of this trade show. Needless to say I wouldn't have been able to go, but I would like to go to at least ONE linux trade show in my life.
Does anyone know of, or has anyone thought of a web site that has a collection of Tradeshow locations/information that is searchable by location. Kind of like how Market Pro has their web page which I believe is at http://www.marketpro.com Something like this might help others out in finding tradeshows that they would like to go to. I would think this would even help marketing FOR the tradeshow. I personally find it a pain to have to go searching through endless web sites to find a tradeshow, especially one that is current and local! If there's anyone out there willing, or knows of one, maybe it's time to set up a web page specifically for tradeshows.
End Of Line
My wife is a salesperson at worknet, a dirt-cheap alternative to land-lines. She spent a week trying to get a booth at the fest but the guy in charge of booth rental didn't return phone calls, when he did he didn't have any useful information. She was unable to ever get a booth.
I know there is a huge following here in KC for Linux, I just don't think anyone knew about the event.
It was poorly marketed, mismanaged, and was generally a first class kluge. They need to take the people responsible for the thing out and thoroughly beaten with a large blunt object.
IS
I did get a cool squishy ball though. la-dee-fricken-da
I haven't seen a big Linux show in Portland yet; I think it would be much better attended here than in the Midwest.
--
It has seemed to me over the last year or two that although the groundswell behind Linux is great, it's all about things being free. Doesn't this more adequately indicate why vendors like Informix are difficult to entice to this type of event? Is there any evidence that people are spending money on software that runs on Linux servers? This huge rush to put business-strengh applications on Linux doesn't seem to be bearing financial fruit to anyone that isn't doing a distribution...or is it just me that thinks this?
- i got yer sig *raht heah* -
No, they did not. A corporate sponser paid for booth space, net connect etc.
www.bleepyou.com
56k ha! i'm in kansas remember, we still use ip over telegraph /scarcasm/
www.bleepyou.com
] What's with the gun thing?
Well, see, nobody ever shows up at Geeks with Girlfriends.... +g+
Both Mystic Lake Casino and Treasure Island are only a short distance from the Twin Cities (the former is only 20 miles or so from the center of Minneapolis).
--
-Rich (OS/2, Linux, BeOS, Mac, NT, Win95, Solaris, FreeBSD, and OS2200 user in Bloomington MN)
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
Prog rock
Some crazy little women
Heh, methinks that you think of too large a scale. :) Why not start a local LUG? Hell, it costs next to nothing if you just take a little time and trouble to spread the word yourself. You'd be amazed at how cool some local shop owners can be about letting you pimp your LUG in their shop. Don't worry about attending some big show, just get other Linux geeks in your area to come hang out in the same place to talk tech and swap distros. After a while, when you have quite a few people in the LUG who are willing to put in a little work, you can host a little installfest; nothing major, just a local event to allow the closet Linux geeks in your area to come out and hang with the LUG in an uninvolved manner, unlike if they attended a meeting. It also gives local business folks and non-Linux techies a chance to come take a peek and see what the hell the ruckus is about.
:)
Conferences are all fine and good when there is a huge following in a region or you have a lot of experience in organizing gatherings and want to try something on a large scale, but since the scene in your area appears to be so dead that you only know a couple of other Linux users, you should take the initiative to start a little something of your own to help spread the word and build interest in your area. Who knows? In a couple of years, after you have a few small installfests under your belt and have planned a couple of decent conferences, maybe you'll be the one planning the Linux blowout of the year, with Linus doing the keynote honors.
Deo
"Everybody jump on the bandwagon. The midwest sucks. It's full of hicks and farmers and doesn't deserve a trade show."
Amen to that. I grew up in Kansas and I'll never go back.
When a conference is organized, the speakers are lined up first, then main corporate sponsors.
Here is the important step: PRE-REGISTRATION.
I cannot believe that the show was permitted to occur if less than 1000 people pre-registered.
Once the pre-registration is on the way and things are occuring as predicted, the rest of the show floor is sold. The order of things is especially important if the event is small to medium-size.
The Linux community cannot let Corporate-America do its usual sleazy fast-buck-get-out scams. The organizers of this show obviously didn't give a rat's ass about the image of Linux.
I find that this is a problem with the Linux movement, since there is no central body of representation, there can be no oversight of the use of the term "Linux". Anyone can do what they wish, and in this case, the community gets it in the shorts PR-wise.
I have to agree with many of the posters here who suggest that Linux users attend only a few well-known shows. I think the smaller-scale cities could benefit by meeting the organizers of these bigger events and "invite" the show over to their city, a-la Internet World show of a few years back. This trade show would "occur" about 6 times per year, in different cities each time. Sort of a travelling circus. Pun intended.
My $0.02
I think Omaha, NE should be considered for such an event. Omaha hosts quite a few large corportations' home offices. Everyone around here seems to be into Linux. (They talk the talk) I would guarantee a greater turnout than KC.
Thanks!
------- kid
Where is the content? Online -- not as some trade show.
linux/unix/bsd people are inherently cheap -- we have all of that free software. It does not exist? We make it ourselves.
We are also very smart.
I live in Arizona. Why am I am going to pay money to go all across the country to talk about subjects which I can find here on my system, on a one to one basis.
"The greater Kansas City area is not only one of the most conservative areas in the country, it's also an area where proprietary software reigns supreme in both server and workstation markets."
The real essence of M$ is that it provides a mass-market consumerist computing platform. Just buy it, put it on, and shut up. Then buy the new release/service pack, put it on, and shut up. When new features come out, buy it, put it on, and shut up. When the new features overrun your hardware, buy new hardware, and shut up.
That's the American Way®
Middle America, whether it be middle-aged white-guy IS managers, or just your average consumerist sheep, doesn't have a clue as to what Linux is all about, and really could care less!
To paraphrase the famous line about art:
"I may not know much about computers, but I know what I like."
Middle America likes Micro$oft, and doesn't see for a second why there is any question about the issue...
"Linux?"
"What? That communist-hippie crap? Forget it!"
t_t_b
--
I'm on PJ's "enemies" list! Are you?
Now, which is more interesting? Is it the fact that the guy really thought I was berating the midwest? Or is it the fact that he was too much of a coward to post his opinion on Slash himself, even as an AC?
Once again a Slashdot reader proves beyond any doubt that he is the intellectual equal to the rock sitting outside my front door. I know this is flamebait, but it's worth it. People deserve to know the response you get for trying to be honest on
Bite my yammer.
But only on the day before it started. Plus, the registration fee was more than a bit steep. I'm not going to drive from St. Louis to bust $99 on a conference, plus hotel/food, on one day's notice.
I think that this shows two very important things to anybody hosting a show in the future:
1) People are cheap.
2) They don't go if they don't know.
Maybe if we're lucky they'll put on another show in a year, and run it well. It's not that there is no support for Linux in the midwest, but that we (still) haven't had a good opportunity to show our support.
It is fortunate that this happened in Kansas, where natural selection is a fiction, or else we may have concluded by the scant showing that Linux in an inferior OS, and thus unfit to survive.
Instead we can blame it on divine providence: God hates Linux geeks, so she cursed the show.
Too bad the turn out was so dissappointing...
License: By reading this you are agreeing that you agree with me.
I would have loved to go to a trade show in the midwest.. I live in Dallas, so it's hard for me to make it to New York, or California, or Vegas, but Kansas City isn't too horible of a drive.. I just never heard this thing was happening.
I think of myself as fairly well informed.. I read slashdot daily, get the Linux Journal, and get some tech news pages on my palm with AvantGo, but I never heard this was going on..
Maybe I just missed it or something, but I sure heard alot about PC Expo...
wish
---
So to have a well-attended show, you've got to convince me that it's worth it. You've got to convince me to want to convince my employer. How do you do that?
So many shows are perceived to be all the same, and just not interesting and unique enough. You've got to get the critical mass behind your show. Otherwise it's not worth it for me. That means it's not worth it for my employer. Going to a show free is the best scenario and one that every show's organizers should aim for.
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
Why do people insist that if you live in the midwest you had either better get out to do something cool, or just sit on your hands and hope for some news from the latest coastal craze?
They're thinking of the Marc Andreessen story.
Netscape would have never changed the face of the Internet if its programmers had decided to stay in Illinois. I don't live in Silicon Valley myself, but you must admit that if you're a techie and want to make a difference, you had better live there (or within a 2-hour flight!).
Lansdowne
hmmm. it's an idea. but you need to understand where i live. most of the people around here don't have a computer. if they do, they're not the type that are into linux (let's admit it, linux isn't for everyone). gotta get people using linux first, and like i said, i've gotten three into it, but one went off to college... that leaves two :) 3 people isn't much of a LUG :)
--
DeCSS source code!
you must amputate to email me.
--
you must amputate to email me
i read all replies to my comments
Perhaps a comp.os.linux.shows should be implimented...
amyone?
yeah, but saying the download time, or the cost of a cd equals not free is like saying "The Air isn't free, I mean you gotta breath! All that effort expanding my chest, and contracting it, shit.... whata rip, dude! If air was really free it should push its way down into my lungs, and then rush right out again."
The current Slashdot moderation system is made by gay communists!
I think the point of having a show in the midwest would actually be to draw people from the midwest. I know it makes no sense to people on the coast for a show to be in the midwest, but it makes just as little sense to us living here to fly to the coast two or three times a year (not to mention only about one in 10,000 of us could afford it). Believe it or not there are a lot of people that actually live in the midwest. Should they be made to continue to suffer just because people on the coast don't think they are there?
I realize this may sound stupid if you've never been to the midwest. But honestly, we aren't all country bumpkins. Some of us work in the few thousand companies that have thier homes in the midwest. Some of those companies are even technical in nature. And the ones that aren't use technical products (like computers?!?) to get our jobs done. All of those system administrators and network administrators deserve just as much of a shot at getting to a conference as the people that live on the coasts.
As far as not knowing the goings-on of the midwest. Most people that live in the smaller towns (or even the bigger ones) like travelling to a city the size of Kansas City. It doesn't make sense if you live in LA or Las Vegas or New York, but it looks a lot different for someone from a smaller town, even something the size of Sioux Falls (100,000 people). There would appear to these people to be plenty to do in a city the size of Kansas City, or Minneapolis/St. Paul, or St. Louis. I know, I visit these cities regularly and haven't ever found them boring.
Why do people insist that if you live in the midwest you had either better get out to do something cool, or just sit on your hands and hope for some news from the latest coastal craze?
Bite my yammer.
Linux is FREE!! It's free because you have FREEdom! It's free because you have the right do with it as you please. You can modify it, install it on as many machines as you like and you can even distribute it so long as you don't limit the buyers from exercising those same liberties.
That's not the "free" I was talking about. I was refering to the money involved in getting your hands on it, and the cost of operating it.
Mind you (and the other replies to my original post), I do know about the "freedom" (versus "costlessness") of Linux, and is the reason I'm interested in it (in some way). Being on Slashdot every day does show some kind of interest (well, that and Star Wars).
The company I work for recently announced a Linux port of our calendaring server. A Motif-based client is on it's way (while one already exists for HP/UX and Slowlaris). Interest in Linux is only starting in the corporate environement. Quite frankly, if we have a port of our stuff right now, it's only because universities have asked for it for a long time. Few corporations have asked for it.
From what I gatter, they're just not ready to redeploy on a different OS. That doesn't make them "cheap". Most of our clients are fortune 500 companies. That means, BIG businesses--we have millions of licenses around the world (heck, we built Netscape Calendar, and HP's OpenTime, as well as our own offering).
Those companies are just not yet interesting in shelving out the training costs and moving costs to another platform, even if the distro costs 1000$ less than what they're currently using (and that would be NT... puke puke).
That's cost of Linux I was refering about.
It's the same story about the Mac OS X Server (Darwin) port I've been trying to push for. Few companies out there are asking for it for the same reason--they're just not interested in redeploying to another platform. It's not because we couldn't do it (we already have BSD ports, and PowerPC ports on AIX).
If those companies dont care about saving $1000 (in the case of NT -> Linux) or $500 (MOSXS -> Linux), then they're not going to care about sending someone there just to to document, or be convinced.
is this written in iambic pentameter or what?
are these images being served off your 56k modem or what.
LinuxToday.com had lots of articles on this show. I'm in Omaha too, and I knew about this show for months. It was on my calendar forever. I picked Friday to go (after most of the big guys had packed up and left) so I got screwed. Enjoyed my time in Westport tho!
Kansas city is boring! Nobody wants to come to KC just to see the show. We want to get out and enjoy the city! Unfortunately, there's nothing to enjoy. Maybe I'm just spoiled...I live in Chicago. And where was the advertising for this? I saw nothing!
Your KC must be in another universe than the one I'm used to. Tons of stuff to do and the cost of living is very low.
That being said, KC is pretty much in the stone age when it comes to tech. It seems most places are still mainframe shops and Sprint seemed to be the only place with any interesting work.
It seems to me that if you're going to have a "trade" show, you should have it somewhere central, and like others have posted, maybe twice a year, but probably only once a year.
As much as I like Linux, I can't see the reasoning for having more than one big trade show a year for Linux. I mean, how many people do YOU know who run Linux? Of course I don't work in a IT only shop where everyone around me is a geek.
For now, I think we oughta just stick to the big regional areas, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles. Cover both coasts and the Midwest. Doesn't have to be those three cities either, they could be rotated. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles one year, Miami, St. Louis, San Francisco the next and/or mix 'em up. Boston, Atlanta, Seattle?
Oughta keep things in perspective, Linux ain't Windows. (Thank goodness!)
Actually, Other areas get a greater share of conventions than NYC/LA. LV has N+I west, ComDex, but Atlanta has Supercomm, ComNet and DC has N+I east. Do not forget Santa Clara either.
My point is not that the midwest sucks. Hey, I live in Chicago, but that you need an interesting place for a show. DC, Atlanta, New Orleans, Orlanda, Chicago are infinately more interesting than KC. And all the above have a greater potential local draw too
Tom
Reality does not happen until you analyze the dots. -Don DeLillo (Underworld)
It's really frustrating to see people ranting about how the main problem that this show failed was that it was in Kansas. Perhaps it was a small problem, but there were larger problems. As others have stated, there was little to no publicity for the show. Many people here in the greater Kansas City area didn't even know this was going on, and some of them lived 10 minutes away from the show's location.
I'll grant, one part of going to a show must be what can be done after hours, which gives places like Vegas and the rest of the West Coast an advantage. But again, it's not cheap to go to these locations. Can anyone give me a good reason why a Linux show shouldn't be held in the Midwest somewhere? ESR must think it was a good idea, he agreed to come. Same for Emmett, Bruce Perens, and Larry Augustin.
So please, dispense with the "it sucked because it was in Kansas City" BS. There are just as many Linux enthusiasts here in the Midwest as there are on the coasts.
I think Richmond Virginia would be an ideal location. Not as expensive as DC but within a two hour commute from DC and Tidewater Virginia (Newport News+Norfolk +Vieginia Beach). having never organized anything like this before I wouldn't know where to start. If I had big IPO bucks to spend I know I'd jump on a tradeshow in Richmond. This area is huge as far as govermnment and Military is concerned. If you even managed to talk a few ranking military leaders into shifting 10% of their stuff to Linux it would be a major coup. I know personally that many of these recent VBS bugs have practically shut down smaller military installations. Agruing for diversity in computer platforms wouldn't be a tough sell either.
From spam@zandura.net Fri Jun 30 12:14:34 2000
:)
/. had accepted an invitation by our LUG to attend the festival and be present in a booth which folks from the BeOpen group had graciously offered to pay for to sponsor us. We quickly requested donations from our membership, and the details were solidified and paid for within hours. This same precision coordination could easily have been afforded to Greg if he had put any great effort into solidifying a relationship with us. To be blunt, he was pleasant but just had lousy organizational skills.
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 23:22:29 -0500 (CDT)
From: Dustin J. Decker
To: Emmett Plant
Subject: Re: Slashdot article
On Thu, 29 Jun 2000, Emmett Plant wrote:
Okay, I'm writing the big 'LinuxFest 2000' piece tonight. To do this, I need to ask everyone on this list questions, and I need long, descriptive answers so I can pull some fantastic quotes from you and make you look like the sexy men you really are.
Emmett you take my breath away baby. OK, now the answers...
> 1. What is your full name and position at your company?
Dustin Decker - Network Systems Administrator
Preferred Physicians Medical (dd1@ppmrrg.com)
> 2. What was the first time you heard about LinuxFest 2000?
I'd approximate the first mention of LinuxFest 2000 to me was a post forwarded to either of two LUG mailing lists I'm subscribed to in the Lawrence/Kansas City area. Greg Palmer, organizer of the show briefly introduced himself and the event. My first contact with Greg was about two weeks prior to march 21 2000. Greg met with the members of KCLUG (http://www.kclug.org) that day and I immediately volunteered to host a KULUA (http://kulua.org) meeting the following Saturday, inviting Mr. Palmer to attend the meeting and introduce himself to our community. In short, we were offering to support his efforts to put on a good show. Greg was unable to attend.
To clear the air I'll just say once that there was an e-mail from somewhere I don't recall, that cast a doubt on whether this thing was on the up and up... I nearly apologize for mentioning it but it's important as it cast a shadow of doubt from our first hearing of this fest. When Greg was unable to break bread with us it didn't help our understanding of where he was at or where his intentions were planted.
> 3. What did you think of the show?
What did I think of the show? There's a fun question . I expected a great deal more from what hype had either been passed on to me by Mr. Palmer or I had perhaps created in my own mind. Either way, it is perfectly natural having attended well organized events (such as SANS Security 99 in New Orleans) that were really exciting; I expected to be blown away. I was not.
Shortly after learning that Eric S. Raymond would be a keynote speaker, I invited Eric to attend dinner with our LUG for some excellent Kansas City BBQ. Eric accepted, and he kept me in the loop on his travel schedule. I experienced vicariously a few weeks on the road with Eric, but just bad parts that is; missing planes due to poor communication, fear of not making a much desired trip to Korea, and a modification of Eric's not-unreasonable-to-begin-with travel rules. I volunteered to help Mr. Palmer with rides to and from Kansas City International Airport for dignitaries, with a bare minimum intention of assuring this sort of hell would not encroach upon the Kansas City portion of Eric's trip. I'm am greatly disappointed to say that despite my attempts, poor communication interfaces with Mr. Palmer made that very hard to do.
I attend the DeVry Institute of Technology in Kansas City in pursuit of a Bachelors degree in Computer Information Systems. Larry Augustin was scheduled to keynote a dinner at the Overland Park Trade Center the first evening, and coincided with two very important finals for me. I had expected to be tied up, but a storm had interrupted power at the school and all tests were postponed until the next day. I called a friend to arrange to get together for the dinner, and he invited me to Dick Clark's American Bandstand resturaunt about three miles from the trade center. I assumed this was to meet up with LUG members prior to the dinner, we kept the conversation very short.
But what later became evident was that dinner was now being held at the resturaunt... which was fine by me until about five minutes before Larry was to speak with between twenty and thirty guests in the audience. It was then that I realized the web page for the event indicated dinner would be at the trade center. I drove there quickly in an attempt to inform all who may be milling about as to the new location of dinner. There wasn't anyone there I'm afraid, the doors were locked and anyone who had been there had no indication of whether Linux Fest 2000 was really happening or not. As I type this, those details are still erroneously posted at http://www.linuxfest.com/speakers.html.
Emmett of
Other factors came into play... RedHat received a shipment of computers from Dell that didn't work out quite the way they had intended, and accompanied by any other rumors I would never repeat chose to tear down their 40' by 40' booth space and leave the same day they had arrived. Informix left the next day. As time progressed, more and more vendors for various reasons chose to leave as well. Turnout was paltry, and there was much mumbling about lack of promotion for the event.
There were of course a few highlights... I managed to get interviewed by local television station Channel 9 in my shorts and a t-shirt. I spoke of my opinions of the use of the words hacker and cracker in context by the media, answered a number of questions about how home cable and DSL subscribers can take a more secure posture on the Internet, and completely forgot to "plug my LUG". Hal Duston of KCLUG, wearing a suit, did a lengthy interview with FOX4 as well. The local Linux community was on display for Kansas City viewers.
> 4. What was the best part of the show?
I would say the best part of the show for me really wasn't the show itself at all. I spent a good portion of time with Eric S. Raymond, sharing some meals and a net connection in addition to firing fully automatic weapons at his Geeks with Guns gathering on day two of his trip. Eric is a truly down to earth guy, with a wonderful ability to explain how the open source movement works. Of course we all know he's very involved in the Linux cause, but it was just really neat to have him in the Kansas City area and to have face to face access to him. (Please Note: I'm not a teenaged groupie geek type, I just like to meet neat people.)
We linux users also had dinner at the Plum Tree resturaunt in Lawrence Kansas on Friday evening, with a turnout of about fourty people. Dinner with that measure of my tribe was of course a very joyous occasion - better than a Baptist revival.
> 5. What was the worst part of the show?
The bad turnout, the bad vibe that ensued, and the exhaustion. I assumed one of the many savior roles that appeared from nowhere, and volunteered to put together a Quake3 tournament with Linux. The only hardware I lacked to get 6 or more machines up and running in hours were a handful of 3D video cards, which Sam Dein of a local computer store Telectronics loaned me on a moments notice. Oddly enough, I use Linux as my primary OS at home, but haven't played many games on it. As a result, I never really managed to get Quake3 running well by the last day, and after having lost much sleep over it packed up my own gear and left the event on Friday the final day of the event around 5:00 pm.
> 6. If it happened again, would you attend?
Not only would I not attend, but I would probably be one of many who would petition Greg against organizing another of these events next year. I would instead prefer that someone with more experience organize the event.
> 7. Did you attend any panels? If so, which ones, and how were they?
I was very busy, but managed to catch Kevin Fenz of tummy.com giving a talk on the replacement for ipchains, net filter. The tummy.com folks were at the geeks with guns event, and were really a great bunch of guys. Kevin provided some very detailed advice on the use of net filter, and I loved it. These sort of knowledge sharing moments in great number would have made the event much more successful. (BTW, Kevin is the co-author of the Linux Security HOWTO.)
> 8. What was the best thing the organizers did?
Executed a flash-pot glimpse of what might have been great in the corner of my eye.
> 9. How does the show affect your view of the Linux community on the whole?
On the whole, I meet a lot of the folks I hear about all the time but haven't been closer than 500 miles to. Folks like Bruce Perens, Larry Augustin, and Eric S. Raymond. I try to catch appearances by prominent members of the greater Linux community for a good dose of religion at least twice a year. It keeps me refreshed, solidifies my faith in the open source movement, and keeps my finger on the fleshy pulse of the community that's warmer than the on-line representation thereof.
> 10. Please include anything about the show that you would like to see in the Slashdot story about it.
I think I covered everything in the first nine. Emmett, it was indeed apleasure to get to know you.
[Personal notes to Emmett removed.]
I'm not sure if you didn't realize it or there was a typo; Comdex for example is twice a year, once in Chicago in the spring, and once in Las Vegas in the fall (I may have switched the seasons, but I think it's right).
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
My friend and I tried to go to LinuxFest, but I had to work until 5. We made it to LinuxFest by 6:00 though, and thought we had an hour to enjoy it, but NO!!!! They had already locked up the doors an hour early! Maybe there was a low attendace because of this? Maybe they didn't advertise enough? Who knows. I'm just mad that they weren't open when they were supposed to be.
you go to a real city in a real state, not a mid-size city in the part of the US that is almost completely worthless
Kansas City is a fairly large city located in both Missouri and Kansas. Have you even been there? The advantage is the close location to many other cities. Be practical, its a lot closer to many people than the West or East coast.
Heheh... I know you!
The point isn't getting people to go to Kansas. Regional shows should give people in Kansas and surrounding states, or wherever they are held, a chance to attend a Linux gathering without having to go to high-buck places like New York or Silly Valley.
I agree that there are enough big-time shows already, but we need more Linux "gatherings" (or whatever you want to call them) that cost something like $50 ($25 students) to attend. You don't necessarily need a "big name" speaker at something like this, just a chance to share technical expertise and meet other Linux and Open Source enthusiasts.
Keep the whole thing small and simple, something for 200 - 400 people held in a (low cost) hotel instead of a convention center. Make it simple and inexpensive for vendors to attend, especially smaller vendors that can't afford the ever-growing cost and "booth inflation" of the big shows.
I have a major personal preference for small, humble Linux gatherings. They're more in the spirit of the true Linux community than shows that only corporate-backed people can afford to attend.
I believe regional gatherings should be held Friday and Saturday so that they give both the people who can get their employers to give them the day off, and those who are coming on their own time, a chance to be there. This is also an easier schedule for vendors, who can fly in on Thursday night, set up tabletops Friday morning, have a good time until Saturday, then break down their exhibits and fly out either Saturday evening or, because airfare is often a lot less if you stay over for a Saturday night, Sunday morning.
It's a lot more palatable for, say, Red Hat to send one or two people and a tabletop display that can be shipped via UPS to a regional meeting that only promises 300 or 400 attendees than it is for them to send a full-blown "trucked in" display and a dozen people to run it to a show ten times that size.
- Robin
Yeah, this is exactly what I was talking about. This isn't the case. There are plenty of people in the midwest interested in this stuff. But if you have a conference, you have got to have some advertising. Like I said before, even in LA or Las Vegas, if you don't advertise your conference will fail. I read most of the Linux publications that I have heard of (Linux Magazine, Linux Journal, Maximum Linux, plus online forums) and heard nada about this forum until it failed. Why wouldn't you try to advertise if you were hoping to make a big conference? If you didn't have the money, then why try to make it a big conference? Like others have said, start small and build, don't think you can start at the top.
Bite my yammer.
Yep, I'm a dumbass. I don't know, if I say something like that in humor I put something after it to explain my real view. Getting hit with something like this, whether through email or through "real" world interaction makes me want to beat someone's ass for thier narrow-minded view of me. When someone accuses me of something I didn't do, I feel like lashing out. I don't, but it still pisses me off.
I still say the guy was actually being serious. And as far as me being the dumbass, yeah I probably was. After all, I said that there are some smart people in the midwest. How un-cool is that.
BTW, for those that didn't catch it, I live in the midwest.
Bite my yammer.
In the early '90's a company I worked for had user's conference in Kansas City. Although the event was well attended the general consensus was that the city was boring.
There are two types of people you attract these shows: the ones that are "into" it and the ones who you want get on the bandwagon.
The people who are already on board just have to know that the show exists and they'll think about going. You have to make the people who aren't on board want to go. That means there has to be something else besides the show. It has to be a boondoggle of sorts. Once you get the people there then you can convince them to join up.
I've been to Kansas City. It's a nice place, but it's not the type of place that makes you stand up and say "Yeah!!! I'm there!"
For example, assume you are about to be sent on a business trip. Take the following list of cities and order them from most to least desirable destinations:
New York
Las Vegas
Kansas City
New Orleans
See what I mean.
This is a big part of what I've been saying. However, I think expecting the high population areas to understand what it's like to live in the midwest is just stupid. And I apologize for ever giving the impression that the midwest should count on the technological radar. Now, can people quit emailing me about what a worthless pile of dogshit I am? I have more to do with my time than erasing fifty emails a day saying I don't deserve the space on slashdot (yet I deserve the time it takes to write those emails). Beautiful.
Bite my yammer.
Where exactly do you live?
and...
As far as Linux in the midwest, I work for a big company that has locations all over the world and the plant I wolk at (in the midwest) is one of the only ones in the company doing anything at all with Linux. Guess things must be really backwards out here eh?
Same thing here. I live in the Wichita area and I'd never even heard about this show until it got mentioned here on slashdot.
Advertise, advertise, advertise.
There are already LUGs that meet at UMBC and in Laurel that are within a reasonable drive for you, and a new one is starting in Columbia that'll be meeting right near Rte. 175 and Rte. 108. E-mail me and I'll dig up more info on it for you.
- Robin
Don't know if I should give this out, hehe. No, I live in Sioux Falls, SD at the moment. Have lived in Fairmont, MN; Mt. Pleasant, IA; Burlington, IA; and Harrisburg, SD (not in that order).
The thing that really kills me is Linux is looked at as the ass end of the tech industry. In the midwest, we are also viewed as the ass end of . . . well, everything. God forbid you live in the midwest and use Linux....
Bite my yammer.
Linux trade shows aren't (just) for the Linux community. They're for the general public and companies of all sizes. They're an opportunity, perhaps the only one, for people immersed (voluntarily or not) in MS culture to see Linux running, learn what it's all about and be exposed to the Linux culture. Yes, we need trade shows, badly.
I did not even hear about LinuxFest until I read this post on Slashdot. Maybe there was some advertising in KC, but national advertising must have been minimal, if not null.
Another thing that would have helped: having classes and forums on development, tools, security, etc. These types of classes would make it so companies would send employees to learn, on the company. This would definately boost attendence, and in turn boost community involvement.
Not a bad idea.....better to be a little fish in a big pond than the only fish in a little pond. And hopefully the little fish will grow.
Admit nothing, deny everything and make counter-accusations.
Granted, this was not heavily promoted. I only saw four ads, two in KC Computer User and 2 in Linux Journal. I'm sure the LJ ads cost a bundle, and I'm sure Greg took quite a bath on this. It's unfortunate, because it could've been a good show, but this is KC, and we are (yes even on MY side, the MISSOURI side of Kansas City, MO) about 2-3 years behind either coast in 'getting' it. That said, I think it would be a great idea to have a HUGE booth at this fall's ITEC (the only remotely well-attended trade show in the metro KC, KS/MO area). It's pretty safe to say that almost all of the attendees at LinuxFest2000 were at least Linux aware. Although I had an absolute blast, we were essentially preaching to the choir. I'd like to see the entire KC area community, including the KULUA and the KCLUG (the Kansas City Linux User's Group - the group I'm a member of) support a booth at this fall's ITEC, AND support Greg Palmer in making next year's show (or next year's booth at ITEC) a huge success. Greg lost a bundle on this, and I think he is to be commended for making the effort. Helping him to make future events like this a HUGE success will help us all.
What's with the gun thing? How could that possibly help promote Linux?
Advertising is a gamble no matter how big or small your company is. I don't feel particularily sorry for these companies as my company has taken some gambles, and lost. However we have also taken others and comeout far ahead! It is too bad that it didn't do better, but what were the good things to come out of it?
The people who did attend had more one-on-one contact with each vendor.
It was much easier to meet vendors and establish potentially long-term beneficial relationships.
It's easy to dwell on the bad things, but overlooking the good is just not right.
regards,
Benjamin Carlson
"If voting could really change things, it would be illegal. " - Revolution Books, NY
I live in Wichita, Ks (save your condonalces - I like this town, even after all my travels) which is 3 1/2 hours from KC. Funny thing is - I never heard any ads for it, or even any word of mouth type stuff about it. This report is the first I heard of it. Heck, if I knew ESR was going to be giving a speach, that would have been worth the price of admission just to meet one of the guys who have contributed so much to the changing ideas of software and intellectial property (IE - he's done more than just be an Open Source advocate).
I really hope they do this again. Hell, I know tons of people here who would have made the trek to KC for it - but no one advertized it here, and they must not have done much advertizing in KC either, or some friends there would have contacted me about it!
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr - looking for something to read? Check out my three free novels at MidnightRyder.org
Some nice pics of emmet and a penguin in there!
kevin at tummy dot com
They've gone about as fer as they can go...
Sorry, couldn't resist.
One big advantage, I hear they got some crazy little women there.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
I thought the same thing when I saw this... I am actually about 9 hrs drive from KC, but would have loved to head up that way for a conference if I'd known about it! Maybe next time...
It's too bad you didn't get that information in time to attend.
As to why it got moderated to +4? Well its down to +3, but still, I think its maybe a +2. I've written much better posts, but they all got 1's. The ways of Slashdot are mysterious, or possibly just inane. Oh well...
Check out AbiWord.
There is a good reason for the sprint issue. Overland Park (k.c.) is the world headquarters for sprint.
I think it's important to remember that Linux, in theory, is free. I say in theory because you still have to pay for the distribution CD, or the download time. Which, in my opinion, makes this whole free thing a load of BS--Linux is just a VERY afordable server OS
So then what the hell do you consider free?
Do you want to just make a phone call and have them send you a distro?. -wait that wont work, you have to pay for the phone call.
I know, how about an 800 number, yeah that'll work!.
No, you still have to buy a computer!
I know, have Red Hat or some company send you a PC !!!
Damnit!!, where are you gonna plug this PC into!. Maybe a you can get someone to pay your electric bill - yeah that would work!
Now you just need one of these linux companies to pay you other bills because your at home playing with linux instead of working. Then linux would be free.
Enough ranting you get the point. Linux is free because you dont need to pay a licensing fee to use it. And you can modify the source if you want to because its open. -duh
It seems like the failure of the show is being blamed on mis-management. I don't think that is the (only) reason. Perhaps:
1) There are just too damn many trade shows, especially Linux-centric ones. People see YALTS (yet another linux trade show) and say 'yawn'.
2) It's in the Midwest, for crying out loud. I can see the draw of, say, Las Vegas. But Kansas? Nothing against Kansas, but combined with the yawn factor above, it seems to make things that much less interesting.
There really is an argument to be made that the location had some effect. It definately could have been a better attended show, but nowhere near a really big one. For a show to be big it needs to either be close to the people it is trying to attract, like the LinuxWorld Expo in San Jose every year, or be someplace the attendees really want to go, like all the shows (Comdex comes to mind) in Las Vegas. I'm sure I'm excluding some east coast shows as examples, but you get the idea. Still, I never saw an add for it and I frequent a lot of the linux websites, so it appears to have been a victim both of its location and very poor advertising.
Seems to me there is a Linux trade show every 3 months or so. This may be a bit too often. In many business there is one big trade show per year like Comdex or NAB or E3.
From one inside a trans-national-megacorp, it's hard to justify several trade show trips for the same stuff. I went the last Linux* show in San Jose last August and have considered traveling to one again mainly because of cost.
Since the backbone attendees to these shows are corporate types looking at the technology, you need to make it sensible to attend.
Perhaps two shows a year, one west coast and one east coast would be good, but too many shows = low turnout.
I can only imagine all the extra giveaways left over from the show. Time to call my buddy at VALinux and beg.
nuclear iraq bioweapon encryption cocaine korea terrorist
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
I packed a bunch of stuff from the Linuxfund booth into a massive black bag and it was stolen. Why? It was t-shirts (there were pretty cool) and sign-up stuff. I was hoping it was a mistake. Maybe someone accidently reached into the booth, under the table, and heaved this bag into their stuff. But probably not. Security was almost non-exsistant. But I guess people were packing in a big hurry... If anyone comes across a bag full of linuxfund t-shirts, please drop us a line (we don't mind if you take a couple for yourself, as I said, they are kind of neat). And while I think emmett is being too kind, I did learn a lot and I did enjoy myself.
here in minnesota, we had a small conferece put on by a local ISP/linux VAR.. VA linux, redhat, corel were all there, and we packed the hotel conference room.. everyone enjoyed it, as far as I could tell, I really liked the survey question that was asked.. "how many people are running linux at work secretly?" and about 3/4 the people raised their hands.. luckly, i didn't have to.. linux is company policy :)
With the dearth of volunteers actually willing to be there to do easy things like Linux Demo Days and the likes, it makes little sense to try to plan to manage the Huge Event.
It seems to me to make more sense to make use of those visits of luminaries that already take place. And to use the "promotional events" that already regularly take place.
Are those not "promotional events"?
In any case, I can't take terribly seriously the criticisms of someone with so "willing" an attitude to take responsibility that they declare themselves to be an Anonymous Coward.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
There is a place for regional shows of Linux, technology, firms, and benefits. These should be geared to the level of local interest, however. We don't need every town of 100,000 with a LUG trying to sponsor LinuxWorld Expo. Good shows are a lot of work for all involved, including the organizers, vendors, keynotes, hands-on instructors, and attendees.
One model which seems appropriate to me is something akin to an installfest on steroids, aimed at low- and mid-tier local companies, showing what Linux is, what it does, how it can be installed, and how it can solve business needs. There have been several of these, aimed at gathering a few hundred local businesses plus local Linux talent. The forum is to showcase local Linux firms and consultants. There's also the option to bring in a few national firms for a low-key presence - a small demo but not a full-booth setup, with plenty of opportunities to interact with local businesses directly.
Linux is about fitting to the tool to the task -- let's think appropriate technology, or forums, here.
What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
Scope out Kuro5hin
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
-1 Troll.
You might just as well say "The novelty of Windows is begginning to wear thin...Why can't I open postscript docs in windows? Why does windows bluescreen so much? Haven't they heard of memory protection?" and "Why do my graphics card drivers have to be WHQL certified?"
Linux is (mostly) stable (I will not get into a Linux vs. BSD rant; Suffice to say that linux is more stable than Win2k (in my personal experience) and pretty damn easy to configure. It also fits in well in any heterogenous environment, communicating with macs and PCs and novell and so on. Whether or not IBM, Corel, SGI, and the others support linux is irrelevant; Linux was here before they showed any interest in it, and it'll be here even if they back away from it.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Okay, I can't spell, I am fully willing to admit that. Thank you for pointing that out, I think I'll be running my posts through ispell before they go up...
I would have gone to this if I had known about it in advance. Unfortunately, I find most of my timely Linux news come from only one Website - this one right here.
How about having a Slashdot area for announcing such community events?
Seriously. Of course, we'd probably disappear for a bit to go to Powell's book store, but hey, we've got priorities.
Will in Seattle
Looks like my company alone was 10% of the LinuxFest's attendance, and we don't even use Linux (A FreeBSD junkie personally)...
1. What is your full name and position at your company?
Christofer C. Bell, Systems Programmer, Sprint
2. What was the first time you heard about LinuxFest 2000?
I first heard about LinuxFest when Dustin Decker started trying to organize a
KULUA dinner with Eric S. Raymond. At that time, I had no idea that the
dinner was going to be in connection with LinuxFest. It wasn't until later
when a coworker of mine, Jeffrey Watts, turned to me at the office and
mentioned his concerns that the event wasn't being promoted at all and how he
expected little turnout.
3. What did you think of the show?
I thought the show could have been a lot more successful. I think the people
that did attend had a good experience for the most part, however, there were
very few people there, far fewer than I would have hoped for an event of this
type. When I walk into a Linux showcase event and ESR is giving a speech and
only 1/3 of the seats are filled, I am embarassed, not only for Linux, but for
my LUG whose name, however tenuously, is connected to the event.
4. What was the best part of the show?
I think the two highlights for me were the ESR speech and Emmett's keynote
address. I also enjoyed being able to puruse and entire area devoted to Linux
related merchandise for sale (the LinuxMall booth).
5. What was the worst part of the show?
Again, I can't stress enough how disappointed I was at the turnout. I amembarassed for the Linux community in Kansas. We had some big name vendors
there, Red Hat, Informix, Atipa, Compaq, et al, all who pulled out before the
show was over, and in the case of Red Hat, before it even began.
6. If it happened again, would you attend?
Of course I would attend, but that's because I have a passion for Linux,
however, I am not part of the audience for events like this. I'm part of the
choir and I don't need to hear the sermon, I'm already a True Believer(tm),
it's the IT industry that needs to get their hands on this information, that
need the exposure to not only what Linux can offer, but to the big names in the
industry that are out there supporting us.
7. Did you attend any panels? If so, which ones, and how were they?
I attended the ESR keynote and the Emmett keynote. I enjoyed both immensely.
It was excited to walk into my first day of LinuxFest and hear a voice I have
heard so often in interviews on the Internet, Eric S. Raymond, one of the
greatest proponents of the Open Source movement, preaching the Linux gospel
live and in the flesh.
I enjoyed Emmett's keynote in that it showed more of the irreverent grassroots
nature of the Open Source movement. It's the movers and shakers in the
trenches that drive this technology, this revolutionary development model
forward, and it's people like ESR and Emmett and others that can act as
spokespersons to those that really need to hear the message, the CIOs and IT
mamangers of the world.
8. What was the best thing the organizers did?
I think it's great that the organizers were able to line up some big names in
the corporate world to come show LinuxFest what they have to offer the
community. I am diappointed that the organizers were not able to follow
through with promoting the event so that the people that need to hear the
message would attend, or indeed even know LinuxFest ever happened.
9. How does the show affect your view of the Linux community on the
whole?
Being a part of the community, it doesn't affect my view at all. What
concerns me is the possible bad taste this event may have left in the mouths
of the likes of Compaq, Informix, etc. I don't like the idea that Linux is
tarnished, however little, in the eyes of the people we need to be impressing
for Linux to break into the enterprise in the big way. I don't like the idea
that the message we sent them is "the IT industry in Kansas doesn't care about
Linux and doesn't want to hear your message."
10. Please include anything about the show that you would like to see in
the Slashdot story about it.
I think the biggest thing I'd like to see mentioned is some connection between
the on-fire grassroots effort that goes into developing and evangalizing Linux
and how that same kind of fire was harnessed by the -local- community in an
attempt to make the event somewhat of a success. How that drive and
determinaion to succeed brought Emmett here, helped avoid ESR cancelling at
the 11th hour, and made the event fun and interesting for those that -did-
have a chance to attend.
I never heard about it either & I work in OP near the Sprint campus too. In my case I couldn't have gone anyway because i WAS in Vegas at the SAP TechEd2000, which was a lot of fun ....er... and oh yeah, intformative and educational.
On the topic of SAP I was surprised at how much they were pushing linux. Had their chief linux zealot speak at the keynote session. They have contributed to the latest version of linux (so that SAP could run on it) and now use it as their defualt unix development platform.
KC is a god place for tech stuff BTW, there is more going on here than just mainframe shops & sprint. (We, for instance, write stuff for mobile devices as well as servers)
Why are people so sad that Linux shows aren't just like Wintel shows? That Linux apps aren't just like Windows apps? That Linux stocks aren't as successful as Oracle's stock?
Yeah, sure, Linux is the Next Big Thing. But guess what, greedy corporate pig-dogs, you're not invited to the party. It's not the same game, with a different team. It's a different game.
I could give a rat's ass whether Linux trade shows attract huge corporate sponsors and wall-to-wall crowds. Are these trade show failures supposed to imply impending doom for Linux? Hardly. They simply imply failure for business as usual.
Guess what, you won't become a billionare by using or distributing Linux. But it will proliferate regardless. If you don't get it, go ahead and ask your company to continue subsidizing the airline and travel industry by sending you to stupid trade shows.
The GPL is NOT ABOUT MONEY, STUPID!!!
--Lawrence Lessig for Congress!
As I read these comments, what I had feared all along was seems to bear out. The promoter (if there was one) for this show did a _terrible_ job. I live and work in Kansas City as a Systems Admin. Better than 95% of our server environment is *NIX and better than 75% of that is Linux. How did I find out about the show? One of our _Sales_people get's emailed about trade shows held at that location! Promotion for this show on a local scale was weak, and on a regional/national scale it was non-existent.
The website's signup form did not work. We all registered online and there were no badges waiting for us. When we got there, they had a 'automated' signup form that also didn't work.
What exhibitors were there did a great job of representing their organizations, but without an audience it must have been tough to stay upbeat.
I do not feel that this show should be taken as a reflection on Kansas City's Linux community. There is trememndous support here, and I think another go next year is a good idea. FOR GOD'S SAKE, get someone who knows how to get the word out!
Help, I'm being repressed!
Was this event scheduled for the same time as PC Expo? If so, it was no wonder that only 300 hundred people showed up. It seems that the people who might have shown up went to the expo that was more prominent, ie PC Expo.
Of course I could be completely wrong.
Disclamer - Opinion of Person
Linux is built on a community. I've thought about going to a trade show before, but who needs to? Because of the great efforts of many sites that gather and disseminate information, from /. to freshmeat to linuxgames, I never feel "out of touch".
I'm not saying trade shows are doomed, but there's probably a lot less need.
That was one of the reasons why we incorporated, so that there would be a "shell" there around which such activities could grow.
But we concluded about a year ago that having "a Linux show" here would require really fine-tuning the purpose, in that there are just so many others.
This is not something that most would want as a career.
It's a lot of work to put on a show, whether it be small or large. It sounds like the Kansas group got overambitious, which is quite regrettable, as there will be some unfortunate fallout.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
IMHO, while Linux people need their own conferences maybe twice a year, they should also go the BIG publicized conferences and take some of the limelight from the Proprietary world of computing....
But a lot of such shows give little info on location. Look at the next three pieces of mail which mention a convention and try to find where it physically is -- You might only find phone numbers and maybe a mention of the city as part of the name of a hotel. Or the city will be in small print 2/3rds of the way down on the order form.
I didn't hear a single word about this show until now. I'm only a couple of hours from KC, and I would have jumped at the chance to attend an event like this.
My god, next time you put on a show you should probably tell someone about it.
I looked at their website about four months
before the event was to happen.
First of all, very little advertising went
into this event.
Secondly, when I finally heard about it (only
when searching for linux events on yahoo) I
looked at the site and saw how badly prepared
they were for the event.
Honestly, four months before the event, they were
seemed to be still taking presenters. They didn't
mention keynote presenters or anything.
I opted to save my training time and money for
something that I thought would be better organized.
Even during the event, I heard of several technical problems - like during Eric Raymond's
speech.
There is plenty of Linux support in Kansas City,
we just need an event that is correctly managed.
Unfortunately, because of the showing of this
event, it may be hard to organize another one and
get vendor attention!
Ahh, such is life,
-Twivel
You have to go to the Fox River cities like Elgin or Aurora or to Gary, IN (about 1 hour drive each), but there are riverboat casinos in the Chicago area and they've been there for years.
None in the city, though. Don't know about Minneapolis/St. Paul.
Microsoft's VP of Customer Service is Helen Waite. If you are having problems with their products go to Helen Waite.
What went wrong:
1) The event ended at five. Most techies work day jobs. The event organizer said he was expecting people would only want to come to a Linux event on company time, and couldn't CONCEIVE of people wanting to come on their own initiative. (Sigh.)
2) The event didn't SCALE. It was the first event in the area, and was set up to only be successful if it had THOUSANDS of people. Hundreds showed up, but it was a failure. It had a HUGE auditorium, which looked empty even with a hundred people in it. It stretched over five days, so that if a thousand people showed up overall that would be about two hundred a day. Jeff from The Linux Show (www.thelinuxshow.com) told me a lot about making efficient use of space (narrow the aisles so it seems more crowded, if vendors leave put in tables and chairs where their booths were. Worst case scenario the boundaries are drapes on racks, so move them in so the empty space is walled off...) For their first outing, they needed an event that could be successful with 250 people but scale to at least ten times that. Instead they had one that would be a BOMB if less than 5000 people showed up.
The event was TOO LONG for what it had. They had Bruce Perens, Eric Raymond, Maddog, Emmet, but they were almost all gone by Wednesday night. If they'd had all of them for a two day event (friday and satuday, one day fo people coming on company time one day for the independents), it would have been a much more dense and compelling argument. And if everybody they had had showed up in half the time, they'd have had twice as many people at any given time. :)
3) There was advertising. The guy who ran it lost $100,000, and probably $30-40k of that was spent on radio and television ads. Targetted terribly. The vendors who came could have provided lists of names for direct mailings (postal, not spam, it's not as annoying because the had to spend money to do it.) But the vendors really weren't involved except to show up. Neither were the LUG. Both groups could see evil afoot, but expected the show to succeed on the sheer momentum of Linux. They thought "have a show, and they will come". Advertisers say you need to get the word out to potential customers seven times before they even remember you. The SAME potential customers. Many people "heard about it" but not enough times to actually bother making a DECISION. People procrastinate, you've got to remind them you exist a lot before they deal with you at all.
4) A show needs about a year of preparation and a large staff. The guy running it didn't delegate anything to anybody. There were no dress rehersals. There were almost no pre-confirmed attendees. (THIS is why you give big discounts to early registration.) Nobody was doing tapes of the conferences. There was no reception for the press the day before the show opened (forcing all the vendors to set up their booths ahead of time).
5) The place was almost impossible to find. Clear directions how to get there should have been on the website, and emailed to all confirmed attendees, plus posted on Linux Today at least. LOTS more signage was needed as well.
6) It wasn't targeted AT anybody. Corporate purchasing agents? Managers? Professional programmers? College students? Did it have a central theme? Who was the show FOR?
Finally, the people I talked to knew what was wrong (all of the above other people pointed out to me when I asked), but didn't feel involved in the process. I was some nut who drove up from Austin and I got more changed (fruitlessly as it turned out) than a lot of the people who were there, just by talking to people.
In the end, I grabbed a lot of boxes of magazines and CD's left behind in abandoned booths (freebies they were going to give out that would cost too muc to ship back) to take back to Austin with me. I've already given out about half of them, put them in the hands of actual Linux users. That's how I see this: an experience that we should salvage what we can from. In learning, and in resources. :)
P.S. One of Eric Raymond's writings is how Linux convention organizers can learn from the decades of experience of SF-Con organizers. ANybody thinking of putting on a con, go read eric's site. It's good. And email jeff at thelinuxshow.com who had more good suggestions about organization than any other person there. If you want to email me, bounce off my (now AMAZINGLY stale :) web site. My address is there.
Rob
Actually, I'm pretty sure the LUGS (at least the KCLUG) got their booths free. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
OK I'll bite.
Linux is FREE!! It's free because you have FREEdom! It's free because you have the right do with it as you please. You can modify it, install it on as many machines as you like and you can even distribute it so long as you don't limit the buyers from exercising those same liberties. Yeah, Linux is affordable, for those with high speed internet connections its VERY affordable.
You're right most "cheap" companies wouldn't invest money to send their staff to a Linux expo. In fact, most "cheap" companies wouldn't have taken a gamble on Linux in the first place. They're too afraid of things like employee education costs, integration expenses, legacy application porting costs, and the (perceived) lack of "real" support for Linux. They're dead wrong, but that's the way most "cheap" companies think. They think that mainting the status quo is the best method to reducing costs over the long haul. As for the "progressive" companies that are already using linux in some manner, they look forward to sending their staff to any conference that makes them more knowledgable and productive.
Now for the Swami's prediction:
"Linux expos, like Linux itself, will steadily gain popularity as more and more people become more disgusted with proprietary software."
Thank you Swami.
"The words of the prophets are written on the Slashdot walls."
A day's drive or less from KC, Chicago, Indianapolis, and Memphis. If it was there it might have attracted a bigger crowd.
Microsoft's VP of Customer Service is Helen Waite. If you are having problems with their products go to Helen Waite.
Yep. STL would probably work better (assuming it's properly advertised). You've got a centrally located airport (instead of having to drive halfway to Iowa to catch a plane), light-rail from the airport to downtown, and plenty of other smaller conference centers spread throughout the suburbs.
There are a lot of companies here with a large, technical workforce, and/or a large IT department: Boeing, Monsanto, Ralston, Anheuser-Busch, TWA, etc. STL is 4th in the US as a headquarters location for Fortune 500 companies, and consistently ranks in the top 10 as a place for small businesses.
As for activities outside of a conference, there's the Arch, the Zoo, the Art Museum, the casinos, shopping, multi-use trails, good drinking establishments that serve products other than those from Busch, Six Flags if you're into the amusement park scene, and lots and lots of nearby wineries....
Kansas. It's a great place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit there.
KC is a great place for a show.
Lots of good hotels, nightclubs, casinos, a great airport, and lots to do.
And although there are some 4 LUGS here, none of the LUGs had ANYTHING to do with the planning or setup of this show. The LUGs even had to pay for their own stuff at the show. Linuxfest was *NOT* a community run event. It was run by a marketing company (they obviously aren't good at what they do..heh).
The members of the LUGs invested a huge amount of personal resources when they saw how bad the show was doing. They tried like hell to save it.
In the end, this shows me how strong the linux community can be. The LUG members, Larry, Bruce, Eric and Emmett all invested time and resources into trying to help this thing be productive, but it was just too screwed up to be saved.
Thanks to those who tried.
I live and work in Omaha, within easy (3 hours) driving distance of Kansas City.
Several friends and I had discussed making the trip down to the show on Saturday (it did not appear to be worth the vacation used or money spent to go during the week), but by Thursday we were already seeing e-mailed reports about the vendor pull-outs and lack of attendance.
A lack of attendance at this convention (especially a mid-week convention) does not mean that there is no interest in Linux in the area; it means that the interested people have better ways to spend their time (work or school, perhaps) and money (the daily fee was excessive for a first-time event).
I hope that the organizers do try again next year, with better advertising, more nationally-known speakers (maybe not just from Linux, but from other Unix or Open Source camps), vendors who won't close up BEFORE the show begins, and a fee which resembles the value of the show to attendees.
I have been begging for a chance to attend a Linux show/expo/training session/anything. The only way my company would pay for it (or allow me the time off) was if I could find one in the midwest. I'm not sure if this would have been close enough for management (we are based around Sioux Falls, SD), but it's closer than any others I've heard of. And damn it, why didn't they publicize a little?
I know of at least thirty people right here in Sioux Falls that would have jumped at the chance to go to something like this (add up 30 people for each town over 100,000 in the midwest and add that to the possible attendance of the trade show, and it would likely be more if it was publicized well). Why didn't they really let people know about this. It shounds like a real mix-up with management, never heard of that happening before (sarcasm people).
If I actually hear about this next year I'll be there. I hate to see something like this fall flat as vendors will fail to appear at all for a show in the midwest if they get too many experiences like this.
Bite my yammer.
Pictures from one of the 300 that bothered to show up at linuxfest. I have pictures http://louissypher.yi.org
www.bleepyou.com
I don't think that is being cheap. I think it is reasonable. Why should I pay $300 just so I can go to an event where companies will try to sell me stuff? MLUG's event was free for attendees and very cheap for exhibitors -- I think we just asked for them to donate a door prize.
Had the entry fee for the KC event been $30 or less, I might have gone.
I think it's important to remember that Linux, in theory, is free. I say in theory because you still have to pay for the distribution CD, or the download time. (Which, in my opinion, makes this whole free thing a load of BS--Linux is just a VERY afordable server OS).
So, now, let's try to analyse this; of all the companies out there that are not willing to shelve out money for an OS, and would ratter use Linux for it's price point, how many of them are willing to send a delegation to a Linux expo, that'll cost 'em money (travel fare, hotel and other expenses)?
This is a factor I think will hinder every Linux expo there might be. Some will be more successfull, but maybe only because they target certain fields like internet hosting, while keeping their size appropriate for the given target.
The biggest problem with this show was that no one knew it existed! I work about 2 minutes from the Overland Park Trade Center (where the show was held) and I live about 10 mins from it and never heard a peep about the thing until I saw it's abysmal failure here on Slashdot.