Slashdot Mirror
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.
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.
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:
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
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....
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
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