Slashdot Mirror
Obtaining Guest Speakers For Users Groups?
sdweber asks: "I am the president of the LUG here at Lehigh University. Many members of the group have expressed an interest in having a guest speaker or speakers come in and talk about Linux, Open Source, or other geek-friendly topics. Looking for a good speaker, however, is proving harder than I thought. There are a few big names that come to mind quickly (ESR, RMS, and others) but beyond that I'm not sure where to look. Has anyone had a good/bad experience with guest speakers? Who are some good people to chase down? Of course, being college students, we don't have a whole lot of money to offer the speaker, but there are plenty of interested listeners eager to learn. Any suggestions?"
anyone that refers to themselves with 3 letter abbreviations (RMS for example) are usually good about talking about geeky topics...
.sigs??
-- Don't you hate it when people comment on other people's
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
When I checked ESR asks only that you pay for his trip, not his speaking time. This may work out better than many other speakers. Alternatively, you could consult with another local professional society (ala ACM) who get money to pay for guest speakers, etc.
I'm up here in Minot, ND let me know if interested! :-)
I'll post the outline if anyone's interested.
--------
get jiggy w/ ayn rand!
A couple of days ago Donald Becker spoke here in
Linkoping, Sweden. He spoke about Beowulf clusters
and Linux networking. The talk was both extremly
interesting and funny, and there was a great
questions and answers session after the talk.
A lot of credits to Donald for giving a wonderful
talk which was appreciated by a lot of people.
Also a lot of credits to http://www.lysator.liu.se
and http://www.nsc.liu.se for organizing the talk.
See http://www.scyld.com for more information
about Beowulf clusters and Linux network drivers.
Fredrik Henbjork
http://o112.ryd.student.liu.se
For small organizations (i.e., under 25 full-time staff people), you can probably contact the proposed speaker directly. You might have to go through a secretary: Be courteous and follow their rules. The speakers will probably make arrangements themselves.
Organizations of 25-75 people often have a dedicated Public Relations Manager to handle such things: Ask for them. They in turn might send you to a freelancer or small agency, who'll make the arrangements.
With companies of this size and bigger, they probably won't be interested unless:
- You can deliver audience members who are in their target markets
- You can deliver large, high-profile audiences ("opinion leaders"), and/or
- The talk is convenient for them.
In short, you'll have a hard time getting someone to get on a plane to appear before your 20-member User's Group.Finally, for bigger organizations (75+ full-time staff), you may have to deal with the organization's P.R. firm. Go to their Web site, look under the "About us" button, then to the "Press" section. If they don't list a press contact, look for contact names and numbers on press releases.
Don't be discouraged if they turn you down, and feel free to pester them if they don't return your emails and phone calls within a week. Good luck!
--Tom Geller
President, Bandwidth P.R.
Tom Geller
I am sorry, but why do you need a guest speaker? To inspire you? When was the last time you got inspired by a speaker? What was the result of such inspiration? As surprising as it may, I don't believe your group needs a guest speaker. I believe that whatever you are seeking can come from inside, I challenge you to take control, to do something for the group that they will not have expected, or to do something that the group has never done. You really don't need Linus or ESR or RMS to come down and talk to you. What you need is the "next linus" to spring up to life, Linus was not a next anyone, he took action that he felt necessary, you ought to do that. Good luck. Cheers
------ Curiosity killed the cat. {satisfaction brought it back | it didn't die ignorant | lack of it is killing mankind
To get speakers, you need members. Speakers don't generally want to come to talk to the 5 guys who live in your dorm and run Linux.
And how do you get members? Basic common courtesy. Pardon me while I go on a rant for a moment: I've only lived in my area for a year so I don't know a lot of people. Last night, I went to a LUG meeting that was a complete disaster (from my point of view). I show up and sit down at the table (dinner first, then speaker). No one asks me my name, no one tells me their name, no one has name tags, no one explains what's going on (even as simple as "once everyone gets here we'll do introductions, etc"). We sit around and try to hear one another over the noise for 30 minutes and then order dinner. Again, no explanation of how we are going to be paying, etc. We eat. At 7:00 we go upstairs and participate in much unexplained activity (handing out tickets for what turned out to be a raffle later, making in-jokes, etc). Speak for a while and then out.
If all I wanted a LUG for was technical information, I'd browse a website on the same topic and save myself the drive and price of dinner. I want a LUG to be a social group--talk about Linux issues, make local connections, etc. I know I wasn't the only new person there because I saw one or two one-off intros going on--but no concerted effort to make people welcome. I felt like I was attending a stranger's wedding.
I'm not a total socio-phobe myself--I was looking alert and interested in conversations, making eye-contact and even contributing comments. But only two people bothered to even ask my name and I'm pretty sure one of them was a new guy. Sure, I could ask names first--but shouldn't it be the function of the LUG to make visitors welcome and not the other way around?
(As a sidenote, why is there always one of those smart-alecky geeks with the nervous sniff and inability to shut up when he is wrong in any group of computerphiles? Somebody smack those idiots.)
--
An abstained vote is a vote for Bush and Gore.
Non-meta-modded "Overrated" mods are killing Slashdot
(Hey Ryan! Here's your proof!)
Although the URL now redirects to linuxjournal, www.linuxresources.com used to maintain a list of people who could/would speak on Linux subjects. I notice in the table of contents that it's still there under the new ownership.
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
Quotes from A Man for All Seasons
Having hosted RMS, he expects that his lodging, meals, and transportation will be paid expenses, in addition to a speaker's fee (that's how he earns his living, for the most part).
However, he adjusts his fee to the economic means of his host and is willing (and appears to prefer) to have someone put him up for a night rather than incur the expense of a hotel room (though he is alergic to cats).
In short, if he's in your city anyway, and you're willing to put him up, it would probably not be a great expense to have him speak. I would reccomend though, that you permit him to collect donations for the FSF, or sell FSF wares if you can't come up with a reasonable (say $500) speaker's fee.
He is not as unreasonable as his reputation makes him out to be, is a great speaker, and can be contacted by email (Check the GNU website for an email address).
As Executive Vice-President of the University of Alabama in Huntsville's Student Government Association (*waves to all the UAH /.ers*), I'd give you this to-do list:
Remember, just ask a poor, tired SGA EVP if ya need some help.
--
-- Geof F. Morris
I'm from Bethlehem, right near Lehigh, and while I won't pretend I'm anyone like ESR or RMS, I was asked by the Lehigh LUG to come speak last year. It would have been great because I could have stayed with my family and visited while on some company business.
/me shrugs. I suggest emailing your prospective speakers as a useful way of getting them interested/to show up :)
Unfortunately, the fellow from the LUG who emailed me never replied to my followup.
m.
Loki Software, Inc.
"Sebastian you're in a mess. They called you King of all the Hipsters, is it true or are you still the Queen?" -- B
I was involved with a local ACM chapter and LUG who co-sponsored an event (not in an official capacity, so I do not represent the views of either). We had several speakers, but ESR was the "draw". We had a tiny budget going into it, but did just have enough to fly ESR in and out. All the arrangements with ESR were finalized many months in advance.
As is the tradition, we decided to try to sell T-Shirts to help pay for things. I paid for these out of my own pocket. More on this later.
I happened to be the person with a car who had the lightest schedule that day (I'd only have to miss one class to pick him up), so as soon as my class was out I picked up the person who had arranged ESR's visit and we drove the 80 miles to the airport as quickly as possible.
When we got to the airport, we searched the airport from top to bottom. No ESR. We talked to a series of airline employees trying to find out if they had any idea what happened to him. About an hour after we got to the airport we finally got someone to tell us that he never got on the plane. After more inquiry to see if he had for some reason switched flights (he didn't) and after checking voice mail to see if he had let us know he wouldn't be there (he didn't) we drove home.
Then I spent about an hour trying to get him on the phone. Here's a little tidbit: most people who answer phones at VALinux don't even know who he is, and those who do don't have ANY idea how to get in touch with him.
I finally gave up and went to class. Later (much later) that afternoon, we finally got an email from him. His explanation was that he "forgot", but that if we would buy another ticket for him he still MIGHT be able to make it. This was about 16 hours before the symposium was scheduled to start. Even if we could have gotten tickets at that point, we wouldn't be able to afford them.
Being the honest people we are, we notified everyone that ESR would in fact not be attending. As a result, there are still 90 T-Shirts left over (anyone want to buy one?).
[Luckily, another person involved in the event (thanks Andy!) got a hold of someone to fill in (who did a great job), which combined with the rest of the talks we had made a great conference.]
Only pay for his trip, eh? Let's see:
Plane tickets: $350
T-Shirts: $400 - $100 for the t-shirts we actually sold
Other: ~$150
PLUS at least two people wasting 10 hours combined just on ESR arrangements.
What did we get? Not a damn thing. I'm still out $400.
Thanks a lot ESR.
I have a baby at home and in general try to only take a trip once a month. I have recently had to turn down a user group, well in advance of the event, simply because my schedule got too tight.
I look with especial kindness upon speaking engagements that are willing to pay for my wife and child to come with me, and will in general go out of my way to give them more than one talk, etc. If we can do a bit of sightseeing around the thing, it becomes something fun rather than another out-and-back trip with me missing the travel days away from my family.
I always show up. Always. That's pretty basic responsibility, but some people get that wrong and make us look bad.
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
Now I've just gotta get a similar group started in the town where I've moved...