[TriLUG] Speaking of Lulu Tech circus (article found)

[Mike Johnson]

David A. Cafaro [dac at cafaro.net] wrote:
> There is an article at linux.com/newsforge for those interested:
> 
> http://newsforge.com/newsforge/02/09/28/2322245.shtml?tid=11

I read this article, and I think I'm annoyed.  Here's why:

Young said he was a bit disappointed that most of the dozen or so user
groups that had booths did the typical trade-show user-group thing: sit
behind a table and let the attendees come to them. 


What the fsck where we supposed to do?  We had -no- idea what this thing
was about.  To us, it -was- a typical trade-show.  Why wouldn't we to
the typical thing?  Did we have the slightest clue what to expect?  No.
Did we have any idea what sorts of attendees to expect?  No.  We had to
beg for internet access.  We did not have enough booth space to do
anything -other- than 'the typical trade-show user-group thing', except
we managed to pull off two booths.  There were no 'exhibitor' badges for
us, just the little wrist band, so we probably didn't much look like
'exhibitors'.


This statement really ticks me off:

At coming shows, user groups will get free booths only if they bring
interactive presentations, Young said.

Fine.  Don't like the way we do things, we won't show up (or, at the
very least, don't expect us to be telepathic and be able to figure out
why this is different from every other trade show we've ever been to).  
Several of us contributed significant portions of our weekends (and no
small amount of honest to god sweat) to pull off what we did.  And while 
we could perhaps do better, I think we did a fine job and I give my 
thanks to all the voluntters.  What does he want, a dog 'n pony show?  
Not if we only have one booth (remember, we had two, but that was a 
mistake on their part).

I'm proud of what we did pull off.  We got a lot of new members, we
spread the Linux word, we got Mandrake 9 into the hands of around ten
different people, several of whom had -never- installed Linux.  I think
we did quite well, and I feel that Bob Young insulted our work.

If anyone in Lulu wants to pass this along to Bob, feel free.  I'd be
more than happy to talk to him about -our- experience.

Mike
-- 
"Let the power of Ponch compel you!  Let the power of Ponch compel you!"
   -- Zorak on Space Ghost

GNUPG Key fingerprint = ACD2 2F2F C151 FB35 B3AF  C821 89C4 DF9A 5DDD 95D1
GNUPG Key = http://www.enoch.org/mike/mike.pubkey.asc
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 230 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www.trilug.org/pipermail/trilug/attachments/20020929/3198f4ef/attachment.pgp>