[wellylug] Installfest Planning

[Colin Klenner]

There seems to be some interested people out there for an installfest.
However no one has fronted and indicated they would take a lead to form
a committee and organise it. 
I am not volunteering as my time is severly limited these days.

The best approach is to set a location and date first. Make the date at
least a couple of months off so you can get some advertising out there
and ensure everything is covered.
If you want to get sponsors then get that going as your second item. You
will want someone to fund the advertising.
Decide what sort of installfest you want to have - aiming for beginners
and converts only, for semi-users to knowledgeable ones, or a mixed
venue catering to both. We had demand for Partition Magic as well from
converts, but this was time consuming and wasteful.
Do you want to allow advertinsing by sponsors and other parties at the
day?
Decide what you want to advertise and where. Draft an advert and take it
with you when approaching potential advertising places. Think public
places, transport, and schools.
Remember to include your sponsors message on the advert.
What sort of structure on the day do you want? A central server with the
distributions on it and a couple of cd-writers, or pre-built CD's. At
the last 'fest we had a half dozen of each of the four distro's and
needed more.
At the venue how are you going to signpost it?
Are you going to have separate areas for the types of people? 
Do you want to include a gaming venue? - be warned this could be illegal
if not done right.
What demo's do you want and on who's machine's?
Who will be the front man on the day to direct people and generally take
people to the experts?
Parking is a big consideration as is the weather. 

and so on. Think about it people, I am happy to advise and support in
whatever way I can but time is ticking and no one is taking the point
forward. This is YOUR opportunity to contribute in a significant way to
growing Linux in our Wellington.

-- 
Colin Klenner <colink at clear.net.nz>
Wellington, New Zealand
phone/fax +64 4 388 3835