Re: [PLUG] Installfest -- publicizing

["William H. Magill" <magill@isc.upenn.edu>]

>   I think the most important part of this is the proper promotion. We've got
>   to spread it far & wide otherwise it'll become completely useless.
>
You'll have to plan it for 60 days hence to get it into almost any printed
media....Philly Talk comes to mind. Most events need to be received 30 days
prior to the copy deadline for an issue. So if the August issue hits the
stands on July 10th (pretty typical advance date), you need to get the info
to the publication by about June 10th. Each publication is different. You
need to read the mastheads to find out the dates. This is just to give you
an idea about how far in advance you have to plan something to get it into
print media.

And you want to get it into print media, because the probability is that
the people you want to reach for an installfest are not yet on line.

Another possibility is to "advertise" in the PACS newsletter (assuming that
they still have one.) (www.pacsnet.org)

Maybe do one at a PACS meeting? or some other similar "related"
organization's regular meeting. (you become their event program.)

Libertynet.com also has some kind of envents calendar.

I can post a notice to Penn's newsserver for the "upenn.<group>" range.
[These newsgroups are not propigated off penn's newsserver.]
I believe that Drexel, LaSale, Villanova, Temple etc. all have similar
local newsgroups.

Penn's Unix/linux Users Group has done Linux "installfests" on campus in
the Fall for incoming students for several years...although I think there
were only two people interested in getting help last year and the event
was actually canceled with the two folks getting "house calls" instead.

Consider the idea that you might want to get people to sign-up in advance.

A) If only a few people come, "time-slots" are not important; but more than
        one or two people simultaneously can be a problem.

B) If nobody is interested (ie nobody shows up) then you sit around
        twiddeling your thumbs and thinking of other things you could have
        (showld have) done with your time.
        
C) if only 1 or 2 people sign up  -- they can get house calls instead of
        schlepping their CPU somplace.

Don't forget -- schlepping your system around is a real problem [and
therfore a trivial reason not to participate] for many people... requires a
car, strong back, weak mind, etc... Not to mention, problematic for the
health of that system if the weather goes bad, fingers get tired lugging it
across the parking lot.... 

-- 
                        www.tru64unix.compaq.com
                              www.tru64.org
                             comp.unix.tru64
                        
T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill                          Senior Systems Administrator
Information Services and Computing (ISC)   University of Pennsylvania
Internet: magill@isc.upenn.edu             magill@acm.org
http://www.isc-net.upenn.edu/~magill/

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