Alan Pope wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 25, 2007 at 10:50:23AM +0000, Alan Pope wrote:
>> Could we get a stand in the shopping centre perhaps? Alan, maybe the contact
>> I gave you at Bracknell council could help? I'll contact her and see what
>> she says.
>>
>
> Ok, contact at Bracknell says we can have a stand either inside or outside
> the shopping centre. We will have power at either location so can run a few
> laptops to demo stuff. They will also supply a table and a couple of chairs,
> we just need a nice cloth/sheet or something to make it look less rubbish.
>
> Further good news is that there is a fashion show upstairs in the centre
> that day so it should be absolutely rammed (as she put it). I have reserved
> it for now, and we will need to confirm around two weeks before hand whether
> we want to go ahead.
>
> Bad news is that we need to pay. It's 200 quid for the spot which is what
> they charge commercially. I will ask around and see if I can get some
> sponsorship, I'll let you know about this.
Wow. Ok, if the money is available then good.
The Princess Square shopping centre (mall) extends out from its exit
doors and has a covered area far about 30 meters. This is where most
of the displays are sited. It can be a bit drafty and if it rains is a
bit desolate, although dry. There is currently a space inside the
centre adjacent to the (up) escalator recently vacated by a cookies
kiosk. One factor about these sites is that they are *always* used for
fully commercial ventures. Car sales people and mobile phone sellers
for the site outside the doors. Hard (even desperate) sell, often with
a 'catch'. Peoples expectations may be confused with us being sited
like a commercial unit but advertising Freedom stuff, and presumably
gifting CDs to those who convince us they are worthy of them. Power
inside by the escalator is probably easy, but I do not recall power
being readily available outside the doors in the covered area. If we
can present with an obviously wholesome and 'Good to have Freedom'
genre then inside is best.
If you would like I can take some photos or short clips, but if you
would like to come and see anyway, I would try to meet up.
Any ideas when?
I have been looking at town event licensing, and it looks to me that
unless we want to collect money or play (performing rights) music,
then a license is probably not relevant, but I will check.
> I'll see if I can get more detail about the location in the centre and the
> size of "plot" we can have. If I get a chance I'll pop over there with a
> camera to do a recce.
>
> Promotion will of course be important. Can we advertise the "event" in local
> free paper, and maybe other periodicals? Ideas welcome.
If it is firmed up I can take that on, we can discuss what is done. If
the adverts are paid for, I will need to discuss the amounts.
> I would also like for us to prepare our message, what are our goals, what do
> we want to get across. This is after all not a LUG event, or a particular
> distro event, hell it's not even a Linux event, it's a Free Software Day. So
> we need to be mindful of what we tell people and be "on message" where we
> can. This is of course detail that we can sort nearer the time, but it pays
> for us to at least be thinking about it.
The registration of the bracknell infopoint team allowed me to ask for
2 tee shirts, 20 Ubuntu CDs and 10 open CDs. I have no idea if these
will be granted. I have an A3 printer which can be in theory used for
poster/s. I have some various material I use at the computer fair
under the Infopoint banner (jono originated this)
http://infopointproject.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
I also have some simple folded leaflets that are relevant but do not
highlight SF Day specifically. The leaflet 1 seems now to walk off the
counters of the local computer shop and the printer cartridge shop.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/Leaflets?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=leaflet1_alan_cocks.odt
It can have my own address and email as contact if we want.
The other leaflet
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/Leaflets?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=leaflet1-foss_alan_cocks.odt
is more passionate about FOSS principles, and would probably be ok in
the SFD context.
I will be able to take a laptop. In fact if the location is by the
escalator, the side wall is flat and white and could be used as a
projection screen, and I think I could find an lcd projector, it would
work with this dell laptop on single screen mode ok (laptop no
display). I use it for talks.
--
alan cocks
Kubuntu user#10391
