[Ambassadors] Calling all North American ambassadors! (fwd)

[Greg Dekoenigsberg]

Just making sure this hit the list.  :)

--g

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 22:04:45 -0400
From: Chris Tyler <chris at tylers.info>
To: Greg Dekoenigsberg <gdk at redhat.com>
Cc: fedora-ambassadors-list at redhat.com
Subject: Re: [Ambassadors] Calling all North American ambassadors!


On Fri, 2008-05-23 at 16:35 -0400, Greg Dekoenigsberg wrote:
> On Fri, 23 May 2008, Karlie Robinson wrote:
>
>> Greg Dekoenigsberg wrote:
>>> Re: Ontario -- is this Seneca's show, or a different one?
>> I don't think so.  I'm pretty sure it's a newer event (as in maybe last year
>> was #1) - http://onlinux.ca/
>>
>> I'm just wondering what everyone was thinking scheduling their Fests and Cons
>> within days of one another?
>
> THEY'RE THE SAME DAY!
>
> /me boggles.
>
> Mr. Tyler, can you shed some light on this state of affairs?
>
> --g

The short story:

FSOSS is 7 years old, and last year had 325 attendees, 42 talks, 10
workshops, and no booths, scheduled over two weekdays. Our attendees
came from across North America (obviously, with a concentration on the
GTA). This year's event is scheduled for Thu Oct 23 and Fri Oct 24.

OnLinux (modelled after the Ohio Linux Fest) is 1 year old, and last
year had ~25 talks and lots of booths, scheduled over one weekend day. I
don't remember how many attendees they said they had. This year's event
is scheduled for Sat Oct 25.

OnLinux popped up on our radar a few weeks before their event (which was
one week before ours). We introduced ourselves in advance and
cross-linked our websites, and afterwards had a teleconference to sort
out what we should be doing. We're constrained schedule-wise by
facilities (we use the Seneca at York campus during reading week), and they
have different scheduling issues. After some discussion, we decided that
we're probably attracting different audiences -- FSOSS is more likely to
reach those using OS in their work, as well as students. OnLinux is more
accessible to those who are involved with Linux on a personal-interest
level, LUGs, and so forth.

OnLinux found that the best date for this year was immediately after
FSOSS, and we don't really think that's a conflict. In fact, it may work
for some out-of-town speakers to present at both events. And with 5
million people in the area, there are plenty of attendees to go around.

-Chris

(Greg: this might not post to f-a-l, please forward if appropriate)