[kde-community] Fwd: LISA conference opportunity - Washington, D.C.

[Carl Symons]

Please consider representing KDE at the LISA15 conference in Washington 
D.C. November 8–13. It's an outstanding opportunity to talk with IT 
professionals who know and appreciate Linux. People who are likely to be 
using Linux on the desktop, and who appreciate what KDE offers.

If you've ever thought about doing something extra to support KDE, this 
is the real deal. Email me for more information.

Details below.

Carl


-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: LISA conference opportunity - Washington, D.C.
Date: Sat, 25 Apr 2015 19:36:10 -0700
From: Carl Symons <csymons at kde.org>
Organization: KDE
To: informing about and discussing non-technical community topics 
<kde-community at kde.org>

Hello KDE Community,

We have an exceptional opportunity to participate in LISA15 in
Washington, DC. The full conference is from November 8–13, and the Expo
is open on November 11–12. Below is some information about the
conference from the LISA15 organizers. LISA (Large Installation System
Administration Conference) is an important conference in the Linux
world. And it is quite good for KDE too.

Please consider taking on the coordination of a KDE presence at this
show. Details follow.

We had a KDE presence at the show last year in Seattle. Valorie
Zimmerman, Andrew Lake, Aaron Peterson, Bob Potter and Oscar Baechler
were there.
https://dot.kde.org/2014/11/05/kde-lisa-2014-seattle-november-12-and-13;
https://dot.kde.org/2014/11/30/kde-lisa-2014-conference

The LISA organizers will support our presence in return for some
promotional support from KDE. I (and others) can help with this.

***Why it's important
Many of the people who attend are long-time Linux users. They are
friendly to KDE...we met some people who have been using KDE software
since version 1. You will have an enjoyable time interacting with a
receptive audience. KDE has been getting phenomenally good reviews lately.

This is a paid attendance conference. The people who attend are serious
techies. They are prime candidates for KDE technology.

We receive a large booth space; sign space; logo, description and link
on the LISA15 website; unlimited exhibition passes; a limited number of
passes to evening and other hospitality events. Free stuff; t-shirts galore.

This is a classy conference, one that is appropriate for KDE, especially
with Plasma 5, Frameworks, and the leading role we have in the tech world.

***What's involved
The coordination was not that big of a deal.

I put the word out inviting Seattle area people to participate. We
agreed on a time to get together at the conference.

We did a Dot story announcing the KDE exhibit and inviting people to
participate. And a report on how it went.

On the day before the event in Seattle, Bob Potter and I drove from
Bellingham to the Seattle Convention Center, about 90 miles. We had
plenty of time before the exhibit to set up.

Setting up was...
- Hang a large KDE logo on the backdrop.
- Set up a desktop computer running Plasma 5 and the latest KDE applications
- Oscar Baechler brought a laptop and Wacom tablet and demoed Krita
throughout the show
- Andrew Lake built a presentation ahead of the show and showed it on a
large monitor. That presentation is available for remixing.
- We had some business card-sized brochures, featuring the Manifesto and
the KDE logo.
Pretty simple and quick.

The exhibit room has security in the evening, so we could leave things
up overnight.

There were snacks and light meals throughout the day.

So...
If you live near Washington, D.C., please consider taking on KDE's
presence at LISA 15 November 11–12. We have great stories to tell.

Please send any questions or concerns.

Carl

--------------------------
 From the organizers
LISA is at the crossroads of Web operations, DevOps, enterprise
computing, educational computing, and research computing. Our attendees
demand industrial strength, state-of-the-art technology including
systems administration products and services, networking, security,
virtualization, and storage solutions. Sponsoring and/or exhibiting at
LISA15 will enable you to:

     Gain access to over 1,000 enterprise-level users and purchasers;

     Hire from the best and brightest in the sysadmin, engineer,
architect, and developer community;

     Sell your product and generate leads;

     Introduce new research  and interact with a targeted group of users
and purchasers; and

     Spread your brand to a hard-to-reach and highly qualified community
from academia, large enterprise, SMB, and industry.