[Kde-events] Hey dude, what's that, KDE? Some random notes about CeBit.

[Alexander Neundorf]

On Monday 10 March 2008, Frederik Gladhorn wrote:
> Hello Events :)
>
> I'm still rather new to KDE as devel, so don't shoot me yet, but I thought
> I could share some experiences made during my four days of CeBit.
> I don't know how much of this has been discussed so far, and don't want to
> point fingers. I'd just like to improve the experience for both - visitors
> and us staying at the booth.

That's the spirit ! :-)

> A fair like CeBit is different from FOSS events because the audience is
> mostly business, of over twenty exhibition halls, one half hall is mostly
> about opensource.
> Of course we had visitors ranging from "kde fan" to "never seen linux"
> before. Which is really not a bad thing.

Yes, sometimes it's even more fun because you can tell people new things :-)

> But I realized we were not prepared in a few points. It would have been
> great to have a printout giving some basic facts about KDE and the e.V.
> because of the not very OSS oriented audience. There are questions coming

Yes, we really need to improve on that. 
Last year we received like 2000 business-oriented flyers, I guess they are 
finished by now ?
I should still have the pdf around, somebody (not me this time) could order 
the next few thousand ;-)

> up about which company is behind KDE and I think many people did not
> realize that we do this in our spare time. 99% of the people standing
> around smiling there are being payed to do that. I don't envy them, because
> most of the time it was great being there, representing KDE. Talking to

Yes, really. They are just doing a job to get some money, you (we) are there 
to present what we have created !
Feels so much better than just getting some bucks for stuff you don't care 
about...

> It would have been nice to have more merchandising available, like t-shirts
> which we did not have at all.

None at all ?
As Torsten said, I also hope this will get better once we have the Frankfurt 
office.

> Also it would be very nice to have some guideline concerning merchandise.
> For example a price list that stays in the booth box would not be bad. I'd
> still give a kid looking at my desktop with sparkling eyes a free sticker
> but some hints would be nice.
> And we had some discussions whether it is beneficial to ask for donations
> or if that would look unprofessional.

No, it doesn't look unprofessional.
People have money, we are working for free, it's ok if they donate something 
to support us.

...
> Being there was really fun but also quite exhausting. I'm still pretty
> downbeat, so maybe I'm exaggerating a little.

Sounds like you had fun :-)
I hope you enjoyed some of the free beer ?

Alex