Excellent and well detailed report, Andrew. Good work.
--Hal
On 06/17/2016 10:43 PM, Andrew Ward wrote:
> Southeast Linux Fest 2016 10-12 June 2016 The event was located in
> the Sheraton by the Airport Charlotte NC. As expected the booth
> location was the same as the previous years while at this venue.
> Booth placement plays a vital role in visibility and accessibility,
> thus when presentations were finished the attendees would come out
> and the first booth that is visible was Fedora. Attending
> Ambassadors; Ben Williams (kk4ewt) event owner, Cathy Williams
> (cewillia), Andrew Ward (award3535), Julie Ward (jward78), Nick
> Bebout (nb), Hal Leggette (aelaric), Striker Leggette (strikerttd).
> Corey Sheldon (linuxmodder) was unable to attend due to unforeseen
> circumstances. Day 1, 10 June Our day started with the setup of the
> booth prior to the opening of the expo. Ben Williams had already set
> the table cloth and banners up the night before and scoped out the
> venue for the next day’s events. Julie and I showed up at 8 a.m. to
> get things rolling along with Ben and Cathy Williams. The booth was
> prepared and ready to go by 8:30 a.m. Shortly after the booth was
> ready, Ben and I began the strategy for the day and what needed to be
> accomplished. The most important item that needs to get accomplished
> was media production. We decided to commence producing a master copy
> of Workstation, KDE, LXDE, Cinnamon, XFCE, and Mate, once the media
> master was produced, we verified the media and its operability. I
> wish to thank Red Hat and Remy Decausemaker for the purchase of the
> duplicator and blank media, what a fantastic tool and great help to
> Fedora. Once the media was verified, Julie began using the duplicator
> producing media for distribution from our table. She first began with
> Workstation, producing 25 copies with 20 minutes, then moved on to
> KDE, LXDE, XFCE, Cinnamon, and Mate. Once patrons and event
> enthusiasts began showing up we were ready with enough media to get
> started. Julie continued to produce media for the table by tracking
> the spins that were leaving the table with interested patrons. To our
> surprise on the first day the popular media was Cinnamon and Mate.
> Julie must have produced 100 copies of Mate and 50 Cinnamon that left
> the table. Workstation and KDE were also popular and leaving the
> table as well. Julie continued to produce media throughout the entire
> day. Normally we have media that is produced and packaged for these
> types of events but due to the forth coming release of Fedora 24 we
> were uncertain on the release prior to the event. As it turned out
> F24 was not released and ready for our event. Southeast Linux Fest
> has always been scheduled close to the release cycle of Fedora, so
> there always has been a decision for us to either bring/produce
> previous release or produce new released Fedora. Just the day before
> we had the release information of No-Go for F24, so we then realized
> that we would be producing F23 media. Also something we tried
> differently was to produce a few copies of KDE, XFCE, LXDE, etc…. and
> have that media available as well. That decision in my opinion was a
> success. For example we always have individuals that come up to our
> table and ask for Fedora KDE and all we had was Workstation, we would
> gladly produce a DVD or if they carried a USB create the media for
> them on the spot. Thus having a few copies on the table was a HUGE
> success. Also we had several patrons ask if they could take one of
> each to that they could try them at home and see what the rest of the
> family would like to use. This type of situation provided great
> opportunity in spreading Fedora into more homes and the community was
> successfully accomplished. Cathy Williams comments on the Yarn
> Crawl; The knitting track seemed to be a big hit. Remi, the owner of
> Charlotte Yarns was on hand with yarns to purchase and the kits for
> them learn how to knit, the magic loop and the Tardis sock/chart
> classes. We had a few come in just to shop which was great. Carrie
> Stokes and I taught 9 people to knit. Sandy of Charlotte Yarns taught
> 5 people the magic loop technique, I taught about 4 people to read a
> knitting chart and on Sunday Nicole Tobias taught lace and how to
> block your work to about 6 people.
>
> We shut down the table at 5 p.m. and locked up the event box in the
> storage room until the next day. Day 2, 11 June Day two began with
> booth set up at 8 a.m. We noticed that the media we had left on the
> table after we shut down for the previous night had gone down
> significantly. The expo hall schedule closes at 5 p.m. The schedule
> showed that the last set of talks we ongoing until 5:30 p.m. with
> some event sponsor gatherings ongoing until approximately 8 p.m. So
> leaving some media on the table overnight also proved to be
> successful in distributing Fedora. Julie immediately began to
> produce more media with the duplicator, restocking the spins that
> were low. The event began to pick up around 8:50 a.m. with the
> Keynote and first set of speakers kicking off the second day of the
> event. Although the day started off slower than the previous day, we
> still went through quite a bit of media. As the previous day also
> pointed out the same we all noticed that the interest was not focused
> on Workstation but had a wide variety of interest in the other spins.
> Nick pointed out that even the hard core Ubuntu folks became more
> interested in the other desktops Fedora provided as he talked to
> individuals throughout the day. One of the high points of the day was
> when a young Ladd (about 7 years old) walked up to the OLPC and began
> using it. He was truly fascinated with what it could do. With his
> father standing in the background he asked if this was available
> outside of the OLPC. I then demonstrated the SOAS on the
> demonstration laptop with the updated media. Once the media ran up
> and we got to his age group, you could see the amazement and joy with
> what he was doing. His father asked if we could get them a copy of
> the media. Ben was already on it, and had them me back in about 20
> minutes and it would be ready. We they returned the SOAS was ready
> and we asked if there was anything else we could produce media wise
> and any other questions that you may have. Truly and interested
> individual and the next generation of Linux users had begun.
> Throughout the day Ben had been collecting registration for the
> Amateur Radio exam and preparing for his talk on the same subject. To
> his surprise there were more attendees this year than the previous
> year. If I remember there were 30 registered to take the exam that
> day. Nick was also busy preparing for his talk and the key signing
> event scheduled later that evening. During the day we fielded a lot
> of questions regarding installation, dual boot, and UEFI. We did
> experience one load problem with and interested Linux enthusiast.
> Ben was assisting with a loading problem with a new laptop in loading
> any version of Fedora. A new ASUS with Skylake and NVidia video
> proved to be a difficult adventure. He tried all versions and the
> only one that seemed to work. Ben tried creating special media with
> the drivers loaded so that the PC would at least run the live media.
> Ben was determined to figure out the issue but ran out of time, and I
> believe that he is still helping the individual get through this
> problem. During both days the ever popular 3D printing demonstration
> at the Red Hat table presented by Tom Calloway (spot) always draws
> the attention of all ages. As they day began to wear down, Nick was
> preparing for the Keying sighing as well as Ben preparing for the
> Amateur Radio Exam that was at 5:15 p.m. Fedora Booth was shut down
> at 5 p.m. Day 3, 12 June Normally on the third day of this event most
> of the vendors have already packed up the night before, but there
> were a significant number that did not leave. That morning there were
> a few more talks scheduled and a few more that day. The expo was only
> scheduled to be open until 3 p.m. The morning began with a few
> visitors and steadily increased until about noon. Most of the vendors
> then began to pack up for the event. We decided to stay open and did
> not shut down until 2 p.m. We all believe that the event was again
> successful for Fedora and overall successful for all attendees. As
> always I have a questionnaire that I have visitors fill out if they
> so desire. This tool also gives me an opportunity to recruit new
> interested people to help us out with the project. Most individuals
> don’t realize just how vast the project is and how they would be able
> to contribute. I will generate and submit a separate report for those
> specific questionnaires. ---------Ben Williams’ Corner-------- We had
> several people complaining about the following issues: a) Bluetooth
> not working (pointed them to the current bugzilla issues with
> Bluetooth b) One Gentleman’s brightness keys would not work; we tried
> several things to troubleshoot 1) boot with a updated F23 Live--
> brightness keys worked 2) boot with a F24 live iso and brightness
> keys worked Result: recommended that he remove the kernel-debug and
> test, handed my Business Card and have not heard anymore from him.
>
> My Talk was listed in the Program as Hamming it up, but my Title was
> Amateur Radio -Past-Present & Future. I was pleasantly surprised that
> my first talk had 50-75 attendees. I was also involved in
> registration and Administration of the Amateur Radio Exam on Friday
> Night. We had about 45 register for the exam and 25 showed up to take
> said exams, The Results we ended up 8 people earn the Technicians
> License, 3 earned the General Class License and 1 person passed the
> Extra Class Exam. As always Southeast Linuxfest is a great show that
> I completely enjoy and I enjoy representing Fedora at such
> linuxfest. -------------------------------------------- In summary;
> as usual the event was popular, informative, exciting, and as an
> Ambassadors we all enjoyed interacting with people and their
> professions. For metric purposes here is some data; 420 DVD Media
> distributed during the event of various spins Talks were very well
> liked and informative 5 USB keys with F23 Workstation given out to
> genuinely interested individuals 1 SOAS produced for a very
> enthusiastic Ladd Numerous GPC keys signed during the signing party
>
> Southeast Linux Fest Event Comments; - Well scheduled and coordinated
> always a pleasure to attend and work with such fantastic staff -
> Hospitality rooms well stocked and a wide variety of snacks and
> drinks available to Sponsors and Vendors. - Lunch was provided by
> SELF Staff for sponsors and vendors on Saturday and Sunday, an
> unexpected and welcomed benefit. - Power and Connectivity was good. -
> There was more than adequate storage and locked storage space. -
> Scheduling was very efficient and supportive. - In light of Venue
> problems Event Coordinator handled situations efficiently and
> professionally. Venue (Sheraton Hotel) Comments; - Most of the area
> outside the event rooms and venue were under construction and made it
> difficult to move items in and out of the event area. - Other
> meetings and events were over scheduled into the area causing the
> event coordinators to move several talks and events out of rooms to
> other parts of the hotel, very UNPROFESSIONAL on the Sheraton’s part.
> This effected two events Fedora Ambassadors we speakers and
> examiners. - Sponsor BBQ (customer paid event) catering was 90
> minutes late delaying the event past scheduled times. - Venue was
> trying to push the event out earlier than expected on Saturday/Sunday
> very UNPROFESSIONAL Attending Sponsors and Vendors Comments; - All
> were professional and helpful (including the Ubuntu folks) - Platform
> and company information was readily available and accessible - A wide
> variety of vendors that included data services, cloud services
>
>
> -- V/R Andrew Ward award3535(a)fedoraproject.org award3535(a)tds.net
> award3535(a)gmail.com
>
>
>
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