What is it with Workshops ?

[Dave Cramer]

This is pretty standard even for workshops which require that you  
pay. I've done a few in the past, and typically nobody signs up until  
the last minute.

It's very discouraging. Personally, I'd probably do something like  
make them pay a refundable deposit. If they show up then refund the  
money, otherwise in this case donate it to Open Source.

dave
On 29-Oct-06, at 10:52 AM, Daniel Gardiner wrote:

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>   I agree with the need for a sign-up list.  For some expressing
> interest is not the same as a commitment, and can change once the
> details become available.  That is to say, someone could express their
> interest and then find out that they can't make it to an event.
>
>
> Daniel
>
>
> phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org wrote:
> > That sort of thing is very discouraging. Unfortunately, any event
>  > in Toronto has huge competition for attention.
>  >
>  > I'd suggest
>  >
>  > (a) email reminders on the Day Before and possibly the Day Of.
>  > Personally, I find such reminders often are the key to my attending
>  > some event.
>  >
>  > (b) some sort of sign-up list, which includes an email address and
>  > phone number. That way, if people do sign up, they have really made
>  > a committment to attend. That can be part of the signup process:
>  > signatories have to indicate that they are serious about attending.
>  > Notice that restaurents often get a phone number when taking a
>  > reservation. I don't know what they do with this (phone you at 2AM
>  > if you're a no-show at the restaurent?), but it does act as a
>  > gentle warning that they could get back to you to complain if you
>  > don't follow through.
>  >
>  > The number of sign-ups is also an indication of how much real
>  > interest there is in the event.
>  >
>  > P.
>  >
>  >> Yesterday, Matvey Kippershtein came in to linuxcaffe to host his
>  >> "Wellness workshop for IT workers. The workshop had been posted
>  >> on our site, the notice went out to several lugs and some light
>  >> postering was done. A handful of people expressed active interest
>  >> in attending, the general reaction was positive; good idea, but
>  >> NOBODY showed up ! This is the second time we have had a total
>  >> no-show for a workshop. The first one was a linux audio workshop,
>  >> with Sam and Dave.
>  >>
>  >> My question to you, good Toronto Linux Enthusiasts is; why ?
>  >>
>  >> wrong topics? wrong venue? wrong timeslot ? wrong promo ?
>  >>
>  >> I'm sure that the fourth (promo) could be vastly improved, but in
>  >> the case of the wellness workshop, I was confident the the folks
>  >> we DID reach were local and well targeted.
>  >>
>  >> Does anybody want to see events where knowledge is shared ?
>  >> Should we keep trying ? Is there a combination that would be more
>  >> effective ? Do you suppose anyone will attend the proposed MythTV
>  >> workshop, next week ? Any thoughts ?
>  >>
>  >> djp
>  >>
>  >> -- djp-tnsZcVQxgqO2dHQpreyxbg at public.gmane.org www.linuxcaffe.ca geek chic and caffe cachet
>  >>  326 Harbord Street, Toronto, M6G 3A5, (416) 534-2116 -- The
>  >> Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/ TLUG
>  >> requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How
>  >> to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists
>  >>
>  >
>  >
>
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