GTALug and Trade Shows.

[Colin McGregor]

On Monday the GTALug board meeting assessed what
happened at the IT360 trade show, what was good, and
not so good. On the great side was:

 - We pulled this off on a tiny budget :-) .

Areas that need improvement:

 - More training for booth volunteers, make sure
EVERYONE knows the "message" we are looking to put
across. Amanda Yilmaz was praised at the meeting for
doing an excellent job talking to people and being "on
message" (promoting GTALug).

- The need for better coordination was noted.

There was discussion on how we go forward from here.
The Asterisk user group (http://www.taug.ca/) has been
setting up booths at the "Career Door" shows promoting
their group. Now, I don't if the "Career Door" events
are the best platform for us, but I am suggesting that
we should be looking at more than just the IT360
shows.

With this in mind we need to start looking ASAP at the
following issues:

- Ways to deal with the concerns noted above,
basically volunteer training...

- Booth furnishings - We need trade show furnishings
with the following characteristics:

  - At IT360 we were with and furnished the CLUE
booth. Had things turned out slightly differently we
might have been with a 3rd group. So we need a set-up
that can be quickly adapted to furnish a 10'x10',
10'x20' or 10'x30' booth (which at the moment I see as
a 10'x10' booth with add-on parts that can be brought
or left as required).

  - Key elements to the booth being:
    - A backdrop that lets us put the GTALug name up
8+ feet above the ground, and curtain (or otherwise
mask off) anything behind the booth.
    - A place to display GTALug literature /
membership forms (this may be as simple as a folding
table or a folding magazine rack).
    - A place to store spare literature / swag and for
volunteers to tuck coats out of sight. Likewise we
should consider a place for a lock box where new
member $ can be safely stored.

  - The booth furnishings need to be things that can
be quickly set-up/torn down. Ideally it should be
possible to set-up the booth without tools (where
everything snaps or latches together) and a ladder
should NOT be required.

  - The booth furnishings must be easily transported.
Ideally they should be something that two/three
volunteers could in a pinch transport by subway
(without requiring volunteers with Mr. Universe
strength :-) ).

  - The booth need to be tough, as we can expect these
parts to be bumped up/down stairs, tossed in the back
of a truck, bumped into by carts on the trade show
floor, etc..

  - The booth needs to be easily cleaned. At the last
IT360 show we were close to the little snack bar. The
possibility that someone may spill coffee (or
whatever) on the booth must be considered.

  - Some sort of floor padding OR some way to sit
down. After IT360 some volunteers noted how sore their
feet were after standing for umpteen hours in the
booth. We didn't bring in chairs at IT360 because we
didn't want people to sit back and getting too
relaxed. The sit down / don't get too relaxed
situation could be handled with bar stools (where you
can sit down without getting too relaxed...).
Regardless, we need some way to keep volunteer feet
happy...

  - The booth needs to be fairly cheap, we can NOT
throw more than a few hundred dollars at a project
like this.

  - The booth needs to look good and professional.

Now, on the down side the above are fairly stiff
requirements. On the up side, thanks to Drew Sulivan
and his involvement in a local theatre group we can
fairly easily get access to a wide range to shop
tools, as well as be able to pick the brains of set
designers, painters, etc...

So, when should we meet for the next GTALug booth
planning meeting :-) .

Colin McGregor
--
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