GTALug and Trade Shows.

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Wed, May 30, 2007 at 01:03:50PM -0400, Colin McGregor wrote:
> 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.

So professional, cheap, and easy to carry around.  Is this one of those
'pick any two of these three' cases?  That is, is this like 'fast,
cheap, good, pick any two you want'?

--
Len Sorensen
--
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