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<title>Trade Show Issue 19</title>
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<BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#551a8b"
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<title>User Groups and Trade Shows: Lessons from the Atlanta Linux Showcase</title>
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<h1 align="center">User Groups and Trade Shows</h1>
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<h3 align="center">Lessons from the Atlanta Linux Showcase</h3>
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<a href="http://www.ale.org/showcase/">
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<p align="center"><img src="./gx/als2-sm.jpg" width="214" height="90" align="bottom" ></a><a href="mailto:lfs@eskimo.com">
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<p align="center">by Andrew Newton</a>
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<P><HR>
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<p>Trade shows and expos are not at all uncommon in the computer industry. But not since the early
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days of microcomputers, when CP/M was King and toggle switches were the user interface, have
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user groups been heavily involved. So in the era of powerful non-commercial software, couldn't
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the trade shows also be non-commercial?
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<p>We, the members of the <a href="http://www.ale.org/">Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts (ALE)</a>, found out the answer is yes.
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Originating from correspondence with <a href="http://www.li.org/">Linux International</a> for some local help for Linux vendors
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at COMDEX and our own Linux demo fest (called the "Geek-Off") a year earlier, we put
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together a non-commercial, user group organized trade show. On June 7, 1997, we put on the
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largest Linux vendor showcase to date.
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<p><strong>Get Started With The Essentials</strong>
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<p>So let's say you, being the Linux activist of your community, want to do your bit to spread the
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word. Where would you start?
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<p>Although we didn't necessarily do this, we learned there are two essential things to get a Linux
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trade show off the ground: 1) a time and place, and 2) a checking account. And in the words of
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our own Marc Torres, once you have those two items, "the rest grows from there."
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<p>It was a given that we would hold the Atlanta Linux Showcase as close to COMDEX as possible.
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After all, this whole idea came from helping out the Linux vendors at COMDEX. Plus the idea
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of getting the COMDEX crowd was good. We theorized that many people flying in for
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COMDEX would stay over the following weekend to save on air fare. And they could easily
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justify it if they were attending another computer show.
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<p>Picking the place was a little more troublesome, but not impossible. We finally decided on The
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Inforum because it was located only blocks away from the venue for COMDEX, was in
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downtown Atlanta, and well known to many.
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<p>Finally, the checking account is very important. As it turns out we didn't do this immediately
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and paid the price in countless hours of meetings discussing logistics. A checking account is
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important because it gives you a place from which to send money and, more importantly, a place
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to receive money. People like it better when they can write checks to "Big Time Linux Event"
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instead of "Bob Smurd."
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<p>One of the major inhibitors behind our acquisition of a checking account was our incredible lack
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of knowledge when it comes to the law. After all, we are a bunch of computer jocks, not
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attorneys. We had many seemingly endless discussions on issues such as incorporation,
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non-profit status, tax codes, the right to bear arms, etc. In the end, David Hamm, one of our most
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active members, just ended up going to a bank and getting a new checking account under his
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control. Incidentally, David became the treasurer.
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<p align="center"><img src="./gx/ssc6b.jpg" width="313" height="521" align="bottom" >
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<p align="center"><em>David Miller eyes a bottle of ALS Ale. </em>- Photo by Amy Ayers
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<p><strong>Put Time On Your Side</strong>
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<p>Unfortunately, we didn't. Of course, we had the COMDEX target date to shoot for giving us
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little time between our mobilization and the event. If you can pick a date over six months out, do
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so. There are multiple reasons for this, most of which have to do with reserving space.
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<p>First, you must reserve space somewhere to hold your event. We lucked out in our case, but
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many venues will require booking many months ahead of time, especially the ones that don't
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often cost so much money such as college campuses and state buildings.
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<p>Second, you must reserve space in print media for advertising and publicity. While we were able
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to get ads in our local computer magazines and the event listed in some calendars, we did miss
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deadlines elsewhere. You may have noticed there were no advertisements for the Atlanta Linux
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Showcase in Linux Journal. We missed the deadline. In addition, it takes time to grease the
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wheels for free publicity.
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<p><em>A brief word about FREE PUBLICITY</em> - There is no such thing; you'll work for every last bit of
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it. Free publicity means getting listed in upcoming events calendars and maybe an article or two
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about Linux in the local paper with a small plug at the end for the event. If you do take the time
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to pay for advertising, use the advertising representative as a way of getting your event some
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extra publicity in that publication. Many publications put on the appearance that their articles are
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completely disjoint from their advertising on the basis of journalistic ethics, but with the
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exception of SSC that isn't true.
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<p><em>A brief word about paid advertising</em> - It is like buying a used car. What an ad rep puts on a rate
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card isn't necessarily the price you have to pay. Try talking them down. Again, this doesn't apply
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to SSC.
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<p><strong>Organize Your Volunteers</strong>
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<p>We divided our group into two major camps, organizers and volunteers. The first were the
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people that planned the event out for months and did a lot of the leg work. The second were the
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people that showed up the day of the show and manned the registration desk, checked badges,
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etc.
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<p>You don't want to have too many organizers as it becomes difficult to manage a large group of
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people over a large span of time. We divided up our group into teams of 3 or 4, with many
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people being on 2 or more teams. This gave us what philosophical management types like to call
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cross-functional teams. By having more than one person on a team, it helped insure no one
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person was the only source of information or action.
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<p>We had the following teams:
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<ul>
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<li>Vendor - contacted vendors</li>
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<li>Talks - organized the speakers and presenters</li>
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<li>Publicity - handled advertising and publicity</li>
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<li>Finance - dealt with our mounds of gold</li>
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<li>Logistics - managed booth layouts and site coordination</li>
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</ul>
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<p>In hind sight, we should have also created a "Registration" team to handle all the registrations for
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both walk-in and pre-paid registrations. Our answer to this was to make the Talks team and the
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Logistics team work together, which worked but not as smoothly as we would have liked. It is
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better to have a group of people who are solely in charge of registration and aren't distracted with
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other problems.
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<p>We didn't solicit for volunteers until a month before our show. In retrospect, it probably should
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have been two months. We gave our volunteers a briefing the day before the Showcase and had a
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work schedule already printed when they arrived. We also required them to work 2 three-hour
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shifts for manageability purposes and to keep the number of volunteers to a minimum but in the
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end solicited for some more at the last minute (thanks Ben and Vicki).
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<p><em>A brief note about Volunteers</em> - Treat them well, because they are working for free. And if you
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do that, most will go the extra mile treating the attendees well and pulling those extra shifts or
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duties you didn't anticipate (thanks James). Also put your "people-person" types at the
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registration desk where they will likely be needed the most. More personable people will be able
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to sell t-shirts and so forth much more easily (thanks Karen). Finally, thank your volunteers.
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Everybody likes to be told they've done a good job (thanks everyone else).
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<p>Another seemingly weird thing we did was to make our volunteers pay for the honor to work our
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event. It seems odd, but it worked. The idea was to have them show us they weren't going to
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volunteer and then back out on us at the last minute. In exchange for their $30, they got a polo
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shirt and were able to see all the presentations at a lower price than anyone else. And the cash
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flow didn't hurt either. While we didn't mandate this for the organizers, it wouldn't be a bad idea.
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However, all the organizers did have to pay for their own shirts and many loaned hundreds of
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dollars to the effort.
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<p align="center"><img src="./gx/ssc3b.jpg" width="426" height="292" align="bottom" >
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<p align="center"><em>Linus, Tove and Patricia meet Zeph Hull, a showcase volunteer. </em>- Photo by Amy Ayers
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<p><strong>Coordinate Vendors</strong>
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<p>Organize your vendor team so everybody knows which person is calling what company but only
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one person is calling each. It is nice for everyone to know the status of a potential vendor. It is
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not nice to have 3 separate people make 3 separate cold calls to the same potential vendor.
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<p>When contacting vendors, use the phone as your primary means of communications and not
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e-mail. While it seems e-mail would work, it is human nature to give it a much lower priority
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than a phone call. We found many companies that ignored our e-mail's responded quite
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positively to our phone calls.
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<p>One of the things we should have done sooner was bill the vendors. We charged each vendor
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$400 for a booth and sent them an invoice. While we were expecting one week turn turnarounds
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on payment, the business world doesn't work that way. In many cases, paperwork and payments
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can take up to 30 days to get through the accounting offices of some companies.
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<p><strong>Get People To Talk</strong>
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<p>We solicited for speakers and presenters over the comp.os.linux.announce news group. This had
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to be done multiple times, but eventually the offers started rolling in. We also drew upon some
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local talent. And in many cases, the vendors also wanted to give presentations.
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<p>Getting speakers to volunteer was the easy part. Getting them to the Showcase was the difficult
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part. We had to solicit money from sponsoring companies and the vendors in order to pay for the
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travel and lodging expenses for Linus Torvalds, Eric Raymond, David Miller, Richard
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Henderson, Miguel de Icaza, and the rest of the crew (and we still owe a debt of gratitude to
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Digital and Caldera for all they did in this department).
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<p>Once the money was appropriated, travel plans and hotel accommodations were made - at least
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that's how it works in the ideal world. A lot of the travel costs were floated on the credit cards of
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organizers until they could be reimbursed. Do make plane reservations and travel arrangements
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as far ahead of time as possible; you can save on air fare that way.
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<p><strong>Work The System</strong>
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<p>This involves taking advantage of perks and getting the extras out of the people with whom you
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are doing business. For example, we decided to also rent some conference rooms at the Days Inn
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which was just next store to The Inforum. These conference rooms were used for Birds Of A
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Feather sessions and impromptu meetings by our attendees. In order to secure a good price on
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the room rental, we made an agreement with the hotel management that we would guarantee they
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got a certain number of room bookings based on our event. We then set-up that hotel as our
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"Official" hotel and asked most of our out-of-town guests to try the Days Inn first. In addition,
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our attendees were able to get a reasonable rate at a downtown hotel. Our guest speakers were
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also booked there. <a href="http://www.genietravel.com">
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<p>Genie Travel</a> also became our "Official" travel agent. Genie gave us a certain percentage on
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every flight booked through them, and their air fares were very reasonable. Although we didn't
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take advantage of this until very late in the game, it would be very advantageous for us to do it
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again. Genie Travel<strong> </strong>uses Linux in their day-to-day operations and probably would be very happy
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to repeat this arrangement with another Linux event.
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<p>Another good idea would be to solicit the help of other Linux users groups. Often other users
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groups that are geographically close by may be able to help. Be sure to get them in on it early in
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the planning stage. For instance, we solicited SALUG (Southern Alabama) and CHUGALUG
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(Athens, GA), albeit at the last minute. Coordinating with other users groups also insures that
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the Linux community isn't throwing a trade show every month in towns only 100 miles apart
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(this stretches the resources of the Linux vendors and the enthusiasm these shows generate)..
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<p>One last thing that can help is to have a Sugar-Daddy. In our case it was <a href="http://www.li.org/">Linux International</a>.
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Jon "Maddog" Hall of Linux International helped get us credit through which we were able
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secure our lease on the rooms at The Inforum. If you ask him nicely, he may do the same for
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you.
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<p><strong>Have Fun</strong>
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<p>Keep in mind that organizing such an event is very hard word and requires a lot of time. We
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estimate over 2000 man hours were spent by ALE members putting together our show. But with
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any luck, your user group will be able to pull off a grand Linux event. And remember, have fun.
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Don't hold your trade show to make money. Do it to spread the word of Linux and to cavort with
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other like-minded Linux hobbyists.
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<p>Finally, we'd like to thank all our volunteers, vendors, speakers, and organizers for helping out
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with the Atlanta Linux Showcase. If you are interested in any videos of the presentations at the
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1997 Atlanta Linux Showcase or t-shirts and polo shirts, please visit our web site at
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<a href="http://www.ale.org/showcase/">http://www.ale.org/showcase/</a>. And if you have any questions, please feel free to send us e-mail
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at <a href="mailto:ale-expo@cc.gatech.edu">ale-expo@cc.gatech.edu</a>.
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<p align="center"><img src="./gx/greg2b.jpg" width="600" height="422" align="bottom" >
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<p align="center"><em>Greg Hankins hangs out with Maddog and David Hamm.</em> - Photo by Amy Ayers
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1997, Andrew Newton<BR>
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Published in Issue 19 of the Linux Gazette, July 1997</H5></center>
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