On Sun, 22 Mar 2009, Julien BLACHE wrote:
Smalltalk is exactly what we're doing in this kind of
exhibitions. That's called "meeting the community", the other one, the
*users* community. If you're not interested in that, I suggest you
stick to high-profile technical conferences and don't run a booth
again.
You sound like you might have interviewed those users who left the
Debian booth after we have solved their problems. I consider people
who actively try to talk to us and ask us for help solving their
problems as community. These people found what they were looking
for.
Most people come to those exhibitions to have a look at this Linux
thing and ask basic questions, sometimes even stupid questions. We
answer them, show them our distro, walk them through some demos. If
they're interested, they'll want to take a CD/DVD (or a LiveCD) home
to try it out on their own.
I completely agree. Since 8 years I answer all kind of questions
on this event. The original posting was whether I should have my
laptop open or not when I'm sitting at a booth or whether I should
all the time smile at people passing by. I tend to ask people
coming close to the booth whether I can help and if the answer
is "Oh no, I'm just looking" I see no problem if I show the looking
person that I'm working. There are fairs where this is not proper
behaviour and that's why I do not work as booth stuff there.
I appreciate that you gave some of your time to man a booth at an
exhibition, but really, if you don't enjoy it, don't do it again.
Would you mind reading my mail again. I admit it was long but perhaps
you missunderstood some basic parts.
Kind regards
Andreas.
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http://fam-tille.de
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