It was great experience at the booth and meeting many of you guys personaly, thank you Daniel for great followup!
Indeed it would be awesome to expand ASF presence at FOSDEM and alike next year, as well as thave it a bit more structured in terms of - schedulle at the booth, - getting more projects envolved, - and may be hosting a foundation-related talk There were so many great software foundations at the same place, there must be some room for healthy exchange of ideas and collaboration. As mentioned before, and very surprising to me personaly, there were tonns of grownup people not very fammiliar with ASF and also students, so there is definitly a room for a talk, showcasing how cool ASF is and how easy it is to get envolved, benefits it provides, etc. Hope to see you all again next year! -- Alex On Thu, Feb 4, 2016, 18:20 Roman Shaposhnik <ro...@shaposhnik.org> wrote: > On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 1:33 AM, Daniel Gruno <humbed...@apache.org> wrote: > > Hi folks (cc press@), > > > > Thank you so much for an amazing FOSDEM last week! > > This was the first time the ASF has had a presence as a foundation, but > > even though this showed a bit, I think we had very productive > > interactions with people (never a dull moment!) and showed them what the > > ASF was about. > > > > This was also the first time we had the opportunity to showcase our new > > visual identity, which was very well received and was quite the talking > > point in many a conversation. > > > > I'd like to extend my most sincere thanks to especially Alexander > > Bezzubov, Andrus Adamchik, Michael & Mechtilde Stehmann and Sharan > > "Super Trouper" Foga for their tireless efforts at the booth. I'd also > > like to thank Roman, Claude, Greg and Rich for lending a helping hand > > when needed. We totaled 18 hours at the booth (plus setup) during the > > two days (10 + 8) and spoke with...well, a LOT of people about the > > foundation and its projects. We also had many interactions with other > > foundations and companies about our project and theirs (and how they > > could work together). > > > > While I was mostly sitting _behind_ the booth, I also got the > > opportunity to take a few photos of it, which can be seen at > > https://imgur.com/a/8beqB > > > > As for swag, I am both pleased and surprised to say we managed to run > > out completely _2 hours before FOSDEM ended!_. We gave away more than > > 800 powered-by stickers (760 or so), a few hundred project stickers, 40 > > t-shirts, 100 pens, 50 key chains, 200 fridge magnets, 50 beer coasters, > > a few mugs and around 30 badges. We clearly need more swag for next > > FOSDEM ;) > > > > For the nicer items, we came up with a rule; "One conversation equals > > one free item", which worked super well. Compared to other conferences, > > even ApacheCon, we had a super busy booth, and only rarely had some free > > time without anyone asking us a question about the foundation and/or > > projects. We also had a nice cooperation going with the OpenOffice team, > > who decided to stay for a bit longer (and thus fill some of the big > > booth, so we didn't have to be 4 ASF people at it all the time, which > > was nice). > > > > As for the lessons learned, we definitely need to start organizing > > earlier next time, and get more of the prominent projects to join us - > > we especially had a lot of queries about Mesos and Spark at the > > conference. We would also really appreciate it if the foundation could > > send Melissa (or someone else) to be there in an official capacity. > > Doing this strictly as volunteers made us a bit jumpy as to who will > > watch over what if one has to go to a talk. > > > > We also desperately need one or more brochures about the foundation and > > its projects!!! > > > > The giant ASF banner has been passed on to the Stehmanns and will be > > used in other conferences in Europe. > > Daniel thank you very much for a very nice summary and your tireless > efforts > around FOSDEM. Here's to an even bigger ASF presence next year! > > Thanks, > Roman. >
