Author: Robin 'Roblimo' Miller
The first Florida Linux Show, held in Jacksonville earlier this year, drew more than 300 people and made enough of a splash that its organizers plan to repeat the experience in 2009. Those organizers, Rod Sharp and Don Corbet, sat down with Linux.com to tell us about their experiences — good and bad — putting their show together, and offered advice for others who want to put on regional Linux conferences.
I personally prefer small, regional conferences to “World” shows. The smaller shows are almost always more fun, cost less to attend, attract more new and potential GNU/Linux users, and are a lot closer to the original ideal of Free Software as a grassroots phenomenon than corporate-based, big-time events dominated by marketing people.
This video isn’t for everyone, but if your Linux Users Group or other association has ever thought about doing its own Linux event, it is well worth 13 minutes and 30 seconds of your time. The main message: start early to round up both speakers and sponsors, and once you have at least a few “name” speakers and sponsors lined up, promote like mad to make sure you get enough attendees that next year you can attract even more speakers and sponsors….
Ogg Theora version (right-click to download)
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