Debian at Linux Expo Amsterdam 2001

When & Where

• Tuesday 23 en Wednesday 24 January 2001 (+ set-up on Monday 22, see below)
• Amsterdam RAI

Too late -- it's over!

And it was quite a success.

Lots of pictures are available:

• By Paul Slootman: Debian, RMS (+avi!)
• By Anne Bezemer: Debian, Expo
• By FSF/Gnome people: FSF/Gnome, Debian, Expo, Amsterdam
• By Valentijn Sessink: Expo

(And if they're gone, mail me, I've got backups.)

Who

• Joost van Baal (mail)
  Can bring: 17'' dell d1028lr monitor (info); hub 1 BNC & 8 UTP ports.
• [Bas Zoetekouw (mail) - probably not]
  Can print color A4's, b&w A3/A4,single/double sided.
• Paul Slootman (mail)
  Probably able to print color A4's
  Can bring: 21" Iyama, plusAlpha XLT, perhaps a Sun IPX and 20" sun monitor, external cd burner.
• Russell Coker (mail), part of the time.
• Ivo Timmermans (mail), Tue 23 part of the time.
• Anne Bezemer (mail)
  Will come by train (free for students). Can't guarantee presence before 11:00 AM at any day.
  Will bring: laptop 486 DX/50 with 10Mbit BNC/UTP network, CompactFlash adapter; Digital still camera 640x480 using CompactFlash cards.
  Can bring if needed: one or two QWERTY keyboards AT (one PS/2 -> AT convertor); one or two serial mice; one or two 10Mbit BNC or BNC/UTP network cards ISA; HQ speaker set; one 0.5m UTP cable; one ~4m UTP cross-cable; several BNC cables of various lengths (up to 10m); BNC T-pieces and terminators.

Anyone else?

Coordination

Organization and coordination of things will be done on the debian-events-eu mailing list (subscribe, archives), and with this page (that's http://panic.et.tudelft.nl/~costar/linuxexpoamsterdam2001). You can of course also mail me directly. Because we'll have non-Dutch participants, language will be mainly English.

Location details

(As given by Lizzie Johnson)

"This village is a very convivial part of the fair - in Amsterdam there are to date 11 associations and LUGs who will be present.

"In the village Debian would have a free space (it is not a "booth" in the strict sense of the word) which would comprise of 2 chairs, 1 table, 1 name sign, lighting (but no electricity or internet access, you have to order these later from the technical file) and carpet. The village is on the right hand side at the entrance of the lounge auditorium at the RAI centre (where the whole of the expo will be taking place) along the wall, and at the moment is about 50m²."

There is a map (.pdf, 640kB; local copy) of the expo, the "association village" is at the bottom right, as shown in this (much smaller) .gif version. The Auditorium (hexagonal structure) is located at the very center of the RAI, the red thing in the RAI map here.

Access times:

Monday 22: 14:00 - 23:00 to set things up; at least one person must claim the booth before 18:00.
Tuesday 23: 07:30 - 18:00, public 09:30 - 17:30
Wednesday 24: 07:30 - 23:00, public 09:30 - 17:30, dismantling after 17:30.

Parking in the RAI underground car park costs NLG 17,50.

The table we'll be provided with should be 1.20 meters wide, which would just barely allow three 17" monitors; or comfortably two if anything >17" is present.

Sky Events also offers free electricity to associations.

TODO

Several things have to be done/made/organized (in no particular order):
• Sizable poster(s) with the Debian `swirl', "The universal Operating System", "The most software, the most people", "The biggest is still the best", "When code matters more than commercials" etc.
  Available here - get Everything.
  (ps2pdf will make nice .pdf versions (apt-get install gs gsfonts))
• Flyers with info on what/why-Linux and what/why-Debian
  Available here too.
• CDs to hand out and/or sell
  The .iso image of the Top-1000 CD to give away/sell is available. Use the Pseudo-Image Kit with this .list file: deb22r2-i386-top1000.list, then rsync from
  130.161.157.155::debian-cd/local/deb22r2-i386-top1000.iso
  Or get the complete scripts to make it yourself; adjust at least CONF.sh, start building with ./build.sh.
• Dutch manuals to sell
  ~100 copies available
• Computers for demo purposes + monitors/speakers/network cards/cables etc.
• Extra chairs since we get only 2. Extra table(s)?
• Printed t-shirts/other garments, both to sell and wear ourselves
  Artwork is here.
• Organize internet connectivity (NLG 1000,- ex BTW/VAT)
  No.
• Transport apparatus for getting really heavy monitors from car to "booth" and back.
• "Please think to bring about 30 samples of your press kit the first day of the show before 9 am on the press stand" (Marie-Chritine Flahault, LEA Press Contact)

More?

And: Who'll do what?

Visitor profile

According to this: about 3000 visitors expected. Mostly management types from the IT sector, that possibly have heard about Linux and want to know more. Of course also Linux fans, but that might turn out to be a minority.

Based on this, I expect most visitors to the Debian "space" (or "non-booth" if you prefer) will want to know:

1. What is Linux and what's its use in my company?
2. What is Debian and how is it related to Linux?
3. Why would I choose Debian and not a "competitor"?

Answers to these questions will also have to be put on the flyers; suggestions are very welcome on mentioned mailing list.

Miscellaneous

• The official brochure (.pdf, 421kB; local copy) is well worth reading.
• Postscript Tux (section 3.4)
  Enhanced version (local, much faster). Use
      gs -sDEVICE=jpeg -dNOPAUSE -sOutputFile=LinuxLogo_CS1.jpg LinuxLogo_CS1.eps -c quit
  to get a .jpg preview (much better than gv for some reason).
• Selling things to raise money / cover expenses is allowed.