[Linux-aus] LWE Marketing Strategy

[Pia Waugh]

<quote who="Andrew Cowie">

<snip>

> The presence of Linux [Australia] at something like EdExpo this past
> weekend (or, as Pia would remember, at WSIS in Geneva) works out as
> really cool because of its novelty and uniqueness and the fact that it's
> *not* entirely on topic. But at an actual "Linux" event, then dynamic is
> different - and one I don't think we "the community" have had to compete
> or express ourselves in as yet.

I think loads of Linux events, particularly the suit ones are focused on the
business case reasons for FOSS, and thus LA can distinguish itself by
offering an alternative view about the soft benefits of FOSS, as well as
demonstrating the importance of the developer and user community. 

> Given that the average corporate IT trade show team has it down slick,
> sleek and really glossy, I should hope that we will find a way to
> likewise create such a presence. Otherwise we will look like a bunch of
> hicks - and that won't really help the cause.

At edexpo we certainly didn't have the same slickness as NSW TAFE, or other
bif orgs, however we had an extremely popular booth that actually offered
something useful to people, with documentation and give-aways to back it up.
I think at an LWE type event, we don't need to spend 10's of thousands of
dollars to compete with the commercial slickness, indeed I think many people
are quite over commercial slickness. The interesting thing about the LA
booth at edexpo was that we acted as facilitators, we were assisting people
to find something in FOSS useful to them, that they could care about. We
weren't selling anything, and thus our pitch was well taken. I think we'd
get a similar curiosity at LWE and a similar enthusiasm for something about
FOSS which is above ad beyond the mere business case reasons. I don't really
care if our booth is as big or slick as Microsofts, it has nothing to do
with them or any other company there. I care about people who come to the
booth most likely out of curiousity going away with a broader view of what
it all means.

It all comes down to my pitch about qualitative growth rather than merely
quantatative growth of the FOSS community :)

Cheers,
Pia

-- 
Linux Australia                                         http://linux.org.au/