[Linux-aus] fwd: Education expo report

[Pia Waugh <pia@linux.org.au>]

----- Forwarded message from Pia Waugh <pia@linux.org.au> -----

Hi all,

I wanted to let you all know that the Linux Australia stand at the Education
Expo in Sydney over the weekend was _AWESOME_!! We had activities for kids,
computer literacy goals matched with open source software, giveaways, copies
of "the open cd" with a whole schwag of education documents (including the
excellent OSV FOSS for education catalog) and loads more. We had some
generous sponsors this year, so the stand looked fantastic and was very
popular. Steve Walsh took some photos that will come online soon (thanks
Steve!).

We constantly had people around the stand, much more so on Sunday then
Saturday, and a queue for the Linux challenge. Sara in particular put in a
lot of time making sure we had the learning objectives set up for Sunday
with a coversheet and such. We had DET, the Board of Studies and many other
peak organisations come and speak to us, and I think we really made an
impact on many of the schools. Loads of people said things like "you were
here last year, I'm going to send all of my people over to find out more!".

Sara had this to contribute:

    The feedback from the EdExpo organisers was extremely positive. Dr Linda
    Vining said "The Linux Australia booth was a MODEL booth at this years
    expo, your interactive component and engaging staff had all visitors
    interested in the product and message, congratulations!". The booths
    around us complained that we attracted all the visitors and kept their
    attention.

    Woo hoo! This proves our marketing strategies are effective and our
    target market will start to carry the FOSS message even further.

    Thank you for bringing it altogether and making it happen, often times
    Pia is left to congratulate and thank everyone else but you deserve the
    most acknowledgment, and while often left unsaid the community really
    does recognise and appreciate your hard work.

Thanks Sara! And thanks to everyone that pitched in!

Volunteers that helped on the stand:
- Sara and Mohammad Kaan
- Steve Walsh
- Craige McWhirter
- Sridhar Dhanapalan
- Steve Walsh
- Stuart Rushton
- Terry Dawson
- Bruce Badger
- Lindsay Holmwood and Julia
- Grant Parnell
- Andreas Fischer
- Bec Dorries and Neil

Event sponsorship:
- Linux Australia (booth)
- Red Hat (pens, hats, calendars, tattoos, mobile phone trinkets)
- Canonical (Ubuntu/Edubuntu CDs, stickers)
- Novell (Demonstration Laptop, Suse Geeko toys)
- ELX - stickers, hats, penguins and some movies to give away
- DataSS (500 The Open CDs, demonstration CD replicator, these are also the
  guys we are working with to get a CD replicator for Linux Australia if we
  create the Linux drivers for it)
- Nerdvana (Photography, Internet access and blank CDs)
- ABD Computers (printing, badges, certificates)
- Waugh Partners (pamphlets, badge parts, posters)
- McWhirter Consulting (Demo pcs for childrens activity)
- HP (a colour inkjet printer on loan)
- LAMS International (LAMS CDs, brochures and assistance on the stand. This
  made sense as it is a good Open Source e-learning system and Australian)
- Terry Dawson paid for and wore the penguin suit which was very popular.
  He's probably a few kilos lighter for the experience, it was pretty warm!

Anyway, so the event was fantastic. I think that between linux.conf.au,
Software Freedom Day and Education Expo's like this one, along with the
Government advocacy and education, we are really making an impact across
many levels. Rock on Australia! Rock on Linux Australia :)

Cheers,
Pia

-- 
Linux Australia                                         http://linux.org.au/
 
    "We all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be
                            free." - Bill Hicks