Previous year's coordination at https://community.kde.org/Promo/Events/FOSDEM

Stuff I've typically had to do:
-how to get stall bits and work out how to get them to venue
-what we're demoing and the spiel to go with it
-get a float and prices for stuff we sell
-print and bring posters et al
-organise saturday meal and drinks

See summary from previous years
https://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-community/2017q1/003402.html
https://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-community/2016q1/002245.html
https://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-community/2015q1/001281.html

I've put in a booth request now. No devroom, though -- that would take some non-zero coordination with GNOME or other desktops, and I don't think we have the time or energy for that just now.

I've contacted Jens about design for the roll-ups.

I do already have roll-up poster stands for use at FOSDEM

Only stands, or the roll-ups themselves? In any case, maybe we should get new ones designed and printed in any case? I wanted to have one that would advertise the community, and one that would advertise the variety of applications we have.

the stand as well of course. KDE one seen here https://farm1.staticflickr.com/507/32619227251_2cfe516522_z_d.jpg (it has konqi on the lower half). I did also have that neon one but can't find it just now. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jriddell/32619227251/sizes/l

I have t-shirts and jumpers and krita dvds too

https://community.kde.org/Promo/Events/FOSDEM/2019

One of the main lessons learned from previous events is that we should always have an angle; a story or a theme that will be reflected in the talking points we present to visitors at the stall, and of course in all promo content we plan to publish.

This angle should align with the goal of our presence at the event - why are we going there, what are we trying to achieve?

Instead of just going for the sake of it, "because we always used to so it would be weird if we don't go", let's try to come up with some specific goals. They don't have to be too specific or strict; just something to keep us focused and help us move forward with promo and community goals.

Here are a few suggestions/examples just to get the discussion going. I admit that some of them may sound silly or crazy, but I'm sure you can come up with better ones :)

Goal - the WHY/WHAT: attract more contributors to a specific KDE project (Plasma Mobile? Kdenlive? Kontact?...)
Actions - the HOW: make the project prominent in the promo materials, prepare talking points related to it. If Plasma Mobile, try to get as many different devices running it to show people...

Goal - attract more bug hunters and reporters for KDE projects
Actions - organize a "Crash Plasma Challenge" where people can come to the stall and try to reproduce some bugs that need it; talk about our bugsquads and their bugsquashing activities, explain why bug reporting is important and how it helps new contributors join the community...

Goal - get people to love Plasma again (continuing the "KDE Plasma. Welcome Home" idea)
Actions - make a list of common complaints ("too slow", "bloated") and directly address them in talking points and promo materials; set up different devices, including old-ish, slow PCs at the stall to show people how well Plasma runs on those ("seeing is believing"; we can talk and write about this all we want, but for some people it will only work if we actually SHOW them). If possible and if the physical space at the venue allows for it, we could set up the stall to resemble an actual home :), like a cozy house with one laptop showing a fireplace video on loop...

Based on the brief discussions in the KDE Promo group, and the fact that no one objected (or commented anything, for that matter...), I think it's safe to conclude that we're going with the "Welcome Home" theme for FOSDEM, too.

This can be a good thing, because we'll be able to reuse the materials and improve our talking points from previous events that used the same theme.

Just a note: I've somehow acquired a hernia that forces me to limit my keyboard time severely. So I have completely lost track of this task. Also, last time I started doing something, making rollups, it turned out there was no need... Is there still anything I need to do?

The attached PDF contains a rough idea for the visuals and messaging for the "Come Home" campaign.

I went with the approach focused on the "regular", non-techie user and centered around activities that people do every day from their homes (read email, hang out with friends, sort photos, play with kids...).

As I'm not a designer, this probably does not look professional enough. After all, it's just a draft/proposal. Everyone, feel free to "steal" ideas from this proposal and make better visuals :), or let me know what I could do to improve it.

Of course, it's possible that this approach is not the best. If that's the case, please provide some feedback so we can all come up with a more appropriate one.

Thanks! :)

Ooh that's awesome!

This is a leaflet? Or a slideshow? Do you have a way to print it?

I'd remove mention of FOSDEM on the cover so it can be reused generically. I'd use "Come Home to KDE in 2019"

Plasma Desktop: screenshot there doesn't look much like our defaults consider changing it to our defaults. I'd mention "lightweight" as that's true and gets people's attention.

Is KTeaTime really a flagship app? (Maybe, I'm not sure.)

On the last page I'd use the same slogan, instead of "Welcome Home" reuse "Come Home to KDE in 2019".

I'd like to use the last page for a poster for FOSDEM as a backdrop, maybe add some app icons to it.

"Bob Ross" seems age and culture specific, someone more contemporary and international might be Banksy or old school such as Picasso. Obviously Tony Hart would be the best choice for a UK audience.

Bob Ross still has a mindshare for young artists, especially because all of his videos are on youtube and because he had a very calming way of teaching.

Being Dutch, I have no clue who Tony Hart is, might even go older school like Michelangelo or Rembrandt if you want to have the furthest recognition(Da Vinci is more associated with technology).

Personally I'd go for 'unleash your creativity with Krita' or 'turn your computer into an art studio' if the function of the program is required within the tagline, but I am not too fussy.

I concur with Wolthera.

I agree if you have to refer to an artist, I would go with a universal classic. I don't like the sentence 'unleash your creativity with Krita' -- it is too generic. it could refer to any app geared towards creativity. However, 'turn your computer into an art studio' or 'turn your monitor into a painting canvas' would be more on the point.

Presentation:

Flag:

Fonts:

In T9477#165898, @skadinna wrote:

One of the main lessons learned from previous events is that we should always have an angle; a story or a theme that will be reflected in the talking points we present to visitors at the stall, and of course in all promo content we plan to publish.

This angle should align with the goal of our presence at the event - why are we going there, what are we trying to achieve?

Instead of just going for the sake of it, "because we always used to so it would be weird if we don't go", let's try to come up with some specific goals. They don't have to be too specific or strict; just something to keep us focused and help us move forward with promo and community goals.

Here are a few suggestions/examples just to get the discussion going. I admit that some of them may sound silly or crazy, but I'm sure you can come up with better ones :)

Goal - the WHY/WHAT: attract more contributors to a specific KDE project (Plasma Mobile? Kdenlive? Kontact?...)
Actions - the HOW: make the project prominent in the promo materials, prepare talking points related to it. If Plasma Mobile, try to get as many different devices running it to show people...

Goal - attract more bug hunters and reporters for KDE projects
Actions - organize a "Crash Plasma Challenge" where people can come to the stall and try to reproduce some bugs that need it; talk about our bugsquads and their bugsquashing activities, explain why bug reporting is important and how it helps new contributors join the community...

Goal - get people to love Plasma again (continuing the "KDE Plasma. Welcome Home" idea)
Actions - make a list of common complaints ("too slow", "bloated") and directly address them in talking points and promo materials; set up different devices, including old-ish, slow PCs at the stall to show people how well Plasma runs on those ("seeing is believing"; we can talk and write about this all we want, but for some people it will only work if we actually SHOW them). If possible and if the physical space at the venue allows for it, we could set up the stall to resemble an actual home :), like a cozy house with one laptop showing a fireplace video on loop...

I think this is incredibly important and the members of the Promo team going to FOSDEM should always have this at the back of their minds when interacting with visitors to the stand.

I would like to add another two goals (or maybe they are tasks?) to the list that will help Promo down the road

Goal - Collect videos and images that Promo can use in future projects
Actions - Film with your phones short clips of general shots of the event (talks, crowds milling, queues at food carts, views from the top of the stairs in the K building down on the hall, booths, etc.), the KDE booth (visitors milling around the booth, staff attending visitors, views of the demos in progress, setting up, packing up, etc.), and mini one-or-two-question interviews with people ("Why do you love KDE?", "What is you favourite KDE app?", etc.)

The material you collect can be used not only in a report about FOSDEM, but in other promotional materials down the line.

For example: at the end of 2018 we wanted to make a video summary of our year. The ideal format for that is something punchy with lots of cuts showing a wide variety of things, not only screencasts or clips of phones, but also people talking, working and interacting. Looking into what we had, we discovered we had very little, in fact, virtually nothing of the latter. Of course we could have used stock footage, but that always stands out as fake.

The idea here is to build a library of footage and graphical material we can use for different visual projects.

The footage you take doesn't have to be perfect, in fact, indeed, it is sometimes better if it is not, since what we want to go for is semi-improvised and relatable. The key here is quantity a bit over quality, so we have enough to pick and choose from.

Goal - Count visitors and the topics they want to talk about
Actions - This is kinda hard, especially while you are trying to properly attend the visitors, but see if you can keep some tabs on how many people visit the stand, maybe splitting the time into 1st day before lunch, 1st day after lunch, 2nd day before lunch, and 2nd day after lunch.

There are several counters you can download to your phone that can help you keep track of numbers. I have used this one. It is rudimentary and doesn't look pretty, but it works. It's a counter. What else do you want?!

Also keep try and notes in a notebook of what visitors want to talk about or ask. You will probably notice a pattern: a lot of people may comment on how KDE/Plasma is slow, how aKonadi sucks, or, indeed, how KDE is awesome. Try and keep a tally on what people say or ask about, the themes that come up again and again, and how many people talk about each topic. It will give us a real-world insight in to how KDE stuff is perceived by the community.

Thanks for adding these ideas, Paul! I pretty much agree with everything :)

Although my photo/video skills are quite weak, I will try to film as much as possible. I'm not sure how many people will be willing to talk in front of a camera, but I guess it doesn't hurt to ask.

Also keep try and notes in a notebook of what visitors want to talk about or ask. You will probably notice a pattern: a lot of people may comment on how KDE/Plasma is slow, how aKonadi sucks, or, indeed, how KDE is awesome. Try and keep a tally on what people say or ask about, the themes that come up again and again, and how many people talk about each topic. It will give us a real-world insight in to how KDE stuff is perceived by the community.

I do this on a weekly basis by collecting impressions from reddit and socials, but it will be very interesting to see what people say to our faces :).

As for the main story/goal of our presence, we've already settled on the "Come Home to KDE". It seems that our actions will be focused on showing visitors the wide range of our software (by showcasing different apps and their usage - specifically, Krita, for example) and the different devices it can run on.

The next step is coming up with a few "battle cards"; i.e., quick, short lists of talking points that make sense for this goal.

2017 prompt sheets here, for inspiration:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bn8ODdLCOcjoALpDQ-X8GAy3owEAWAYG769CR6IMAvY/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CqztO96WFjsZKksY89piffhmUjXu4JFgHboKBAIcnmM/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QaBVVHmfcY_FAkeSpFw-ovU-41gidrsj9tL1BL_tL8U/edit?usp=sharing

In T9477#172563, @skadinna wrote:

Thanks for adding these ideas, Paul! I pretty much agree with everything :)

Although my photo/video skills are quite weak, I will try to film as much as possible. I'm not sure how many people will be willing to talk in front of a camera, but I guess it doesn't hurt to ask.

Of course! I have found being relaxed and no-pushy about it tends to keep things easy-going.

Also keep try and notes in a notebook of what visitors want to talk about or ask. You will probably notice a pattern: a lot of people may comment on how KDE/Plasma is slow, how aKonadi sucks, or, indeed, how KDE is awesome. Try and keep a tally on what people say or ask about, the themes that come up again and again, and how many people talk about each topic. It will give us a real-world insight in to how KDE stuff is perceived by the community.

I do this on a weekly basis by collecting impressions from reddit and socials, but it will be very interesting to see what people say to our faces :).

Where do you keep that data? I am collecting raw numbers in Promo Team Resources/Data/

---

As for the main story/goal of our presence, we've already settled on the "Come Home to KDE". It seems that our actions will be focused on showing visitors the wide range of our software (by showcasing different apps and their usage - specifically, Krita, for example) and the different devices it can run on.

Yes, I agree. Note that maybe FOSDEM is not the place to do this yet, but at some point we are going to have measure our success with hard numbers. Maybe come away from an event and count the number of "conversions", or sponsors that pledged to support Akademy during the proceedings, or maybe look at the stats of downloads and visits to our sites and see if there are spikes a during the weeks after our visit to an event, any hard data that can tell us unequivocally if what we are doing has a positive effect or not.

In T9477#172564, @jriddell wrote:

2017 prompt sheets here, for inspiration:
<snip links>

Thank you, this is exactly what we need.

In T9477#172565, @paulb wrote:

Where do you keep that data? I am collecting raw numbers in Promo Team Resources/Data/

It's just my local, long-ish list of direct quotes from social media...so, not exactly numbers :) But I can upload it to, say, a separate folder? Would something like Promo Team Resources/Data/Impressions make sense?

And since we're all here :), and there's still enough time to tweak the presentation from https://phabricator.kde.org/T9477#172484, here are my suggestions for more apps to add:

Heading:
Create things that make you happy.

Atelier
Print your very own 3D Konqi.

KDevelop
Make games, build websites, contribute to KDE.

Kate
Write the next big bestseller, or keep a simple journal.

Heading:
Expand your horizons.

Okular
Read ALL the things!

Falkon
Your window into the World Wide Web.

Parley
Learn languages from the comfort of your living room.

Looks good on the apps. I'd stick to just Kate to keep it simple for text editors.

I'd probably drop KTeaTime, it includes outdated UI.

We'll want up to three of those A4 prompt sheets for putting on the stall.

Also it would be good to have some banner images we can use in blogs and Dot posts of the Come Home to KDE with house/heart/k image.

I'm putting in an order for a neon banner and backdrop.

In T9477#172586, @jriddell wrote:

Looks good on the apps. I'd stick to just Kate to keep it simple for text editors.

Sure, that makes sense. I've edited my comment above.

I'd probably drop KTeaTime, it includes outdated UI.

Oh...sorry, I didn't know that was outdated. Can I take a screenshot with the latest version? Or is there any other app that better fits the "cozy home" story? Initially I wanted to include KRecipes, but that UI is even worse... :(

Update version of slideshow (small typo corrected):

Here are my attempts at creating a few A4 posters/flyers for the stand. If you're not happy with them, I can just share the materials and source files, and someone else can make them better. :)

Plasma Mobile and Neon Slimbook awesome.

Social Event one is more about a leaflet to hand out so people remember details.
So include map:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=50.84870&mlon=4.35502#map=18/50.84870/4.35502

Time 20:00 to midnight

Make clear price is for food and you buy your own drinks.

We are also hosting NextCloud and a bunch of lawyers so maybe a line saying KDE Welcomes NextCloud (logo) and Lawyers of Freedom (pic of judge wig or something).

I think there's no space for the Konqi/Kate home image so drop that, but it's awesome so keep it around for other uses.

Oh and social one should be 2 A5 leaflets on an A4 page and 30 (non colour fine) copies printed.

And say money to me preferably by card for food at Saturday event.

Oh and put my phone number on it for good luck.
+44 7941 938 912. SMS, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal

OK, I'll upload a new version for the social event - you check it and confirm it's OK, and I'm getting it printed tomorrow.

Apart from that, I'll also make one each for Krita, Kdenlive, cool exotic hardware, and the merch price list.

Anything else?

I've got the merch price list done here so leave that.

To reduce number put Krita and Kdenlive on 1 A4 sheet and RK3399/RISC thing on one other.

OK, got it. I think I'll still try to make the price list with poppin' colors, so if you like it, we can use it - if not, it's not a big deal. :)

I asked on Telegram, but just in case - maybe we should indicate t-shirt sizes on the price list? It seems like useful information for people who wanna buy them.

OK try out a colourful price list :)

The t-shirt sizes are just what we happen to have which is just some left over from previous years and left over from Akademy, it's not well enough organised to list

Before we close this, it may help to get some feedback on this for a bit of post-mortem analysis.

• What went well?
• What didn't go so well and you would differently?
• What were people interested in?
• What didn't attract so much attention?

• What went well?

I really did like the booth setup with the two roll-ups -- that provided a bit of a breathing space. Because the banners added some space, there was also less of a KDE-mates-meeting-up-blocking-the-stand than we have had previously.

• What didn't go so well and you would differently?

I'm sorry, but Telegram is useless as a communication channel. The app keeps closing down and so I keep missing that something happened. I felt completely out of the loop. When Adriaan and I started thinking of Fosdem 2019 we started planning getting stuff designed, printed and moved to Brussels, and until a relatively late moment, I had no idea that that was not going to be needed.

Another problem is that for quite long stretches on Saturday, Ivana, Wolthera and me were the only people at the booth. Everyone else was away doing their own things or chatting with other KDE people, and none of us was really au fait with the various hardware thingies on the table. The last time I worked on Plasma Mobile was 2015, and that's something I had to say a lot that day.

• What were people interested in?

Stickers, Plasma mobile, and as long as the swag lasted, Krita. No swag, no people stopping at the booth. If there's something to grab, there's a chance for a conversation, otherwise eye-contact will be carefully avoided.

• What didn't attract so much attention?

The free and open source part. The community part of KDE. Actually, the slogan on the banner about coming home didn't seem to work: at least, nobody asked me about it at all.

In T9477#175569, @rempt wrote:

• What went well?

I really did like the booth setup with the two roll-ups -- that provided a bit of a breathing space. Because the banners added some space, there was also less of a KDE-mates-meeting-up-blocking-the-stand than we have had previously.

• What didn't go so well and you would differently?

I'm sorry, but Telegram is useless as a communication channel.

Do you mean when it is bridged to IRC? Using it natively works very well.

The app keeps closing down and so I keep missing that something happened. I felt completely out of the loop. When Adriaan and I started thinking of Fosdem 2019 we started planning getting stuff designed, printed and moved to Brussels, and until a relatively late moment, I had no idea that that was not going to be needed.

Another problem is that for quite long stretches on Saturday, Ivana, Wolthera and me were the only people at the booth. Everyone else was away doing their own things or chatting with other KDE people, and none of us was really au fait with the various hardware thingies on the table. The last time I worked on Plasma Mobile was 2015, and that's something I had to say a lot that day.

Good point: have at least one expert for what's on display at all times. They can take turns to go to talks.

• What were people interested in?

Stickers, Plasma mobile, and as long as the swag lasted, Krita. No swag, no people stopping at the booth. If there's something to grab, there's a chance for a conversation, otherwise eye-contact will be carefully avoided.

Hah! I actually have some advice on that: move out from behind the table. It is a bit aggressive, but talking people on the other side of the table when you see a flicker of interest. For FOSDEM, where stakes are not enormously high, it may not be necessary, but if we take Krita on the road to... oh, I don't know, some art congress, this will be something we'd have to do.

Another suggestion: Let people play with Krita. Apart from having Wolthera's tablet, have another one for visitors to doodle on.

• What didn't attract so much attention?

The free and open source part. The community part of KDE. Actually, the slogan on the banner about coming home didn't seem to work: at least, nobody asked me about it at all.

Okay. Point taken. Maybe it is not enough to just have it up, or it may be it doesn't click with people. We have to find out which it is before deciding if we have to ditch it.

Good point: have at least one expert for what's on display at all times. They can take turns to go to talks

Or have a little cheatsheet ready for everything on display. Most of the time what happened was that I could tell people like 'yes, that's plasma mobile on risc-v, which is hella cool, cause it's open hardware, and we're super proud to have it working', but a lot of the time people asked things like 'what kind of bootloader is on there', and like, I know what that is, but I have no idea which one we used, what other projects ours is interacting with, etc. (Though, we'd still need an expert around to answer the more obscure questions.)

I had an almost similar thing going on with gcompris, which I could tell a bit more about, but thankfully @timotheegiet was there too.

Similarly, I do not expect people to be able to tell the latest developments about Krita so we too ought to make a small summary of what we've done past year.

Hah! I actually have some advice on that: move out from behind the table.

Did that, but noticed far more often that people would be dancing around me to get to the pile of stickers and not have to make eye-contact. Also a lot of people just getting stickers and not knowing what it was about.

The free and open source part. The community part of KDE.

I noticed a lot of people seemed to just lump in KDE with the distros. So maybe we should try and see if we can get the message accross that KDE's goal is to be a community of people who make open source software, and we're like, a cozy bunch, before using slogans?

On the other hand, it might also be that people have some weird kind of banner blindness on these conventions. The KDE banner ensured that it was very clear where the KDE stand was(which was great compared to 2018), but people generally didn't ask about anything KDE related if it wasn't showing on a screen somewhere. When there's hardware with plasma mobile, people asked about the hardware running plasma mobile, when there's gcompris on a screen, people asked about gcompris, when there's krita on a screen, people asked about Krita, when there's kdenlive on a screen, people asked about kdenlive. But, for example, we had barely any questions regarding KDE connect, even though it's a very popular application as well. I suspect in this case it's also because a lot of people that look at the stands have no idea what KDE is, so they just see what we're showing off, and not what else we have in store. And in that regard the demos are very important as it allows people to see these applications being used and thus at the very least KDE can be associated with useful applications.

That reminds me, we had a Gnome developer come by who remarked it is actually kind of weird that everyone is making stuff for mobile, but then the demo doesn't have anything to demonstrate the software with. So for example, there were no PDFs to show okular on plasma mobile, or music files to show how vvave works.

Anyway, I am just rambling my impressions right now.

Here's my "report", maybe it can be useful. Keep in mind that this was my first time at FOSDEM, so I'm not very familiar with how things usually work.

What went well?

• Shipping/getting all the materials to the venue. Everyone did a great job on this - we had the merch, the hardware, the monitor, the banners; basically, everything we needed.

• Merch sales (I think? Not sure how this year compares to previous ones, but we managed to sell quite a lot of T-shirts plus Krita stuff, which is great.)

• Krita promo. Boudewijn and Wolthera did an amazing job getting people interested in Krita, even chatting to them in different languages :). The live sketching was awesome, and they also did their best to explain what KDE neon and Plasma Mobile are for those who were interested. Without their help, the booth wouldn't have been half as interesting or successful.

• The booth in general, I'd say. There were hardly any moments when there wasn't anyone stopping by. True, a lot of them were quite passive - just taking stickers and leaving without any meaningful interaction, but still, it was very well-visited.

What didn't go so well and you would differently?

• Hardware prep and setup. Some devices were out of juice and had to be removed from the table/turned off. We should have monitored this and charged them in advance. Also, some devices kept going into lockscreen/standby mode, so their screens were turned off and it looked as if they were not functional. We could have fixed this by disabling lockscreen/powersave.

• Topic coverage. As others mentioned already, a few of us were left alone at the booth and it was difficult for us to field questions about hardware. We could have solved this by preparing "cheatsheets" in advance, or by setting up an actual schedule that would ensure at least one hardware-focused person was present at the booth at all times. Also, we should always make sure detailed specs are printed and displayed on the table for all hardware we're showing. People were stopping by and asking how much RAM the Slimbook had, and we didn't know. :(

• Interacting with passive visitors - this is just something that I personally could/should have done better. Instead of just standing behind the table and waiting for them to ask something, I should have approached them directly while they were hovering in front of the booth. Adriaan does this so incredibly well - he goes up to people, welcomes them, and asks them what they're interested in. We should all learn from him!

• Merch organization. I was trying to sort T-shirts by size and color, but it still took me too long to check if we had a certain size when people asked. We could have solved this by listing the actual amount of items per size/color on a sheet of paper (or in a spreadsheet) and then just ticking them off when they're sold. That way we would know how much we have left of which size at any point, without having to look through the pile of stuff. Also, I didn't know if the Konqi pillow was for sale at all - it turned out that it was, but it had a sticker on it that said "reserved for Andy" (??), which was confusing (both to me and to people who wanted to buy it).

What were people interested in?

• Hardware. The RISC-V was a massive hit. I think we tapped into several key things here: we showcased a "naked" piece of hardware with glowing lights; and we presented this to the right type of audience - technically-minded people who are already excited about this kind of stuff. The little Raspberry Pi with the screen was also sought after.

• Plasma Mobile. A bunch of people wanted to play with the phone. Even more asked how they can install it on their phones. Some also asked if we had a Purism/Librem 5 prototype to show (which we, sadly, did not have).

• Anything moving on the big screen. The live painting got many people to stop and look, at least from a distance. When there was nothing else happening at the booth, we set up the latest promo video of Plasma to play on loop - this seemed to work better than just showing the PDF presentation, which we also did briefly.

• KDE in general. Surprisingly (at least to me), there were some people who had apparently never heard of KDE, didn't know what we do, or thought we were a distro. They wanted to know more about our products, and sadly we didn't have any brochures targeted at this type of audience. This is something to think about - maybe it's worth producing a new set of materials, aligned with the "Come Home" theme, but aimed at different audiences.

• KDE neon. Bunch of people asked what it is, how it's different from Kubuntu, and how they can install it. I think this is pretty much what Wolthera said - they saw the stickers and A4 flyers, and asked about stuff that was highlighted there.

• Merch. There were some cool ideas/requests; for example, one guy wanted a simple black shirt with white KDE logo - I think we could make this for one of the next events. Another guy suggested we make small KDE logo stickers that people can put over the "Windows" key on their keyboards. We only had a couple of shirts with Konqi, but quite a few people expressed interest in them. Maybe we can consider designing new ones, and include Katie designs as well.

• The SumUp payment system! Quite a few people commented on how practical and cool it looked, and asked me more about it. Sadly, I couldn't tell them much except explain how it works, but I think Jonathan answered a few questions about it.

What didn't attract so much attention?

• The flag. I think this is because it was somewhat awkwardly positioned on the window, and the fabric is slightly transparent so it wasn't as noticeable. We might have had more success with it if we had placed it at the front of the table, over the blue cloth.

• Consequently, and just as Boudewijn said, the slogan was not commented on much. If we're going to go with this theme for other events this year, maybe we should create additional materials (brochures?) that will highlight the point of the whole campaign.

• What went well?

It all seemed to work nicely.

• What didn't go so well and you would differently?

For Camille's Sunday demo I had him at the side of the table replacing the banner as having Wolkera behind the table on Saturday felt a bit hidden.

There's minimal space to stand infront of the table, it's far too busy and that just blocks the public.

• What were people interested in?

Pretty much everything

• What didn't attract so much attention?

No talks this year, people need poking in person to give them.

I did use the phrase Come Home to KDE and pointed at the banner a number of times, as with ELC stall last year it was pretty common to have people say they had used KDE ages ago and were considering it again.

I did make the prompt A4 cards for people on the stall to read which I think worked, we can't have all the topic experts on all the time, but they all put in a good showing.

Yes demo machines need lock turned off and demo accounts set up, that's what the setup hour is for but I was on my own for that both days.

See also my kde-community post for accounts etc