[Ambassadors] Re: FAD @ LFNW

[Clint Savage]

On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 11:39 AM, Max Spevack <mspevack at redhat.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 2 May 2009, Max Spevack wrote:
>
>> Aside from the blog posts that have already been made about LFNW, I'm
>> curious to know more about the Fedora Activity Day that we held there. How
>> did it go? What sorts of things were achieved?  What sort of turnout was
>> there, what should we do differently in the future, etc.?
>
> I realize that there's also some summary information on the wiki page:
>
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_Activity_Day_at_LFNW_2009
>
> and I'm grateful for it.  I guess I'm just curious to know if there's any
> other feedback, good or bad, and to get some more flavor for what that part
> of the event was like.
>
> --Max
>
I probably should have blogged more about the FAD.  I think it went
pretty swell.  Larry is quite the Advocate and presenter, probably
comes from dealing with classrooms full of students on a regular
basis.

As far as the success of this FAD, I would say that it didn't match up
to what I wanted to do.  However, I feel there were a lot of people in
the room who wanted to learn more about Fedora.  I did feel like we
were being utilized more to ask questions than actually get a task
done.

More to this point, I think the fact that we had such a big Fedora
presence this year was an exciting thing for folks in the Northwest.
My opinion is that if we come back next year, we'll get a similar
response and a few of the folks who attended our FAD this year will
help us to organize and get goals done. I will say that there needs to
be a couple things at every FAD.   Even though we've only done 2, I
can see similarities between SCALE and LFNW.

First is that we need a representative (or two) to sit at the entrance
and answer questions.  Something like 'Ask a Fedoran' at a small table
right near the door.  This is much like triage.  If people come to
work on an activity that we've advertised, they'll get them inside and
working with someone who's in charge of that particular activity.
This is the key and part of what keeps us focused.

Secondly, I think we need to have a design of what we're there to
accomplish.  At SCaLE, we had a much better idea of what was to be
accomplished.  We went to task on it and were able to complete a few
things.  This was good and with the triage person, we really could've
gotten more done.  Thus a learning experience.  At LFNW, it felt more
like we were scattered, didn't really have any idea of what we were
going to work on until we showed up and because of that, we didn't
really accomplish much at all other than helping folks with their
fedora problems.

In both cases (SCaLE and LFNW) I have found that we were well received
and that people were excited to see our presence.  We've made a great
impact on these communities.  However, with the two improvements I've
mentioned, I feel we could really help these communities *and* get a
few things done.  I don't think there is a way to avoid talking with
the public at a FAD, we should be welcoming them.  The key here is
management of people and getting them where they want to be quickly
and efficiently.  Thus, I am suggesting that any FAD held alongside a
larger event *must* have defined people and goals.

I hope this feedback helps overall.  Karsten and I have talked at
length about much of this and we've continually been working on the
'How to organize a FAD'[1] page on the wiki.  I think that's the best
place to continue to focus our efforts and improve the FAD experience.

Cheers,

Clint

1 - https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_organize_a_FAD