FOSDEM summary

[Daniel Gruno <hu...@apache.org>]

Hi folks (cc press@),

Thank you so much for an amazing FOSDEM last week!
This was the first time the ASF has had a presence as a foundation, but
even though this showed a bit, I think we had very productive
interactions with people (never a dull moment!) and showed them what the
ASF was about.

This was also the first time we had the opportunity to showcase our new
visual identity, which was very well received and was quite the talking
point in many a conversation.

I'd like to extend my most sincere thanks to especially Alexander
Bezzubov, Andrus Adamchik, Michael & Mechtilde Stehmann and Sharan
"Super Trouper" Foga for their tireless efforts at the booth. I'd also
like to thank Roman, Claude, Greg and Rich for lending a helping hand
when needed. We totaled 18 hours at the booth (plus setup) during the
two days (10 + 8) and spoke with...well, a LOT of people about the
foundation and its projects. We also had many interactions with other
foundations and companies about our project and theirs (and how they
could work together).

While I was mostly sitting _behind_ the booth, I also got the
opportunity to take a few photos of it, which can be seen at
https://imgur.com/a/8beqB

As for swag, I am both pleased and surprised to say we managed to run
out completely _2 hours before FOSDEM ended!_. We gave away more than
800 powered-by stickers (760 or so), a few hundred project stickers, 40
t-shirts, 100 pens, 50 key chains, 200 fridge magnets, 50 beer coasters,
a few mugs and around 30 badges. We clearly need more swag for next
FOSDEM ;)

For the nicer items, we came up with a rule; "One conversation equals
one free item", which worked super well. Compared to other conferences,
even ApacheCon, we had a super busy booth, and only rarely had some free
time without anyone asking us a question about the foundation and/or
projects. We also had a nice cooperation going with the OpenOffice team,
who decided to stay for a bit longer (and thus fill some of the big
booth, so we didn't have to be 4 ASF people at it all the time, which
was nice).

As for the lessons learned, we definitely need to start organizing
earlier next time, and get more of the prominent projects to join us -
we especially had a lot of queries about Mesos and Spark at the
conference. We would also really appreciate it if the foundation could
send Melissa (or someone else) to be there in an official capacity.
Doing this strictly as volunteers made us a bit jumpy as to who will
watch over what if one has to go to a talk.

We also desperately need one or more brochures about the foundation and
its projects!!!

The giant ASF banner has been passed on to the Stehmanns and will be
used in other conferences in Europe.

With regards,
Daniel.

Re: FOSDEM summary

[Daniel Gruno <hu...@apache.org>]

On 02/04/2016 10:43 AM, Daniel Gruno wrote:
> On 02/04/2016 10:38 AM, Bertrand Delacretaz wrote:
>> On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 10:33 AM, Daniel Gruno <hu...@apache.org> wrote:
>>> ..Thank you so much for an amazing FOSDEM last week!..
>>
>> Thanks to all involved and thanks very much Daniel for your summary!
>>
>> After missing FOSDEM for so many years I should try to attend next
>> time, are the dates for next year set already?
> 
> Not yet, but I would imagine it's January 28th+29th 2017.

Scratch that, if they follow usual procedures, it will be Feb 4-5 2017.
My bad!

With regards,
Daniel.

> 
> With regards,
> Daniel.
> 
>>
>> -Bertrand
>>
> 

Re: FOSDEM summary

[Daniel Gruno <hu...@apache.org>]

On 02/04/2016 10:38 AM, Bertrand Delacretaz wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 10:33 AM, Daniel Gruno <hu...@apache.org> wrote:
>> ..Thank you so much for an amazing FOSDEM last week!..
> 
> Thanks to all involved and thanks very much Daniel for your summary!
> 
> After missing FOSDEM for so many years I should try to attend next
> time, are the dates for next year set already?

Not yet, but I would imagine it's January 28th+29th 2017.

With regards,
Daniel.

> 
> -Bertrand
> 

Re: FOSDEM summary

[Bertrand Delacretaz <bd...@apache.org>]

On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 10:33 AM, Daniel Gruno <hu...@apache.org> wrote:
> ..Thank you so much for an amazing FOSDEM last week!..

Thanks to all involved and thanks very much Daniel for your summary!

After missing FOSDEM for so many years I should try to attend next
time, are the dates for next year set already?

-Bertrand

Re: FOSDEM summary

[Lars Eilebrecht <la...@apache.org>]

Daniel Gruno wrote on 2016-02-04 10:33:52:

> Thank you so much for an amazing FOSDEM last week!
> This was the first time the ASF has had a presence as a foundation,
> but even though this showed a bit, I think we had very productive
> interactions with people (never a dull moment!) and showed them what
> the ASF was about.
 
Big thanks to you Daniel for helping with organisation!
Hopefully we can have a bigger presence at next year's FOSDEM.


cheers
Lars

Re: FOSDEM summary

[Melissa Warnkin <mi...@yahoo.com.INVALID>]

We know that's the truth, Sharan!! ;) LOL ....miss your smiling face, girlfriend!!
A great big thank you to all who pitched in to make it a success!
~Melissa


      From: Sharan Foga <sh...@gmail.com>
 To: dev@community.apache.org 
 Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2016 5:16 AM
 Subject: Re: FOSDEM summary
   
Hi Daniel

Thanks for the summary.  I had a great time and really enjoyed being on 
the booth (and hey I can keep talking all day if I need to :-)

Thanks
Sharan

Le 04/02/2016 10:33, Daniel Gruno a écrit :
> Hi folks (cc press@),
>
> Thank you so much for an amazing FOSDEM last week!
> This was the first time the ASF has had a presence as a foundation, but
> even though this showed a bit, I think we had very productive
> interactions with people (never a dull moment!) and showed them what the
> ASF was about.
>
> This was also the first time we had the opportunity to showcase our new
> visual identity, which was very well received and was quite the talking
> point in many a conversation.
>
> I'd like to extend my most sincere thanks to especially Alexander
> Bezzubov, Andrus Adamchik, Michael & Mechtilde Stehmann and Sharan
> "Super Trouper" Foga for their tireless efforts at the booth. I'd also
> like to thank Roman, Claude, Greg and Rich for lending a helping hand
> when needed. We totaled 18 hours at the booth (plus setup) during the
> two days (10 + 8) and spoke with...well, a LOT of people about the
> foundation and its projects. We also had many interactions with other
> foundations and companies about our project and theirs (and how they
> could work together).
>
> While I was mostly sitting _behind_ the booth, I also got the
> opportunity to take a few photos of it, which can be seen at
> https://imgur.com/a/8beqB
>
> As for swag, I am both pleased and surprised to say we managed to run
> out completely _2 hours before FOSDEM ended!_. We gave away more than
> 800 powered-by stickers (760 or so), a few hundred project stickers, 40
> t-shirts, 100 pens, 50 key chains, 200 fridge magnets, 50 beer coasters,
> a few mugs and around 30 badges. We clearly need more swag for next
> FOSDEM ;)
>
> For the nicer items, we came up with a rule; "One conversation equals
> one free item", which worked super well. Compared to other conferences,
> even ApacheCon, we had a super busy booth, and only rarely had some free
> time without anyone asking us a question about the foundation and/or
> projects. We also had a nice cooperation going with the OpenOffice team,
> who decided to stay for a bit longer (and thus fill some of the big
> booth, so we didn't have to be 4 ASF people at it all the time, which
> was nice).
>
> As for the lessons learned, we definitely need to start organizing
> earlier next time, and get more of the prominent projects to join us -
> we especially had a lot of queries about Mesos and Spark at the
> conference. We would also really appreciate it if the foundation could
> send Melissa (or someone else) to be there in an official capacity.
> Doing this strictly as volunteers made us a bit jumpy as to who will
> watch over what if one has to go to a talk.
>
> We also desperately need one or more brochures about the foundation and
> its projects!!!
>
> The giant ASF banner has been passed on to the Stehmanns and will be
> used in other conferences in Europe.
>
> With regards,
> Daniel.



  

Re: FOSDEM summary

[Sharan Foga <sh...@gmail.com>]

Hi Daniel

Thanks for the summary.  I had a great time and really enjoyed being on 
the booth (and hey I can keep talking all day if I need to :-)

Thanks
Sharan

Le 04/02/2016 10:33, Daniel Gruno a écrit :
> Hi folks (cc press@),
>
> Thank you so much for an amazing FOSDEM last week!
> This was the first time the ASF has had a presence as a foundation, but
> even though this showed a bit, I think we had very productive
> interactions with people (never a dull moment!) and showed them what the
> ASF was about.
>
> This was also the first time we had the opportunity to showcase our new
> visual identity, which was very well received and was quite the talking
> point in many a conversation.
>
> I'd like to extend my most sincere thanks to especially Alexander
> Bezzubov, Andrus Adamchik, Michael & Mechtilde Stehmann and Sharan
> "Super Trouper" Foga for their tireless efforts at the booth. I'd also
> like to thank Roman, Claude, Greg and Rich for lending a helping hand
> when needed. We totaled 18 hours at the booth (plus setup) during the
> two days (10 + 8) and spoke with...well, a LOT of people about the
> foundation and its projects. We also had many interactions with other
> foundations and companies about our project and theirs (and how they
> could work together).
>
> While I was mostly sitting _behind_ the booth, I also got the
> opportunity to take a few photos of it, which can be seen at
> https://imgur.com/a/8beqB
>
> As for swag, I am both pleased and surprised to say we managed to run
> out completely _2 hours before FOSDEM ended!_. We gave away more than
> 800 powered-by stickers (760 or so), a few hundred project stickers, 40
> t-shirts, 100 pens, 50 key chains, 200 fridge magnets, 50 beer coasters,
> a few mugs and around 30 badges. We clearly need more swag for next
> FOSDEM ;)
>
> For the nicer items, we came up with a rule; "One conversation equals
> one free item", which worked super well. Compared to other conferences,
> even ApacheCon, we had a super busy booth, and only rarely had some free
> time without anyone asking us a question about the foundation and/or
> projects. We also had a nice cooperation going with the OpenOffice team,
> who decided to stay for a bit longer (and thus fill some of the big
> booth, so we didn't have to be 4 ASF people at it all the time, which
> was nice).
>
> As for the lessons learned, we definitely need to start organizing
> earlier next time, and get more of the prominent projects to join us -
> we especially had a lot of queries about Mesos and Spark at the
> conference. We would also really appreciate it if the foundation could
> send Melissa (or someone else) to be there in an official capacity.
> Doing this strictly as volunteers made us a bit jumpy as to who will
> watch over what if one has to go to a talk.
>
> We also desperately need one or more brochures about the foundation and
> its projects!!!
>
> The giant ASF banner has been passed on to the Stehmanns and will be
> used in other conferences in Europe.
>
> With regards,
> Daniel.

Re: FOSDEM summary

[Alexander Bezzubov <bz...@apache.org>]

It was great experience at the booth and meeting many of you guys
personaly, thank you Daniel for great followup!

Indeed it would be awesome to expand ASF presence at FOSDEM and alike next
year, as well as thave it a bit more structured in terms of
- schedulle at the booth,
- getting more projects envolved,
- and may be hosting a foundation-related talk

There were so many great software foundations at the same place, there must
be some room for healthy exchange of ideas and collaboration.

As mentioned before, and very surprising to me personaly, there were tonns
of grownup people not very fammiliar with ASF and also students, so there
is definitly a room for a talk, showcasing how cool ASF is and how easy it
is to get envolved, benefits it provides, etc.

Hope to see you all again next year!

--
Alex

On Thu, Feb 4, 2016, 18:20 Roman Shaposhnik <ro...@shaposhnik.org> wrote:

> On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 1:33 AM, Daniel Gruno <hu...@apache.org> wrote:
> > Hi folks (cc press@),
> >
> > Thank you so much for an amazing FOSDEM last week!
> > This was the first time the ASF has had a presence as a foundation, but
> > even though this showed a bit, I think we had very productive
> > interactions with people (never a dull moment!) and showed them what the
> > ASF was about.
> >
> > This was also the first time we had the opportunity to showcase our new
> > visual identity, which was very well received and was quite the talking
> > point in many a conversation.
> >
> > I'd like to extend my most sincere thanks to especially Alexander
> > Bezzubov, Andrus Adamchik, Michael & Mechtilde Stehmann and Sharan
> > "Super Trouper" Foga for their tireless efforts at the booth. I'd also
> > like to thank Roman, Claude, Greg and Rich for lending a helping hand
> > when needed. We totaled 18 hours at the booth (plus setup) during the
> > two days (10 + 8) and spoke with...well, a LOT of people about the
> > foundation and its projects. We also had many interactions with other
> > foundations and companies about our project and theirs (and how they
> > could work together).
> >
> > While I was mostly sitting _behind_ the booth, I also got the
> > opportunity to take a few photos of it, which can be seen at
> > https://imgur.com/a/8beqB
> >
> > As for swag, I am both pleased and surprised to say we managed to run
> > out completely _2 hours before FOSDEM ended!_. We gave away more than
> > 800 powered-by stickers (760 or so), a few hundred project stickers, 40
> > t-shirts, 100 pens, 50 key chains, 200 fridge magnets, 50 beer coasters,
> > a few mugs and around 30 badges. We clearly need more swag for next
> > FOSDEM ;)
> >
> > For the nicer items, we came up with a rule; "One conversation equals
> > one free item", which worked super well. Compared to other conferences,
> > even ApacheCon, we had a super busy booth, and only rarely had some free
> > time without anyone asking us a question about the foundation and/or
> > projects. We also had a nice cooperation going with the OpenOffice team,
> > who decided to stay for a bit longer (and thus fill some of the big
> > booth, so we didn't have to be 4 ASF people at it all the time, which
> > was nice).
> >
> > As for the lessons learned, we definitely need to start organizing
> > earlier next time, and get more of the prominent projects to join us -
> > we especially had a lot of queries about Mesos and Spark at the
> > conference. We would also really appreciate it if the foundation could
> > send Melissa (or someone else) to be there in an official capacity.
> > Doing this strictly as volunteers made us a bit jumpy as to who will
> > watch over what if one has to go to a talk.
> >
> > We also desperately need one or more brochures about the foundation and
> > its projects!!!
> >
> > The giant ASF banner has been passed on to the Stehmanns and will be
> > used in other conferences in Europe.
>
> Daniel thank you very much for a very nice summary and your tireless
> efforts
> around FOSDEM. Here's to an even bigger ASF presence next year!
>
> Thanks,
> Roman.
>

Re: FOSDEM summary

[Roman Shaposhnik <ro...@shaposhnik.org>]

On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 1:33 AM, Daniel Gruno <hu...@apache.org> wrote:
> Hi folks (cc press@),
>
> Thank you so much for an amazing FOSDEM last week!
> This was the first time the ASF has had a presence as a foundation, but
> even though this showed a bit, I think we had very productive
> interactions with people (never a dull moment!) and showed them what the
> ASF was about.
>
> This was also the first time we had the opportunity to showcase our new
> visual identity, which was very well received and was quite the talking
> point in many a conversation.
>
> I'd like to extend my most sincere thanks to especially Alexander
> Bezzubov, Andrus Adamchik, Michael & Mechtilde Stehmann and Sharan
> "Super Trouper" Foga for their tireless efforts at the booth. I'd also
> like to thank Roman, Claude, Greg and Rich for lending a helping hand
> when needed. We totaled 18 hours at the booth (plus setup) during the
> two days (10 + 8) and spoke with...well, a LOT of people about the
> foundation and its projects. We also had many interactions with other
> foundations and companies about our project and theirs (and how they
> could work together).
>
> While I was mostly sitting _behind_ the booth, I also got the
> opportunity to take a few photos of it, which can be seen at
> https://imgur.com/a/8beqB
>
> As for swag, I am both pleased and surprised to say we managed to run
> out completely _2 hours before FOSDEM ended!_. We gave away more than
> 800 powered-by stickers (760 or so), a few hundred project stickers, 40
> t-shirts, 100 pens, 50 key chains, 200 fridge magnets, 50 beer coasters,
> a few mugs and around 30 badges. We clearly need more swag for next
> FOSDEM ;)
>
> For the nicer items, we came up with a rule; "One conversation equals
> one free item", which worked super well. Compared to other conferences,
> even ApacheCon, we had a super busy booth, and only rarely had some free
> time without anyone asking us a question about the foundation and/or
> projects. We also had a nice cooperation going with the OpenOffice team,
> who decided to stay for a bit longer (and thus fill some of the big
> booth, so we didn't have to be 4 ASF people at it all the time, which
> was nice).
>
> As for the lessons learned, we definitely need to start organizing
> earlier next time, and get more of the prominent projects to join us -
> we especially had a lot of queries about Mesos and Spark at the
> conference. We would also really appreciate it if the foundation could
> send Melissa (or someone else) to be there in an official capacity.
> Doing this strictly as volunteers made us a bit jumpy as to who will
> watch over what if one has to go to a talk.
>
> We also desperately need one or more brochures about the foundation and
> its projects!!!
>
> The giant ASF banner has been passed on to the Stehmanns and will be
> used in other conferences in Europe.

Daniel thank you very much for a very nice summary and your tireless efforts
around FOSDEM. Here's to an even bigger ASF presence next year!

Thanks,
Roman.

Re: FOSDEM summary

[Andrea Pescetti <pe...@apache.org>]

Daniel Gruno wrote:
> Thank you so much for an amazing FOSDEM last week!

Thank you for being there and for the report! I had to cancel my 
attendance just a few hours before my scheduled departure, but it's 
great to know that the ASF booth was successful as expected. This is 
probably the first time I've missed FOSDEM since 2009, so I hope I will 
manage to see the ASF booth in one of the future editions!

Regards,
   Andrea.