Re: Let's talk about booth and goodies

Am 28.08.2012 10:31, schrieb Dave Page:
> I disagree strongly with that idea. Selling t-shirts at conferences
> like FOSDEM has a number of advantages, even putting the money aspect
> aside:
>
> - It gives people a reason to stop at the booth, and start
> conversations with us about PostgreSQL. That may happen with just a
> few pens and stickers on the table, but larger items also attract many
> people.

I totally agree with Dave here.

But let me spend a few words on the topic ...

Originally, I started to sell T-shirts and mugs to get some donation for
the project.
The idea was to pay the power bill for test machines.
Debian used to spend a meal for booth helpers. I just was able to spend
a free coffee to my postgresql booth helpers. Anyway ...
A booth still is an info desk - it should not look like a sales booth.

On a small open source event in Essen / Germany we always have had an
old woman baking fresh waffles and selling them together with coffee.
She always did it just because she likes the blue elephant.

And yes - it has the same effect - people stop at the booth - people chat.

A booth is for information - a booth is for chatting with visitors and
other projects. It is for communications - with own folk, with users,
with other open source ppl.

Susanne

--
Dipl. Inf. Susanne Ebrecht - 2ndQuadrant
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training and Services
www.2ndQuadrant.com