Intrepid Release Parties!

[Jono Bacon]

Hi all,

Ladies and Gentleman who love and adore the world most lovable and
adorable Operating System, Ubuntu, we plan on releasing Ubuntu 8.10
Intrepid Ibex on October 30th. Now, this release is a pretty special
release because not only do we kick out another kick-ass Ubuntu, but
October 20th is Ubuntu’s 4th birthday!

As such, it is time to par-taaay. Seriously. The Beastie Boys faught for
your right to partaaay, so show some dignity and respect to these
rights, and get out there and do it.

So, what is the skinny, I hear you ask? Well, I think it is time for us
to put our collective minds together and organise an incredible series
of release parties all over the world. On our last release, we had over
60 parties, largely organised by our incredible worldwide LoCo
community, and I would love to see us hit nearer to 100 parties for this
release, particularly with a birthday to celebrate!

Organising a party is pretty simple:

Pick a date - I would recommend either Thu 30th October or the following
weekend…Sat 1st Nov and Sun 2nd Nov. Pick a date when you can arrange
for a bunch of Ubuntu enthusiasts to be in the same building.
Pick a venue - this can be someone’s back yard, a pub, a university
room, a school, a parking lot…wherever. They key thing is not the venue,
it is the people. With a venue and date, you are all set to let the
world know about it.
Add your party to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IntrepidReleaseParties - this
is the big list of Ubuntu release parties. :)
Let the world know - blog about it, make up some fliers and put them in
computers shops / libraries / cafes / educational establishments etc.
Encourage a stack of people to come along to your party. :)

We have a longer guide to organising a release party at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BuildingCommunity/RunningReleaseParty. You can
also discuss organising your party on the ubuntu-event-planners mailing
list (https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/Ubuntu-event-planners).

When it comes to running your party, there are a bunch of things you can
do on the day/evening itself:

      * Have a cake - it is a birthday, after all! If you can’t bake a
        cake, find someone who can. :)
      * Hang out with other Ubuntu people, meet new faces and get to
        know each other.
      * You may want to perform installfests.
      * You may also want to organise a few talks and speeches for the
        event itself.
      * Why not make some merchandise to give out? Maybe some badges,
        stickers or t-shirts?

Enjoy, and do post here when you organise a party!

	Jono

-- 
Jono Bacon
Ubuntu Community Manager
jono(at)ubuntu(dot)com
www.ubuntu.com / www.jonobacon.org