[Ubuntu-be] Ostend computer fair report

[Jan Claeys]

Mark "looksaus" Van den Borre and me manned the Ubuntu stand at the
Micro Mega Market fair in Ostend.

Everything started with a major problem: Mark's laptop has a crashed
hard disk, so it looked like only my laptop was left as a CD-burning &
demo machine.  (Side-note: burning went too slow, we need to pre-burn a
pile of disks next time.)

Of course, Mark persuaded some 2nd-hand computer stands to lend us some
equipment (old P3 Compaq) and we attached my 20" TFT display, keyboard &
mouse to it.  Then he asked a novice from the public to install Ubuntu
on it (someone who had never installed Windows either!).  Everything
went fine and people were impressed.  :-)

I guess the fair went on about as usual, with both experienced people
and newbies, as well as nice and annoying people, those who are
interested in new stuff and those who prefer to keep their personal
favourite forever.  Etc.

Around 16h we finally found some time to eat some rather expensive &
greasy Belgian fries.

Finally, the fair ended around 17h and, last but not least, while
breaking up the stand, we got a visit from a computer reseller who
offered to lend us a brand-new PC as a demo machine at every Dipro fair
where we and he both are.  Nice detail: he sells all his computers there
with (K)ubuntu pre-installed anyway!

Oh, and I almost forgot: our "gift box" had 24 euros in it after the
fair.  Thank you to all the people that voluntarily gave us some money;
that way we can recoup at least some of the money that the volunteers
spend on flyers, CD-Rs, banners, etc.!  :-D

Afterwards we went to Bruges to have a drink (well, actually, three
drinks ;-) ) and talk about the fair and about ubuntu-be.
And no, we didn't spend the 24 euros there...  ;-)


-- 
Jan Claeys