<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 TRANSITIONAL//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; CHARSET=UTF-8"> <META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="GtkHTML/3.28.3"> </HEAD> <BODY> O n Sat, 2011-03-26 at 19:42 +0000, Nigel Verity wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE> Hi Following Sarah Chard's posting of 23rd March, I attended the event in Hereford today. The LUG members were all extremely enthusiastic and did an excellent job of explaining the merits and benefits of FLOSS. In my view there were two important aspects of the event which the Herefordshire LUG got absolutely right: 1) The main message was to promote open source software rather than specifically Linux. This is the right approach as it gently eases Windows users towards FLOSS. To require a change of operating system as the starting point is probably just too big a step for most people. 2) The venue attracted visitors for reasons other than just the LUG event; an excellent coffee shop and an art exhibition. This means that there was a steady flow of people who might not otherwise have come in. To my mind the way this event was designed holds some useful pointers for any other FLOSS group considering staging something similar. Well done Herefordshire LUG. Regards Nige </BLOCKQUOTE> Nige thanks for such a positive post about the event and I'll pass your comments on at our follow-up lug meeting on wednesday We had members of our own lug at the event but also had support from members of neighbouring lugs which was great and everyone I have spoken to so far enjoyed the day - always a good sign We did not have as many visitors as we did at our SFD event in september - I think both the london march, the football match in cardiff and the fact that it was good weather in early spring all had an effect but we still had around 50 visitors over the course of the day (not including lug members) and have hopefully generated some good publicity locally. Events like this do take quite a bit of organising but are very worthwhile as you reach people who otherwise would not have heard of open source and linux. I am more than happy to share information about how we set up the event with others Sarah </BODY> </HTML>