[Ubuntu-US-CA] Roseville Ubuntu Hour

[Nathan Haines]

On Tue, 2011-05-24 at 16:13 -0700, Mr. Andrzejak wrote:
> I really have no idea.

That's great.

I, on the other hand, do have several years of event planning
experience.  I raised some concerns because with careful planning and
some real serious, hard thinking about whether or not running an Ubuntu
Hour style event during a weekday lunchtime is feasible, these obstacles
can be mitigated.  (I'm skeptical that it's really feasible, but
objective planning is the first step.)

If, however, someone wants to plan an event like this and then pretend
that these problems don't exist, I can guarantee that event will be a
dismal failure.

This is what happens when you plan an event at a restaurant during lunch
during the work week.

1. You limit your visitors to the immediate area, eliminating a source
of interested, knowledgeable Ubuntu users as well as curious new users
who are further out than 5 miles.

2. Of the few people within about 5 miles or so, you eliminate anyone
who does not like or cannot eat the food at that establishment for
personal, medical, or religious reasons.

3. Your "hour" of time is really limited to 30 or 40 minutes, part of
which will be taken up by visitors needing to order and receive food,
plus clean up time.

4. The restaurant will be filled with busy people who are rushing to get
back to work, and anywhere that is normally crowded can have limited
seating.  There won't be a lot of room for laptops or demonstrations and
the rush to finish a meal mixed with laptops can cause food accidents.

5. If you wanted to coordinate with the restaurant, you can't make a
reservation because you don't know how many to expect anyway.

I recommend planning events to have easy access and to be during
restaurants' off hours (adjacent to busy times is okay) to limit the
negative impact on the restaurant.  But I suggest that anyone who wants
to try it should consider the special concerns that will need to be
planned around to improve the chances of a successful event.

-- 
Nathan Haines <nhaines at ubuntu.com>
Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com/