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Story: Midwesterners gear up for Ohio LinuxfestTotal Replies: 1
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cjcox

Jul 01, 2004
8:28 AM EDT 		We all would love for NTLUG to be able to sponsor an event like this. It's very hard for a totally free user group to make something like this happen. I'm mean we're talking about LARGE sums of money. You have to be insured, etc. in order to have an event like this.

Not saying that it won't happen someday, but you need a lot of true givers to pull it off. Helps to have large sums of money from some corporate sponsors.

Also, when you consider just how lousy conferences in Dallas are received (the ITEC for example), I doubt we could keep a conference going here. SA, because it has some tourist attractions (unlike Dallas) is a better place for conferences.

I wish the Ohio Linuxfest all the best. Maybe we'll have something like it down here someday... but right now, I'm having a tough time even imagining it.

Besides every NTLUG meeting is an InstallFest... we've installed Linux for hundreds if not thousands of people for free, we do free Linux training and we have free membership and (generally) excellent speakers. People should come from all over just to be at the NTLUG monthly meeting :)

When possible, NTLUG participates at local conferences (e.g. ITEC, but not this year since they didn't invite us until too late). It's easier for us to just have a booth (even that takes a lot of volunteerism). In general, the NTLUG booth is probably the most traffic'd booth at the local conferences. Best ITEC was about 3 years ago or so... I think it had 3000 folks or so. This year's ITEc, by contrast, probably didn't even have 1000. That's a pretty poor showing for a technology conference. I doubt any of the sponsors will be back for another ITEC here in Dallas. I'm sort of glad NTLUG wasn't there. It was that bad.
dave

Jul 01, 2004
8:40 AM EDT 		You are right that conferences need up-front cash to run a show. ALS was helped by Usenix (if my memory serves me, via maddog). Once ALS got through their first show, they had cash for the subsequent shows.

I didn't know that Dallas was a bad venue for conferences. It seems more centrally located than San Anton. The selfish side of me prefers San Antonio, since it's only 60 miles away. :)

Thanks for your post, Chris!

Dave

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