First Crack at a Post Mortem

[Kimi A. Adams]

Very nicely put.  I would only add that in the future, we make sure that 
there are more than ample power strips.  Once the room fills up, it's hard 
to get more power without them.  And if this is the only problem we 
encounter, then we are doing well above other groups that organize events 
like this.  : )

To all, a job well done.  I think we are all looking forward to another 
event and soon.

Kimi Adams

At 6/24/02, you wrote:
>I am including it.  I will put this up on the main Install Fest page, before
>the Press Release when everyone agrees that this is appropriate.  I am also
>going to update the Contributors page to add Lycoris, TOLIS, and UnityWave.
>
>Lemme know what you think of this as a post mortem.
>
>----------
>
>Does the word "success" ring a bell? Parking Lot A at SCC was nearly
>deserted at 8:30 a.m.  The Student Center was locked and dark.  By 9:00
>a.m. the Turquoise Room was filled with PLUG members setting up the room
>for an unknown number of "customers".  I was under the impression that all
>of our communications with the outside world said that the Install Fest
>would run from 10:00 a.m. till 4:00 p.m. That did not stop "customers" from
>coming in early - or often.
><p>
>The only problem that we encountered was finding table space to put all of
>the machines that were brought in to have Linux installed on.  It seemed to
>me that by 10:30 or 11:00 we were scrambling to find a place for a customer
>and his PLUG installer to set up.  That problem continued well into the
>afternoon hours.  That was about the only problem that we encountered.
>Okay, there was a need for a blank floppy for a network install but who
>uses floppies any more?
><p>
>There seemed to always be PLUG members ready and willing to help with the
>next install. During those "down" times, they spent a lot of time answering
>questions and helping to resolve issues.  The presentations that were held
>in the Peridot Room seemed to go very well. I overheard a lot of comments
>and they were all extremely positive. The giveaways, as always, went
>over very well.  Without the support of the vendors, we would never be
>able to show the newbies that Linux is about giving and sharing by
>giving away so many goodies. Only the RMS video in the hallway met with
>less than stellar success, but that may be a result of the location.
><p>
>So what were the numbers? There were 107 people who signed in.  There were
>somewhere between 150 and 200 raffle tickets that disappeared from the end
>of the roll. There were 39 installs. I know of at least two installs that
>were not completely successful, but I know that one was a hardware issue.
>That boils down to over six installs per hour - and that is an impressive
>number.
><p>
>Who do we need to thank?  This could be a very long list.  We
>should start with the Install Fest Committee.  Bill, Dennis, Alan, Hans,
>Thurm, and Vic did a great job in covering all of the contingencies.  I
>want to single out Thurm for providing the facilities at SCC.  His head is
>an appropriate repository for the Red Hat fedora, because without the
>facilities the Install Fest would not have been as successful.
><p>
>We need to thank the vendors who supported the PLUG Install Fest.  You can
>see the list of all the supporters by clicking on the Contributors link
>above (it has been updated to reflect the late-commers because they
>deserve mentioning).  I want to single out Red Hat and Lycoris.  Not only
>did they supply merchandise for the giveaways but they also had personal
>representatives down in the trenches doing installs and answering
>questions.  A tip of Thurm's new fedora to both Red Hat and Lycoris.
><p>
>But I reserve the biggest THANK YOU to all the PLUG members who showed up
>to help doing the installs.  Maybe we could have done the installs without
>being in the comfortable confines of the Turquoise Room.  Maybe we would
>have had a superb turnout of customers without the tons of giveaways.  But
>I guarantee that the whole event would have been a miserable experience if
>the hordes of PLUG members that did the installs and answered the questions
>and showed the newbies how to get more information and told them how PLUG
>was always ready to support them were not there.  To each and every one of
>you, stand up and take a bow.
><p>
>We did learn a few valuable lessons.  We learned that we need to find a way
>to keep a better count of people, members, customers, and window-shoppers.
>We learned that we need to be prepared for a LOT of customers.  We learned
>that we should be getting more information from the customers, especially
>things like where they heard about the event, what OS they are
>replacing or adding to, and what kinds of things they will be using the
>Linux computer for.
><p>
>I know that there are a lot of members who were not at the Install Fest.
>For you, we have a couple of links to pictures taken at the Install Fest.
>The first one is from Thurm.  See them at
>http://inficad.com/~thurmunit/plug/installfest. Scott Sawyer from Red Hat
>has a large collection of pictures that he took at the Install Fest.  See
>them at http://www.scottsawyer.org/photo-display/index.cgi under the 2002
>year archives.
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