LUG Fest 2005 HowTo from the vice presedent's perspective:

Well ahead of time, cast a vision of a large and successful event. Believe in the vision and convince your local group to believe it.

Get notable and interesting guest speakers. Track down great thinkers and presenters and ask... you'll be surprised at their interest. Our local LUG president had an old relationship with maddog Jon Hall. Though they had not communicated in years, wcb sent an email to maddog, who graced us with his presence and wisdom in return for airfare and lodging.

Research local events to find an open (low demand for conference and hotel rooms) weekend. Shamelessly use any connections your group might have to negotiate favorable rates for meeting rooms, hotel rooms, and meals.

Beg. See our attached “Corporate Appeal” letter w/press release, used to raise support money and door prizes from the local business community. As you can see from the spreadsheet, this was the “income” that made the event possible. Local businesses provided $2,100.00 in cash plus many nice door prizes, including a brand new acoustic guitar with hardshell case from a local music store.

Get the local paper to run a community interest article in the business section. We also pulled a string to get on a morning radio talk show to promote the event and discuss OSS.

Mail-bomb the surrounding LUGs. Most of our attendees came through the grapevine effect of our PR Officer's relentless nagging...

Include a hardware swap, plenty of pizza, and give-aways.

In the event schedule, be sure to leave time for confabulation. These people do not cluster all that often, and there is strong chemistry in this community for auto-engagement. It was a pleasure to watch the energy, passion, and grace among the attendees. If there were no scheduled events or speakers, this group could have easily entertained themselves.

The website registration process through PayPal was helpful in capacity planning as the event date approached.

Be sure to have some dedicated help on hand, not just for the planned tasks, but some extras for the surprise and “gofor” issues.

2005-04-09T11:39:17