Guide to organise the perfect release party (draft)

This is a work in progress!! Feel free to add your ideas

Version 1, alpha 2. June 7, 2008

Introduction : Goal of the Release Party

The release of a new version of our favourite Operating System is a reason to party, to spend some nice moments together, to discuss, to explain, but also to show to everybody what our operating system can do and how great it is.

The goal of the present document is give guidelines to help LoCos to organize the perfect release party.

To come back on it : The goal of a release party is first of all and mainly an occasion to get together and celebrate, a meeting among Ubuntu geeks, but also newbies and maybe also just potential future Ubuntu users. The structure of this document

This document is structured in three main parts :

• The target audience : Who do we want to reach
• Planning ahead : What has to be considered in advance, what steps have to be taken and when
• The meeting itself : What can be the program of a perfect release party

Target audience

Ubuntu is a community. And a release party is a community event. So the first target audience is the community.

But, with the goal to find a solution to bug no 1, a release party can also be conceived to a larger public, people that do not yet use Ubuntu, but that might be interested in it.

So the two main target audience groups are :

• Ubunteros / The community : People (geeks and no so much geeks, and also more or less newbies. People who come together to talk to learn from each others, to understand how things work, to discuss future plans, present problems and past experiences.
• Outside world : People who do not know Ubuntu yet. They may be old, young, completely computer newbies or experienced computer users, but that were using other operating systems. It's the kind of people who have never heard of xorg, who don't know what packages are for and who may have heard of a firewall, but why should there be a fire in a computer ? .

If you organise yourself a release party, it is best if you are clear whether it is only for the community, or if it is also for the outside. This document is more about the second group, since – unlike the first target group – it is way more difficult to reach them and to present them something that they can understand.

Think and plan ahead

The bigger your party, the longer you will have to plan ahead. A few weeks will do for a community party. But for an event that should also reach outside people, you should plan ahead for several months. Here are the steps you'll have to go through : Think about :

Decisions to take and things you'll have to think about :

• Decide what you want : Do you want a community party or an open party. If you head for an open party, are you in time to organise it. Are there enough people to pull off something serious (be honest, but don't get intimidated, you can do it).
• Who are the partners : Make a list of potential partners (and sponsors). The bigger the event you plan, the bigger should be your list. Think particularly of the following (and think for everyone on what they could contribute :

• ""Location"" : No party without suitable location. Check the following requirements when choosing a room :
  • It should be easily in reach (if possible with public transportation)
  • It should be big enough to host the folks you expect
  • The place should be friendly
  • There should be internet connection
  • If you also offer drinks, snacks and so on, check whether the necessary infrastructure is there
  • It should be a place where you can really have a party (no neighbours that complain about noise
  • ...
• ""Financing"" : If it is an event that is mostly for
  • ...
• Budget
  • ...
• Marketing :

Plan ahead:

• book location
• organise cables, wireless, router, ...
• get drinks and food ready

Advertising, buzz, public relations

Text to come.

Notes :

• Try to find a media partner
• Have one (or several contact persons, so if outsiders have questions about the event (they may be journalists) they get to talk to a competent person who know what is going on.

The event itself:

• insist on the importance of speaking to the target audience (no technical gibberish to newbies).
• Be honest. Don't hide that there are some difficulties (but show people how to deal with them).
• If non community event : Make clear who are the contact persons, for example by creating badges for those who are “officiels” (simply ubuntu t-shirts may not be enough).

The program

Main point about the program of the release party : Clearly identify which part of the program is for which target audience. For example : A talk about how to use IRC may be rather for newbies, where as a talk on who to set up an IRC server is for geeks. Other talks may be in between, but it is best if a person can easily identify which part if for him.

A typical program for a release party could be as follows :

• Ubuntu : The basics :
• The philosophy of ubuntu, the company and the community behind it
• What does it mean to install Ubuntu (how to choose the hardware, where to get help, ...)
• Present particular programmes (Openoffice, Pidgin, F-Spot etc).
• Ubuntu for advanced users
• How to secure a system
• How does the new ubuntu firewall works
• how to compile packages
• ...
• Party / discussion / beer and less alcoholic drinks / music

Generally it might be best to keep talks rather short and organise the programme in blocks (ie. one block with three presentations on graphical software, another as a round table on user interface creation, ...). If there are many presentations it might be best to have talks in parallel (probably it is no problem to organise a presentation on basical Openoffice features in the same time as a talk on web2 programming since the target audience is completely different). Install party

In parallel to or before the release party, you can also give people the opportunity to come with their own computer and get help from advanced users on installing and configuring Ubuntu. Various

Quality

Just ideas:

• When choosing persons for a talk, make sure that they can talk approprietly to their target audience (no geek talk to newbies).
• Rehearse before the event. Do a dry run of ALL presentations and speaches. Nothing worse than a presentation where you can't manage to open a particular file or where you get an error message or such kind of things. Maybe an experienced speaker can assist at this rehearsal and give advice to people who they can improve their talk.
• Also make sure that really all technical infrastructure (beamer, sound, internet connection and so on) works fine BEFORE the event starts.

Various advices

• Don't, don't, don't do geek talks to non geeks and never to be geeks. That's the best thing to make them turn away
• Be honest : Ubuntu IS open source and HAS some problems. Don't try to hide this.

Check list : Think and plan ahead

Check list : At the event

• Ethernet cables
• ralonges, prises électriques multiples
• Food
• Drinks
• Cubs / tables / ...
• decoration
• beamer

Various: - It is of course possible to discinguish other target audiences, such as young Linux users, Linux for scientists, SME and Linux, ... - as for teens, have a look at http://en.oreilly.com/oscon2008/public/schedule/detail/2674