Aim

When: May 1-2 2006

The South Australian State Government runs a conference for people involved in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the Not-for-profit and Community sector. The program emphasises the management and administration of ICT resources in these organisations.

Program

The program of speakers included:

Hon Jay Weatherill, SA Minister for Families and Communities – The SA Government’s role in ICT in the delivery of community services
Nicola Thompson, General Manager, ICT Hub, London
Joe Baker, Executive Director, Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN http://www.nten.org ), US
David Barnard, Executive Director, South African Non-Government Organisations Network (SANGONet) http://www.sangonet.org.za
Dr Simon Davey, Managing Director, Omega Alpha Limited (http://www.omega-alpha.com), Managing Associate, preponderate network (http://www.preponderate.net).
Amith Nagarajan, CEO, Aptify Corporation, US.

This was an ideal opportunty to promote Ubuntu and other related projects:

Ubuntu
Software Freedom Day - September
Linux Australia

Actions

[Done] Register for confernce and book booth.
[Done] Requested 320 CDROMs from ShipIT. (26 Mar)
- [Confirmed] Shipit CD's have been sent (29 Mar)
- [Arrived] Wahoo! (8 Apr)
[Done] Discuss at AustraliaTeam meeting (4 Apr 2006)
[Done] Seeking sponsorship from Linux Australia sponsorship for booth/attendance.
- [Done] Sponsorship confirmed (6 Apr)
- [Done] Receive funds
- [Done] Pay for registration and booth
Report to AustralianTeam meeting on 11 Apr 2006 (AustraliaTeam/Meetings)
[Done] Prepare an A4 promotional speil for conference handbook (was due two weeks before).
Make contact with
- Other FLOSS minded people who may be going, to let them know we'll be there.
- [Done] Local volunteers through LinuxSA
- [Not done] Conference Speakers (or their offices)
Booth
- [Done] Organise furnature.. card-table and monitor stand.
- [Done] Prepare display material.

Observations

This is an annual conference, and I only thought of going quite late. It would be good to think about what can be done for future years, and start planning. eg. Contacting the organisers about getting a speaker from Ubuntu/Canonical or Lunux Australia and the LUG's
It costs AU$250 to put something into the delegate package... not in the budget, maybe next year.

Other Suggestions

Have a visitors book at the booth.
- Arrange for followups.
Blog the event - particularly if it can be done live.
Show how Free and Open Source software can save organisations real money. (Who in Adelaide had Ubuntu partner points?)
- Case studies.
- Examples of how Ubuntu can be used in an organisations ICT strategy.

Conclusions

Overall, the conference was well worth attending.
There was quite a bit of the 'not-ready-yet' message coming from the podium on using FLOSS software in not-for-profit and NGO organisations. The event did have major sponsorship from Microsoft, so this was not completely unexpected.
Over half of the visitors to the booth were already using Open Office, and everyone went away with a Ubuntu 5.10 CD set, with instructions on how to install OpenOffice from the LiveCD. Over 100 CD set's were given away, with a conference attendance of 250 people.