KnowHow/Groups/OrganizeABooth/BoothTimeline

"One cannot not communicate", Paul Watzlawick

One of the main tasks of the Free Software Foundation Europe is to inform the public about Free Software and related topics. For this, it is essential to be present with a booth on tradeshows, fairs, expos, and other local events. Helping at such a booth is a good way to get active for Free Software. Booth volunteers talk to people to explain Free Software and answer their questions. Working as a booth volunteer means at the same time supporting Free Software, meeting interesting people, and having a lot of fun.

At every event, there will be experienced people from the FSFE present to support the booth volunteers, so it is not necessary at all to be an expert in every single aspect of Free Software. However, some basic knowledge about Free Software and the FSFE is helpful.

The purpose of this page is to help you organising a booth, or participating toa programmed booth. Before starting to think organising a new booth, you might want to consider helping to the organisation of an already programmed booth. Your help is important to us, we don't want it to be wasted!

Time factor

How early in advance should you start organisation activities in order to effectively organise a booth? The most important factor is letting people know in advance, so that other potential volunteers can plan a participation to the event and help you. So, there are four steps/phases:

This may seem artificious or complicated to you but it's not the case! Most of those phases just require sending an e-mail to a mailing list or posting a new item to the website. Probably, besides the event itself, the most time-consuming activity is the preparation of the communication material.

First step (8 weeks before the event). Communication is crucial!

As an organisation, FSFE relies on communication among team members and volunteers, in order to assure an effective coordination and cooperation. Please always consider that point. For instance, if you fail communicating properly your intention to organise a booth, you might lose the opportunity to have other volunteers helping you through the organisation process. So the first step is to communicate your intention of organising a booth.

Second step (4 weeks before the event). Obtain communication material and meet volunteers.

Third step (2 weeks before the event)

Fourth step (1 week before the event)

Materials

Check out upcoming booths

Useful resources

Materials

ToDo


CategoryBooth