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.
In this page we follow you through the operations towards the preparation of a Booth. Is there a booth already planned in your region? Join it! There is no booth? Organise one!
Check out upcoming booths
* All Fellowship events in our calendar, you can add different RSS feeds and import the events in the ical format; * All FSFE events (RSS).
Timeline
8 weeks before the event
Announce the booth
* Create an event on our Website. A new .xml file should be added to our event list on the main FSFE repository, in the folder /events. If you have problems doing that, or if you do not have writing access to the repository, please ask web@fsfeurope.org.
* Add an event to the Fellowship Events Calendar.
* Write an email announcing that you are going to organise a booth, and invite interested people to join you. Send this email to:
** the country team of the country where the event takes place
** the public discussion list(s) possibly interested in the event
** the Fellowship team at fellowship@fsfeurope.org, include a list of countries and postal codes to send the text to; we will forward the email to all Fellows in the region you define
An example of the text you could use is:
"Dear Fellows, From the [starting day] to the [ending day] of [month], during the [specify if the booth is organised at a particular event], we will keep a booth in [place]. It would be a great pleasure to personally meet you. Besides, your help at the booth would be very valuable for us. We would thank you if you could assist us for a couple of hours (or more if you can). Should you have any question about the [specify the name of the event] please ask our Booth Coordinator [name of the coordinator and e-mail address]. We hope to meet you at our booth. Thank you for your attention,
4 weeks before the event
Obtain merchandising (Optional)
The main purpose of our Booth is to inform people about our Free Software in general, and about FSFE's actions to promote it in particular. In order to help you spreading the word, we have leaflets and Posters which can be used at the Booth. In some of our Booths, we also have t-shirts, sweatshirts and other merchandising that might be sold. Selling merchandise is an important source of financing for FSFE, but it should not be intended as the main booth feature. If you want to sell our merchandise at the booth, we will be happy to provide our assistance!. See our merchandising page to order the material you want to sell. Please ignore the payment.
Stay in contact with potential volunteers
Be sure to contact other fellows and volunteers, to motivate them to participate to the Booth.
2 weeks before the event
Invite other fellows
A booth is also an occasion to meet other fellows who live near the event location. There might be people interested in helping you with the Booth organisation. So, organise a Fellowship meeting nearby the event location.
Is there a local fellowship group (see the list)? Coordinate with them and ask for assistance;
There is no local fellowship group? Write to fellowship@fsfeurope.org and forward a message to all fellows living in the area (specifying the postcodes that you wish to reach).
1 week before the event
Prepare the material
Download and print the following material. Must always be present at our booths:
Support form from the Leaflets page
Fellowship information leaflet from the Leaflets page
If you are selling merchandising: our Accountancy sheet.
If possible:
Printable information material about our work in many languages;
Our booth roll-up in SVG or in PNG formats (highly recommended);
"What can I do to improve things for myself and others" leaflet: en, de;
Free PDFReaders campaign Poster: en.
Send a reminder to Fellows and volunteers that you are meeting at the Booth.
At the Booth
- wear a FSFE t-shirt or hoodie!
- If you ordered our merchandaising material, please be sure to count all the material before and after the event, and fill the accountancy sheet.
- Collect donations!
- Speak with people! We prefer not to use laptops at our booths, because if people see you working at your PC, they would be unwilling to come and talk with you.
However, it is nice to have a PC at the booth in order to allow people who wish to subscribe to the Fellowship to do so.
ToDo
- create eye catching slide show
- create a map and show our Fellowship groups on it. Give people the chance to add themself to the map
- create better posters for the booth
update existing leaflets and prepare more of them.
- help us improve this page.