LinuxTag 2002 June 6th - 9th, 2002 Karlsruhe, Germany

Frequently Asked Questions - And Answers

1. Does a booth cost the project real money?
2. How large will our booth be?
3. Are we able to use posters?
4. Is there a facility where we can rent computers?
5. Is there a way to give a demonstration or talk?
6. How long will the workshop rooms be open?
7. Do I have to register as visitor for a workshop?
8. How do I best reach Joey?
9. In which hotel will all speakers stay?
10. When do you need to know who is staffing the booth?
11. Why do you need the names of booth staff?
12. Who decides how much space we get?
13. Who is permitted to sleep in the gym hall?
14. Will there be a social event?
15. Do we need exhibitor passes or something?
16. Can we drive into the exhibition hall for unloading?

1. Does a booth cost the project real money?

No. LinuxTag e.V. is providing space, furniture, electricity and ip connectivity (if possible) gratis. We have to pay for it, though, but that doesn't have to worry you.

We are proud to be able to help projects improve their visibility and demonstrate their work to the public. This has been a part of the LinuxTag show from its beginning.

If you want to help us in turn, we are always looking for competent and reliable people who help us organize this event. You will probably learn a lot if you pick one or another part of it and work on it on your own. However, you'll have to have some sort of masochistic and egomanic, otherwise you won't stand the stress, flames, lazyness, problems etc. Feel free to contact us by naming the part you would like to work on.

2. How large will our booth be?

This depends on what you plan to demonstrate and how you plan to make use of the provided booth and how important the project is for the Free Software Community. Definitive booth reservations will be made at a very late stage, one to two weeks before the show.

If I should be forced to provide guaranteed booth size at an earlier stage, I could only hand out max. 3x3qm booths with one open side, because that's the only thing I could guarantee at that time.

Hence, it's working the other way around to get the most use of space for all projects. People are exchanging ideas and tell me what they plan to demonstrate, how they plan to use the booth etc. They normally have an idea of how much space they need for this, because that's implied by the ideas anyway. This will be the basis for booth reservations. The best and most helpful plans look like this one, which may as well be submitted in ASCII art (e.g. drawn with Emacs' picture-mode).

3. Are we able to use posters?

Yes, definitively. Even more, you are encouraged to create coloured and large posters so visitors can get an idea on what's happening on the booth/project. Using large posters you can also increase the quality of your booth. All booths will be surrounded by "Octanorm" walls, which are about one meter wide and about two meters high with a plain surface. Hence, you can use adhesive tape. For printing, many universities provide a possibility to print large posters (A0, A1) at cost price. I'd like you to use this possibility and provide posters.

4. Is there a facility where we can rent computers?

I'm pretty sure that there are companies in Karlsruhe where you can rent hardware. However, this will be very costly. Thus, it would be much cheaper to find partners (i.e. booth personal) from Germany who will be able to take their computers with them for demonstrating at the booth.

5. Is there a way to give a demonstration or talk?

Yes. There are two small rooms reserved for our own use. They are not large and no more than 50 people will fit in them. I guess, actually, there will be only about 30 chairs. You can use them for talks, presentations, key signing, informal meetings etc. Please see the workshop schedule to find out when these rooms are already in use.

If you would like to use these rooms, it is recommended that you contact Joey before the show and give him the name of the speaker (or responsible person if it's not a talk or presentation), an abstract and the preferred time.

You'll also need to advertise your talk, since it may not be easy to locate on the LinuxTag website.

6. How long will the workshop rooms be open?

I expect them to be closed and locked right after 6pm when the last workshop is over. They may actually be locked at 6:30 but better don't depend on it. If you want to gather after 6pm the social event on Thursday and the party on Saturday should be well suited. On the remaining days, you should be able to walk for five minutes and find a café or a pub since LinuxTag takes place in the city of Karlsruhe.

7. Do I have to register as visitor for a workshop?

No, this should not be necessary. Even though the workshop rooms have only a limited capacity, they should be large enough for all interested visitors to attend. However, if there are more than 50 people in the room already, you will have to stand, but there should be enough room.

In the past, some workshops were well frequented but people were able to listen to the talk without having to wait outside of the room. However, to ensure that you will be able to hae a seat during the workhop, you'd be advised to be there in time for highly frequented workshops (like KDE workshops for example).

8. How do I best reach Joey?

If it is a short question, which can be answered with a one or two line reply, the easiest way is to log into IRCnet or OPN and drop a /msg to the user named Joey. If I am not around, though, you should use the most preferred method: use electronic mail, sent to joey@linuxtag.org.

Questions or information that require more than two minutes of action from Joey, should be asked via mail. This will provide you with the benefit of a detailed answer, written without too much chaos around.

If you notice that your mail to Joey isn't accepted on infodrom.org, this is most probably due to a bug in your mail setup (i.e.: non-existing hostname, non-existing HELO/EHLO host, non-matching hostname and HELO/EHLO host etc. pp.) and a paranoid mail setup at Infodrom in order to reduce incoming SPAM. In such a case, please fix your mail setup. Until it is fixed, you can still use the address @linuxtag.org.

9. In which hotel will all speakers stay?

The main hotel, in which all crew members and speakers will stay, is the Dorint Kongress-Hotel.

10. When do you need to know who is staffing the booth?

The earlier the better. In fact, it is no problem to add more people at any later time or remove others. It is, however, a big problem if 10 projects want to add 15 people (sum: 150 people) one week before the show begins. At that late time, Joey will probably don't have enough time to manage such things properly.

11. Why do you need the names of booth staff?

On former LinuxTag shows, staff members from all projects pavillons got reduced tickets for the social event. On former LinuxTag events we've also had an insurance organized that required us to give them a list of all people who should be part of the insurance. Also, the organization during last two years included sending mail to projects staff for information, see last years' infomails.

This year, registration for the social event and for the sleeping space in the gym hall is done online, hence you'll need to register at least the people who would likt to participate in either of it.

12. Who decides how much space we get?

Joey will decide how much space a project requires and where it will be located. Even though, this may sound harsh, it's the best way to handle this. Space is not only limited but also expensive and hence, needs to be used in the most efficient way.

To help him, you should dump your ideas with regard to the LinuxTag booth to him as soon as they are matured. The same goes for the people who will be staffing the booth. If there are enough people and machines that will maintain a well organized and well stuffed/staffed booth, it could be a good argument for adding some square meters to that booth.

13. Who is permitted to sleep in the gym hall?

There will be sleeping space for about 60 people in a gym hall. This space will be given out on a first-come-first-serve bases, while projects and supporters will be able to lock sleeping space first. A certain time before LinuxTag starts, vacant space will be opened to anybody. Hence, if you would like to stay in the gymn hall, make sure you're registering early.

The gym hall will be managed like last year, which means that people need to leave the hall early since it it used by sport people during the day. KaLUG thankfully maintains this facility. Registrations may be made through the private LTP interface. Some details are here.

Please find details about this facility here. There will be a connection to the Internet so Late Night Hacking should be possible. In case of problems you may want to talk to the KaLUG people via phone directly at 0700-72458630.

14. Will there be a social event?

Yes, there will. This has a tradition for serious community-affiliated events in the Free Software area. For those of you who haven't participarted at a LinuxTag show, the social event is a large gathering of Free Software developers, supporters and business people. Usually there are facilities for drinking and some food provided, as well as music, either live or not.

This year, the social event is called LinuxNacht and will take place on Thursday evening in the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie. Computer oriented people who like interesting things, should not miss this event, since ZKM is a modern museum with exhibits to take part in, like old 2600 consoles or Amiga machines.

The price for a ticket is EUR 20.00 and you can get as many as you need on Wednesday and Thursday at the LinuxTag office upstairs of the exhibition area.

Unfortunately there is only a limited number of tickets available. Because of this you'll need to register in time if you want to participate in the social event. You can purchase the ticket on Wednesday and Thursday from me in the LinuxTag office. Please note that there is only a limited number, and the amount of tickets reflects the number of people who have registrated for the social event. Since I cannot create more tickets, you're actually in trouble if you haven't registered but decide to attend later. I'm told that there's no way for you to get a ticket then.

15. Do we need exhibitor passes or something?

Yes, you will need special passes in order to be able to enter the exhibition area before LinuxTag has opened. With an exhibitor pass you don't need an entrance ticket. You are, however, invited to purchase the LinuxTag Kit (EUR 5.00) which will also help LinuxTag e.V. keep their costs under control.

You can get exhibitor passes for free for yourself or, if you manage a project, for the entire project in the LinuxTag office upstairs of the exhibition area.

16. Can we drive into the exhibition hall for unloading?

Yes, that's possible. However, please note that other exhibitors, especially companies with large booths, need the space as well. Hence, please only drive into the exhibition hall if you have heavy things to unload. Please only dump your stuff at the booth and move the car out of the exhibition hall again. Please see the plan of site to find out how to get into the exhibition hall by car.