LinuxTag 2005 June 22th - 25th, 2005 Karlsruhe, Germany

Frequently Asked Questions - And Answers for Projects

Since many people and projects ask the same questions about their LinuxTag presence, the most common ones are summarised below. The list will be extended as more questions occur and more facts appear. In general it is a good idea to check this FAQ before asking a question about LinuxTag.

1. How does a project apply for a booth?
2. How do I best reach Joey?
3. Can we demonstrate our PHP-based project?
4. Does a booth cost the project real money?
5. How large will the booth be?
6. Who decides how much space we get?
7. Can we pay for a booth / extend a booth?
8. What kind of furniture can we use?
9. Is there a mailing list for the organisation?
10. Are we able to use posters?
11. Is there a facility where we can rent computers?
12. Is there a way to give a demonstration or talk?
13. How long will the workshop rooms be open?
14. Do I have to register as visitor for a workshop?
15. In which hotel will all speakers stay?
16. Is there a cheap sleeping facility nearby?
17. When do you need to know who is staffing the booth?
18. Why do you need the names of booth staff?
19. Do we need to register or purchase tickets?
20. Do we need exhibitor passes or something?
21. When can we start setting up the booth?
22. Can we drive into the exhibition hall for unloading?
23. What is this projects interface and how do I get there?
24. Will there be a network for us projects?
25. Will there be a place to work during LinuxTag?
26. Can we get our stuff delivered directly to LinuxTag?
27. Will there be a social event?
28. Why is the social event this expensive?
29. Is there a party planned during LinuxTag?
30. Are there shops nearby?
31. Are there vacant jobs? I.e. can I help you at LinuxTag?
32. Is there an insurance for us?

1. How does a project apply for a booth?

You will have to get in touch with Joey who maintains the projects pavillon and the entire community communication. Your project needs to guarantee that the booth will be staffed for the entire event and that enough equipment will be available on the first day already.

You also need to have a strong idea about what do demonstrate. If the project develops software without a user interface (i.e. daemons), it's difficult to imagine how to demonstrate the project. Hence, a description of what and how you want to demonstrate would be helpful.

You should also have prepared a description of the project (in both languages, German and English would be best). The description will be used for advertisements and public lists of the projects, e.g. in newspapers and in web-zines. As soon as the project has been accepted to the list of projects that may eventually get a booth at LinuxTag you should add staff members (see a later FAQ item on why).

2. 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 OFTC and drop a /msg to the user named Joey (or Joey-- on IRCnet if the other nickname is in use by somebody else). If Joey is not around, though, you should use the most preferred method: use electronic mail, sent to joey@linuxtag.org.

For general questions about LinuxTag that could be answered by another member of the organisation team the IRC channel #LinuxTag in the IRCnet network may also be helpful. If you can't find Joey with the nicknames suggested above, he's on this channel until one week before LinuxTag.

Questions or information that require more than two minutes of action from Joey, should only be asked via mail. This will provide you with the benefit of a detailed answer, written without too much chaos around. If possible the reply will contain a link to a web resource where the answer is already written.

If you notice that your mail to Joey isn't accepted on the Infodrom mail server, 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, sending from a dialup account 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.

3. Can we demonstrate our PHP-based project?

Everything related to PHP, both commercial and non-commercial, is maintained in a special "LAMP Pavillon" managed by Georg Richter. Therefore PHP projects won't get a booth of their own in the exhibition but instead get a chance to demonstrate the project within the LAMP area.

4. Does a booth cost the project real money?

No. LinuxTag e.V. is sponsoring space, furniture, electricity and IP connectivity (if possible) for projects with the help of an IP sponsor and the Karlsruhe exhibition company. We have to pay for it, though, but that should not worry you too much. However, our resources are limited and we cannot assign booth space to projects indefinitely.

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 and gained a high priority on our agenda. This will in turn help the community grow and become an even more accepted member of the larger picture.

If you want to help us in turn, we are always looking for competent and reliable people who help us organise this event. Especially during the show we need the help of a lot of volunteers. You will probably learn a lot if you pick up one or another part of it and work on it on your own. Feel free to contact us by naming the part you would like to work on.

5. How large will the booth be?

The size of a projects booth depends on what your project plans to demonstrate, how you plan to make use of the provided space, and how important the project is for the Free Software community in relation to the final number of supported projects, since all projects need to get some space. Definitive booth reservations can only be made at a very late stage, one to two weeks before the show.

If Joey should be forced to provide guaranteed booth size at an earlier stage, he could only hand out small booths with one open side, because that's the only thing he would be able to guarantee at that time. You are, however, always invited to pay for booth space on your own (see below), in which case the booth and number will be guaranteed as early as you order.

Hence, it is working the other way around to get the best use of space for all projects. People need to exchange ideas and tell Joey 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, since that's implied by the ideas anyway. This will be used as the basis for booth space 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).

Please, pretty please write your plans for the booth as additional comments to the projects interface or send them to Joey via mail, including sketches. Joey will insert them into the system on demand, since that's the only place where plans are guaranteed to not get lost since they are stored in a central repository or a database respectively. Without plans for the booth, Joey can only guess how much space could be useful.

6. Who decides how much space we get?

Joey will decide how much space a project gets in the exhibition area and where it will be located based on your own ideas and plans. This sesms to be the best way to handle this. Space is not only limited but also quite expensive and hence, needs to be used in the most efficient way. We are only able to pay for a limited amount of space and furniture, hence the existing amount needs to be used as efficiently as possible.

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 organised and well stuffed/staffed booth, it could be a good argument for adding some square meters to that booth.

In addition to this we will make larger use of the foyer of the Stadthalle, where the conference will take place. In the last year we already experienced a better use by projects of the otherweise space. This year the entire ground floor should be used and projects can make use of it. There will be no normal booths in that building, though, projects can use the back wall for posters and the like.

7. Can we pay for a booth / extend a booth?

Starting in 2005 it is possible for a project to purchase additional space for a projects booth or to purchase a projects booth on their own. This should help larger projects that can afford to spend some money on exhibitions to get a larger booth than what they would get assigned otherwise.

Limited to projects booths the price per square meter is € 70.00 with VAT added. This price not comparable for commercial booth space that comes with completely different prices and other services and furniture. It is also not possible for a company to add some cheaper square meters to their booth due to the different types of services.

If your project would like to purchase additional space for a projects booth, please tell Joey in time so he can add this to his plan. For accounting he also needs to know who or which organisation will pay for the additional booth space, this includes a snail mail address, and when possible also a fax and phone number.

8. What kind of furniture can we use?

LinuxTag will provide booths in the regular exhibition hall with a carpet, surrounding walls ("Chinesenhütte"), conference tables (130cm wide, 65cm deep and 75cm high) and conference chairs. The general rule is that 9qm justifies two tables and four chairs. We are not sure if we manage to get more tables. If you need more tables and you are able to take some with you, please do so.

We will not rent furniture from the exhibition renting company since it is way too expensive. If you want to do that, please get in touch with Joey or the LinuxTag office during the show so thing can be rented for you, but you'll have to pay for them on your own. We will only be able to tunnel the requests to the proper people and we need an address to get them send the receipt to.

9. Is there a mailing list for the organisation?

There are several mailing lists dedicated to organisation of LinuxTag. One part is running on lists.infodrom.org (talk to majordomo@lists.infodrom.org for details) and the other part is running on linuxtag.org. (Unfortunately, I don't know a web address. There is sympa@lists.linuxtag.org and maybe it will answer to you.)

For projects the main list is linuxtag-projects@lists.infodrom.org where discussions and inter-project communication are held. People from several projects have already joined this list. People from all projects should join it in order to be able to talk to other projects that will also attend LinuxTag or which have attended former events and can help out with their exprience. You may want to unsubscribe after the event since on request the subscriber list won't be reset after each LinuxTag.

For general discussions and questions concerning LinuxTag there is also lt2k@linuxtag.org. Everybody affiliated with this event is invited to join this list. Public information from LinuxTag people will also be distributed there.

For supporters there is also linuxtag-helfer@lists.infodrom.org (no public archive) which is dedicated to our volunteer supporters who help us break down the chaos during LinuxTag. This list has no connection to the projects pavillons during LinuxTag but only reflects another fields of endeavour for Joey. If you don't have to be at your booth all the time and would like to help on a general basis every once in a while, please get in touch with Joey since a large number of supporters are always needed for LinuxTag.

10. 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 is happening in the booth and at the project, even without having to talk to the booth staff. Using large posters you can also increase the quality of your booth, since walls will look more interesting than blank ones. All booths in the exhibition area (not in the conference building) 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 regular adhesive tape for pinning posters at it.

For printing, many universities provide a possibility to print large posters (A0, A1) at cost price. If you need this, you should try to get in touch with the computing center or the physics department. The printers often understand PostScript which is generated quite easily by LaTeX with this class from Peter Ganten and documentation by me. Personally, I'd like you to use this possibility and make use of posters at your booth.

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

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

We are discussing with Shuttle to provide a large number of Shuttle pcs for projects use for LinuxTag. If this effort succeeds then projects can use several of these cool machines free of cost at their booth during LinuxTag.

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

Yes. We are able to use two smaller conference rooms for talks, meetings, presentations, workshops and birds of a feather sessions. They are intended to be used by projects with the main audience being project members, ofther projects or a limited general audience, i.e. not for the general audience. The rooms are not very large and no more than 80 people will fit in them while only about 50 chairs will be available.

All projects may use them for talks, presentations, key signing, informal meetings and the like. Please see the workshop schedule to find out when these rooms are in use already. We will hopefully be able to provide a beamer in each room, thankfully supplied by a sponsor, so you can easily use a computer for your talk. If you are able to provide a beamer for all four days, please talk to Joey.

There will be no sponsored computers in these rooms, and we cannot guarantee that there will be network connectivity as no regular cables end in these rooms. Hence, we'll have to put wires there on our own.

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 which will be placed online so people can decide where to go before LinuxTag starts. The title and abstract will be managed via the projects frontend so that the speakers can edit both on their own.

You can also reserve a room for your project during LinuxTag if there is a free slot. In such cases please contact Joey in the administration office for reservation at least on the day before.

You will also have to advertise your slot(s) on your own, since it will not be listed next to the free conference program of LinuxTag. If we would do that, the rooms would be filled by too much audience and we are unable to get larger rooms. Also, this would create a conflict with the main conference program which shouldn't be the case.

The workshops will, however, be advertised in the exhbition area and in the conference building during LinuxTag with printed schedules. You can easily locate the workshop rooms on the schema of the Stadthalle building.

Beware of the screen resolution when preparing your talk since the beamers most probably can be used in 1024x768 mode but not in a higher graphics resolutions. Nat Friedman mentioned that he wrote a little systray applet that uses XRANDR to change the screen resolution. This may be helpful.

13. 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 and the exhibition closes (which happens at 6pm). They may actually be locked at 6:30 but you'd better not depend on this. If you want to gather after 6pm the social event which will probably take place on Friday (??) and the KaLUG party on Thursday should be well suited. On the remaining days, you should be able to walk for five minutes and find a café or a pub nearby since LinuxTag takes place in the city of Karlsruhe. See this map for reference.

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

No, this is not 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. You'll need to register for LinuxTag, though. Details are on the main website.

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).

15. In which hotel will all speakers stay?

The main hotel, in which all crew members and most speakers will stay, is the Dorint Kongress-Hotel. It is located directly adjacent to the LinuxTag area and hence quite easy to get to. However, it is not one of the cheapest hotels due to their quality (five stars iirc). If you want to stay there and book through LinuxTag (there should be a web form), you should get some discount and don't have to pay the full price. If you don't use the form, tell the counter that you're coming for "LinuxTag" wanting to use the reduced fees.

16. Is there a cheap sleeping facility nearby?

There will be a gym hall (called AKK) maintained by the KaLUG people. Project members can apply for space there. Booking is done through the private LTP interface, hence, you'll need an account there, ask your project coordinator for it. This hall is intended to serve project members and not regular visitors. Breakfast is sold at cost at € 1.50. Steffen Mutter has also listed some more sleeping information.

If you're staying at the AKK please help the people managing it with preparing breakfast and the like. They are doing this only to help LinuxTag and the GNU/Linux or Free Software community and their only motivation is supporting Free Software. They can use your help for breakfast and also for the KaLUG party on Thursday.

GPS: 117m above NN N 49°00.659' E 8°249.23'. Map, Merkzettel.

17. 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 to remove others. It is, however, a big problem if 10 projects want to add 15 people (sum: 150 people) one week before the event begins. At that late time, Joey will probably don't have enough time to manage such things properly and everything that needs to be printed externally will already be ordered.

18. 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 based on the list of registered staff and reserved tickets. For projects staff we also reserved exhibitors passes. Additionally, the organisation during last four years included sending mails to projects staff for information and preparation. It is important that these mails do reach booth staff since these people need to discuss and decide upon their presence. Please see the informails from past years for examples.

As usual, registration for the social event and for the sleeping space in the gym hall is done online, hence, at least those people who would like to participate in either of them, need to be registered with the LTP system.

19. Do we need to register or purchase tickets?

Starting with 2005 attendance to LinuxTag will require a ticket to be purchased at the entrance. As exhibitor, however, you don't need to purchase such a ticket but can get an exhibitor pass. For this, the list of booth staff members need to be available in the LTP system two weeks before the show starts. You can get exhibitor passes for all registered booth staff in our office above the Gartenhalle.

You are encouraged to purchase a LinuxTag KIT from LinuxTag e.V. in order to add some money we can spend on the event, though.

20. Do we need exhibitor passes or something?

You will need special exhibitor passes in order to be able to enter the exhibition area before LinuxTag is opened for the public on Wednesday to Saturday. With an exhibitor pass you don't need a normal entrance ticket. However, you'll have to fetch the passes on Tuesday at latest in order to benefit from them.

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 hall named "Gartenhalle". Since the office is located behind the entrance you'll have to fetch the passes before the show starts or you'll have to get regular tickets as well in order to get past the entrance.

Exhibitor passes are only available for those who are listed as staff of the particular project in the projects interface. You are, however, invited to purchase the LinuxTag Kit which will also help LinuxTag e.V. keep their costs under control.

Visitors should purchase regular tickets and don't get sneaked in via gratis exhibitor passes and hidden as project staff. Hence, please don't abuse this and don't add random visitors as booth staff if they don't belong to your booth. I've already fought a fight against a special fee for project members, so please don't let me down.

21. When can we start setting up the booth?

This depends on how long people need to build the basis of the booth. You can set up your booth as soon as it is built. Building it up will start on Sunday and continue through Tuesday. Several booths should be usable on Monday already. However, in general it should be sufficient to set up the projects booths on Tuesday. If you have any questions drop by at the LinuxTag office where Joey will probably be or return to occasionally. Just wait for him.

Furniture will be available on Tuesday, but you can upload your stuff at the booth already, but please stay there to guard your worthy equipment. During setting up and dismantling people can walk into the exhibition hall and moving computers and the like won't look suspicious. Hence, please do look after your equipment.

The exhibition hall will be open from 6am to 10pm on Tuesday. When you arrive, drop by at our office and Joey will show you the booth. On other days you can enter the exhibition hall from 7am if you have an exhibititors pass. It is regularly open to visitors from 10am to 6pm.

The booths can be cleared again right after LinuxTag closes on Saturday at 18 o'clock (6pm). The exhibition hall will probably be open until 10pm. However, please keep your things together since many people are running around removing stuff. You won't want your equipment to vanish accidently.

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

This may be possible only for the Gartenhalle. 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.

It is possible at least to drive onto the Festplatz and unload the car from there. This is possible only from the barrier at the Beiertheimer Allee (see this map). However, you only have one hour time to unload the car and leave the Festplatz again in order to get your caution money back (cars: 1h + € 100,--; trucks: 2h + € 50,--). Please don't overstress this. It is also not possible to park the car on the Festplatz during the exhibition.

23. What is this projects interface and how do I get there?

Joey helps organising LinuxTag for several years now and is usually flooded by mail and has to maintain information provided by others, and also summarise some of them for you as well. The projects interface is supposed to help coordinate parts of LinuxTag and to provide an easy way for all affected projects to maintain the information on their own, without having to go through Joey all the time.

This includes descriptions of the projects goals, staff lists, registration for the social event and for sleeping space in the AKK as well as leaving notes and plans for the organisation. Calculating booth space and discussing issues with others is much easier if information are available at a central place and if they can be entered by members of the project on their own.

24. Will there be a network for us projects?

Again this year we will build the projects network on our own. This requires several large cables (50m and longer, CAT5) to be available on Tuesday already. If you can help out with one or more such cables, please contact Joey. We need to build it up on our own because otherwise it would be too expensive.

This will be a terrestrial network again with several switches located on central locations from which adjacent project booths can connect their booth network. Hence, you should take longer cables (10-20m) with you as well. The projects connectivity will be sponsored by Schlund+Partner again.

25. Will there be a place to work during LinuxTag?

This cannot be decided this long time before the event happens, since it depends on many factors. If there will be some sort of Development Lounge this will be announced in a later infomail.

There will be an internet café in the Stadthalle where you can at least connect your notebook and work. This should also be able in the upper floor right before the workshop rooms.

26. Can we get our stuff delivered directly to LinuxTag?

Sure you can. We will be at the exhibition center from Sunday to Saturday. However, if you get your producers to send stuff to LinuxTag directly, please contact Joey before and tell him which organisation sends what, so that he can negotiate with the delivery companies and accept the packages for you if you aren't around, or can route the delivery to your booth if you have already arrived.

Many deliveries before LinuxTag will go via Joey, and if he has a list of expected deliveries, handling is much easier. It is more difficult as well for deliveries to get lost. It's also less painful to find out to which booth a package should go to if this information is known already, since often neither the booth name or booth number are printed on the address field.

Telling Joey in advance prevents wrongly routed deliveries, so your stuff will end up at your booth if you arrive or be captured in the LinuxTag dump space until you arrive. Please also ensure that nothing is delivered to LinuxTag before Monday since chances are a lot higher for them to get lost otherwise.

The delivery address for LinuxTag is:
Kongreßzentrum
Messeleitung LinuxTag
Projekt <your project>
Gartenhalle
Festplatz 9
76137 Karlsruhe

27. Will there be a social event?

The social event for this year's LinuxTag will take place on Friday, June 24th. The location is the restaurant "Nancy" next to the Nancy hall and directly adjacent to the Festplatz. The regular fee for "all inclusive" is € 25.00.

For members of exhibiting projects, there are 150 sponsored tickets for € 15.00. Registration is required for these. Unfortunately 150 is a hard limit since this social event is organised by a LinuxTag service provider (newthinking) and also financially separated. When 150 reduced tickets have been registered in the online system, no more can be registered.

Hence, please only mark yourself for the social event when you know that you will actually attend this year's social event or free the registration again otherwise. If you are fine with a non-reduced ticket, please don't register as well, but purchase the tickets at the ticket desk in time, Wednesday would be best. You may ant to register separately in that case.

28. Why is the social event this expensive?

Many people have wondered why the social event at LinuxTag has always been that expensive. € 25.00 is a lot of money and you can get much to eat and drink in a bar for the same price. Unfortunately this is true, but the social event has always been a financial disaster for LinuxTag. You may not believe this, but it has always costed the LinuxTag e.V. € 5,000.00 to € 10,000.00.

The problem with organising the social event is that you need to get a proper location that is able to fit 600 people and can be used by the community and business members equally. Then you need dinner for 600 people. For this you also need to get at least 300 means to sit down, better make that 500. And you need fluids for 600 people. To make the social event successful, you also need to organise the entrance, printing tickets, organise registration and payments. Some surrounding program like a band or a dj, or something of that kind may be nice as well.

Looking at the above list, getting enough fluids and organising the entrance and registration are the easiest tasks. Fluids scale up very well since you can usually order them on commission and order as much as you need. Finding a company that is able to provide dinner for 600 people is not that easy. Try this in your hometown as an exercise. In 2004 we thought that we had found a company that was cheaper than the ones from the years before, but unfortunately they totally failed with the quantity calculation and handing out food and fluids.

Also, finding a room suitable for 600 people not only from the community but also from the business is another tricky task since this usually involves large public or non-public buildings for which a lot of rent has to be paid. Again, try to find such a room in your hometown and ask for the price for an evening. Even if you have found a bankett room, there may not be enough chairs and tables so you need to order them separately as well. That's just another drain of money.

29. Is there a party planned during LinuxTag?

Yes, the LUG Karlsruhe is organising a large community oriented party again on Thursday, June 23rd. It will take place at the AKK site where many project members will sleep as well. All project members and staff, speakers, supporters, officials and interested visitors are invited to attend this party and have fun. Food and fluids will be sold at cost.

30. Are there shops nearby?

There should be a bread shop on the other side of the Ettlinger Straße (i.e. go to the tram station and cross the streat). However, there's at least a supermarket and a bakery in the Karlstraße nearby. It's only a 5 minute walk to get there. Several people have prepared information and a location plan on how to get there. They also took pictures to help you get the right direction.

31. Are there vacant jobs? I.e. can I help you at LinuxTag?

LinuxTag depends on volunteer work since its beginning. Most of the work is done voluntarily and will stay this way. However, we need to work and negotiate with several commercial entities as well to ensure the success of present and future LinuxTag events.

During LinuxTag a lot of jobs have to be done. Much of the extra volunteer work done by a large crew of supporters, managed by Joey Schulze (joey@linuxtag.org). Many jobs are born or created at short notice and need to be done quickly. Hence, for many jobs we are unable to work out proper schedules before the event.

If you are interested in helping to keep LinuxTag the No. 1 GNU/Linux event in Europe (worldwide?) please get in touch with Joey. Please let him know when you plan to help, what you would like to do, what kind of experience you've already got. For some jobs a suit (or similar clothes) is required, then information about age and a picture would be helpful.

32. Is there an insurance for us?

No. There's no insurance for you or your machines, or machines you've borrowed from somebody/somewhere in general. If you need insurance, you'll have to take care of it on your own. Most regular insurance agent should be able to help you with details and costs.

The exhibition hall and the conference building are secured during the night, though. Except for setting up and dismantling all unauthorised people have to leave the exhibition hall by 10 o'clock p.m. and the conference building by 9 o'clock p.m. Only security personnel will be in the building until about 7 or 8 o'clock in the morning. During this time your equipment is safe at least.

Nevertheless you should not let any easily removable parts laying around on tables open at your booth. If you have small pieces that could be easily taken away and shouldn't, move them in a bag at the end of a day and place that bag in the back of your booth.