openSUSE:11.4 Marketing Hackfest
Intro
openSUSE 11.4 is slated for release in March. In preparation, the Marketing Team will gather for a week-long hackfest in Los Angeles, California, USA. This will be followed by appearance at SCALE conference.
Below you will find the list of approved sponsored attendees to the hackfest and SCALE. Please note that even if you are not on the approved sponsored list you can STILL attend, just not sponsored. We will also attempt to set up remote access for those unable to travel to Los Angeles but still wish to participate in the hackfest.
More details including hotel, Los Angeles information, SCALE planning and other information will be posted as soon as full details become available.
Attendees
| Attendees | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Nickname | Travel from: | Length of stay | Notes | |
| Bryen Yunashko | suseROCKS | Chicago, Il, USA | Feb 18 - 28 | ||
| Jos Poortvliet | jospoortvliet | Porto Alegre, Brazil | Feb 20 - 27 | ||
| Bruno Friedmann | tigerfoot | Basel, Switzerland | Feb 20 - 27 | ||
| Izabel Valverde | izabelvalverde | Sao Paolo, SP, Brazil | Feb 20 - 28 | Arrive LAX 20th - 16h10 | |
| Carlos Ribeiro | carlosribeiro | Sao Paolo, Brasil | |||
| Helen South | helen_au | Sydney, Australia | |||
| Kostas Koudaras | warlordfff | Thessaloniki, Greece | Feb 20 - 28 | Arrive LAX 20th - 13h20 | |
| Chuck Payne | terrorpup/lupinstein | Atlanta, GA USA | Feb. 20 ~ 27 | ||
| James Mason | bear454 | Bellingham, WA, USA | Feb 21 - 28 | ||
| Alan Clark | AClark | Provo, UT, USA | |||
| Stephen Shaw | sshaw | Provo, UT, USA | February 24 - 27 | Will only be at SCALE | |
| R Tyler Ballance | rtyler | Oakland, CA, USA | February 25 - 27 | Will only be at SCALE |
Hotel
Novell will book your hotel. Depending on your sponsorship status, we will pay or you have to pay yourself when you check out. The hotel will be: Travelodge 5547 W Century Blvd. Aviation and Century Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90045 US
- Our hotel is two blocks from the SCALE Conference and we will be using the meeting room in our hotel for our hackfest.
- Breakfast is included each morning and includes fresh fruit, sweet rolls, bagels, cream cheese, muffins, breads, cereals milk, juices, coffee & tea! You also get free coffee in your room.
- Lunch - There are several restaurants in the area including a Denny's on site at the hotel. A full list of places to go to will be provided upon arrival.
- Internet service is free at this hotel
- Airport transportation is free. In each baggage claim area there is a Hotel/Car Rental Information Board. You can access the hotel operator from the courtesy by the information board or call direct at 310-649-4000. PRIOR TO CALLING, YOU MUST RETRIEVE YOUR LUGGAGE. Hotel shuttles are not allowed to wait for passengers in the shuttle pick-up area.
We stay in shared rooms. If you like a private room, please contact jos. You'll have to pay for the difference. We pay for hotel from 21-26 except for those coming from outside of the US, they'll get 20-27 to deal with Jetlag ;-)
Travel Tips
Weather
By the time you arrive, Los Angeles should be completing its rainy season. There may be cool days and hot days. We advise you to bring spring jackets as the evenings do get cool since we will be very close to the ocean.
There is an outdoor swimming pool at our hotel and you may wish to bring swimming suits if there's a warm day.
We suggest you visit the 10 day weather forecast before you leave your home to pack the correct clothes.
Currency
The cheapest way to exchange for US currency is to use your bank card to withdraw money from an ATM machine. The airport will have plenty of ATM machines for you to withdraw from.
We suggest $50 per day as a safe amount, though this may be less in reality. Most US ATM machines allow you to withdraw up to $500 per day. So you may wish to withdraw part of your money on the first day and then withdraw again later in the week.
!!!WARNING!!! You must contact your bank or credit card provider before you leave your home country and let them know you will be using your card in the United States. Otherwise, your bank may disable your card upon first use in the United States. Be sure to give them the dates when you will be in the United States.
Things to See
There are many interesting places to see in the Los Angeles area. However, it is a very big area and transportation may be a challenge to these locations. On Monday morning of the hackweek, we will provide a suggested list of places you may be interested to visit. Please feel free to contact Bryen Yunashko any time for more tourist suggestions as he was a resident of Los Angeles for 15 years.
Agenda
We will begin our meetings each day Monday to Thursday at 10 a.m. PST.
Please note that a hackfest is generally considered an unconference. Therefore it is essential that you suggest topics below that we can incorporate to our agenda for the week.
Monday Morning: We begin at 10 a.m. First discussion will be a review of our current status of the marketing team and a discussion about the strategy and focus of our team. Following this discussion, we will collect topics from the list below and any additional topics mentioned during our discussion phase. We will organize those topics in terms of priority and schedule them for the rest of the week.
Below is our proposed agenda. Please feel free to submit your ideas for topics to cover. Even if you are not participating, you can still suggest ideas and priorities for the agenda.
| Proposed Agenda | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Topic | Description | |
| Manu | Web & Social Media Appearance, Helping Hands, Offcourse India | Help with writing work, New Promo videos and learn a lot | |
| Bryen Yunashko | Writing | Prepare announcements, articles, etc. | |
| Jos Poortvliet | release 11.4; event reports on wiki; marketing materials; booth box; GSOC2011; OSC2011; get-artwork-on-the-rails-again; news@o.o; newsoo articles proposed by manu for 11.4 promo | writing & planning & coordination | |
| Bruno Friedmann | Just hard work, can help at SCALE Booth | Help Kostas's objectives | |
| Izabel Valverde | Helping hands | Announcements, articles, Spreading PR, etc... | |
| Carlos Ribeiro | Helping Hands with Ambassadors Marketing Materials | Announcements, articles, how to setup demos, finish Ambassadors Kit, etc... | |
| Sankar P | Share experiences on marketing from India, past releases, general discussion etc. | ||
| Javier Llorente | Marketing through localization. | Identifying key elements that should be translated. | |
| Kostas Koudaras | Helping Hands with Ambassadors Marketing Materials, Marketing through localization | Announcements, articles, how to setup demos, finish Ambassadors Kit, Identifying key elements that should be translated, organizing printable promotional material | |
| Chuck Payne | Same and Bryen and Kostas -- Helping Hands with Ambassadors Marketing Materials, Marketing through localization, plus I will be at SCALE |