• FreshersFair

Compsoc Freshers Fair 2006/2007

---

Final Stall Plan

Staff:

Decorations

• 4x A2 Compsoc Logo Posters (needs to be printed (~Tim)

• A2 Posters with a little more detail for display (being worked on (~AlexAdranghi))

• Two "Display Walls/Boards" (if we can borrow them from the laboratory (~DavidBell))

Freebies

• A5 Freebie Poster about Compsoc (being worked on (~AlexAdranghi))

• A5 Freebie Poster about KentIRC/Free Services (being worked on (~AlexAdranghi))

Demonstrations

Hands On

---

Read Before Editing!

Please use SOME form of signature, so we know who's said what! (~OliverCole)

Freshers Fair

• By the grace of Kent Union, we have a place at the 2006 Freshers Fair. Further details are sure to follow, but from a conversation with Dave Gilmore, we have the same half-table that all Union societies get. (AllenBrooker)

The next question is - what are we going to do with it?

• Someone mentioned large format printing? We want a largish poster on the front. (~OliverCole)

  • I can do A4/A3 colour easily, and A2 with a bit of effort (~TimBishop)

Michael (daisuke) has suggested we double check this booking nearer the time after SU staff have changed. (AllenBrooker)

Staff

Who's going to staff the stall?

Volunteers:

Content

• We need some actual content to attract people. Some blurb on what we've done and things in the pipeline would be good. AllenBrooker is currently working on a talk (hopefully the first of many) for next year, which will basically be an introduction to Linux. A bit about the gaming services would also be good. (AllenBrooker)

• Small bits of paper which describe everything important are a good idea, everything is so crazy people tend to just grab a bit of paper and wander off.

  • Definitely... and get stacks and stacks of them too... non-geeks will grab them too. (~OliverCole)

  • Agreed. We could have a main Compsoc one, with people walking around handing them out maybe, and maybe seperate ones for KentIRC telling people how to connect to it. (~DavidBell)

    • I recommend definatly *not* doing a game only one to preempt anyone because many will just go off with that and ignore rest of compsoc. Actually on second thoughts thats not a bad idea... - (~AlexAdranghi)

• If we can get a laptop put some shiney linux thing on like Xgl and show people that

  • UT2K4 demo (~OliverCole)

  • Slideshow of Compsoc stuff and services (~OliverCole)

  • List laptop offers:

    • FanBoy (requires power)

    • evad (2-3 hour battery life - that is, not running games.... an hour to 90 minutes when playing games)

    • Morti (similar battery life to Dave's, it's a Toshiba Equium M50 if anyone's interested in looking up the specs, I'll lend you my laptop but don't know if I'll be able to help generally). (~BillHayes)

    • Alex (pick, I have the C1 and the Big P4 3Ghz Dell) (~AlexAdranghi)

Other ideas?

• showing game servers // game logo's of games played on the network (hosted on soyuz -- will be hosted etc) (~buzzons)

• Have a computer/laptop with some game, or maybe two or three networked up where people can try and sit down. Prehaps to get a highscore with a prize at the end of the day. Only allowed to play once etc. Would also be a good way to harvest interested people contact details. (~AlexAdranghi)

  • People move on faster than that - we'd get very minimal take up. (~OliverCole)

• Showing non geek ideas like a plan for a LAN tourny etc (to get more gamers in)

  • We're not gamersoc! (~AlexAdranghi)

Will there be power? Can we run a computer?

• You can certainly ran a laptop like I did for UKCD... but network and power very much depends on the location. There may have been sufficient outrage and/or Health and Safety backlash after last year that it'll get moved back to the Sports Hall. (~OliverCole)

  • I spoke to them at SocFed, they are looking to hold it in a tent again, but a slightly bigger one. The tend does have power but its very limited, if its like last time we'll get put with the crappy socities where ever that may be (last time it was the Venue)

    • I could have sworn UKCD had power... (~OliverCole)

Post Event Report

We had an excellent run at this years Freshers Fair. In all we got 72 signups (for the announcements list, not actual members yet). (AllenBrooker)

Laptops

Having not prepared anything, the laptop setup was quite impromptu, but worked fairly well I think. AllenBrooker set up a laptop with Uplink running (for lack of anythnig else interesting to display). This turned out to be quite a good move - a number of people came towards the stall recognising the game.

What I'd do different next year: I would set up a slideshow. Ideas for images include:

• Screenshots from various easily recognisable games - Uplink, an FPS and a RTS for example
• Photos from events - social, Planet Lazar (geared-up team shots or something)

Also, we need to make sure we take a long windable extension lead (perhaps CompSoc should consider purchasing one so we always have one on-site). We were very fortunate in being placed in front of the bar in The Venue and were allowed to use one of the power sockets behind the bar. I would also recommend purchasing one of those rubber lead tidy devices - while it didn't cause problems this year, it can get very busy behind the stalls (some socs had to move across two or three other socs tables to get to theirs - we were fortunate in being able to push the tables forward and having a gap right next to us this year) and trailing extension leads could be potentially dangerous. (AllenBrooker)

Signs

Our simple, easily readable signs worked well. They covered all the key points quickly. I believe the IRC-oriented leaflet also went down very well - hopefully we'll see lots of new faces on IRC.

What I'd do different next year: We should have a back board or signs on the wall behind (if one, this year we had our backs to the bar in the Venue) with nothing but some simple words describing the sorts of things we do, for example: Gaming; Socials; Planet Lazar; Programming.