[CLUE-Adm] CLUE Speakers Bureau

[Lynn Danielson]

Jim Intriglia wrote:
> 
> Sat with Charlie Oriez at last months AITP (denveraitp.org) dinner meeting -
> he is very much into Linux since the talk we gave for AITP a while ago.

Yes, I was glad to see him again at the CLIQ.
 
> Charlie asked if we (CLUE) would be interested in talking at their upcoming
> "Survisors: Reality-Based IT" conference in Vail Sept 20-22). Might be a
> good opportunity to do a "Linux for Suits" session as well as a technical
> talk. What do you think?

I am interested, but I'm not sure I'll be able to afford the vacation time.
If I can get by with only taking off Friday, I can probably swing it.
Charlie said that he'd be happy to sponsor as many of us as could fit into
a room, but seemed most interested in getting you, Chuck and myself involved.

> The Speakers Bureau idea came back to mind (again) as I spoke with owners
> at recent Internet Chamber of Commerce mixers (icc.org). Some business
> executives/owners are very interested in the benefits that Linux-based
> systems have to offer, but were ignorant of open source solutions in
> general.
>
> "Can someone come a do a presentation at our company?" came up a few times.
> My thinking is that if we can provide folks to talk/teach about Linux in the
> enterprise as well as Linux for samll businesses, this may spur some
> interest leading to future employment opportunities for Clue-Job'ers.
> 

I assume your thinking something along the lines of the GLUE speaker bureau
web site?  It's a good idea.  Hopefully, we can compile a list of several 
people who would consider speaking not only to LUGs, but to other SIGs in
the area.  Someone, might have been Dave Holz, asked me a while back if I 
would be interested in giving a talk about Linux at a Littleton library.
Taking the good word about Linux outside of our user group seems like a
worthwhile endeavor.  The only thing that frightens me about it is that I
one is more likely to run into a cynic or a heckler.  Hopefully that's an
irrational fear on my part.

If we could get one or more canned "Why Linux" presentations together
that anyone one could take and modify to give a talk like this, that
might help encourage others.  I know it would encourage me. :-)

Matt Porter, who did the GPL talk, sounded like he'd be willing to talk
with other groups interested in the topic.

> Sherman Woo (see AITP web site) may also be interested in presenting a
> future Clue Kiss/Main session.

Hmmm.  What might he be interested in talking about?

> >Jeff, I'd like to make a motion that Jim be nominated to the new
> >volunteer position of Speaker Bureau Coordinator.  ;-)

Having a page dedicated to this on the new website would be nice,
but that's a topic for clue-dev.

Lynn