LinuxFest NW 2008 post show...

Previously mentioned... I volunteered to do a presentation on Open Telephony solutions and was asked to do a telephony lab for the fest. When I arrived to set up for presentation I found a nice room with a podium and the projector on and ready. I set up and soon the room was standing room only. I managed to stretch a 20 minutes of material in 90 minutes of what had to be one of my best presentations to date. I hope someone shares a photo so I can share it here.

Overall I felt good about taking the time to prepare for and give a presentation about a topic I am passionate about. As a volunteer I also felt good that the organizers did a good job of advertising and attracting people to the event.

I just wish the part I was asked to perform went as well. It could be that the distinction between "volunteer" and "requested of" is important here. At any rate, my response to the request for a small lab was room to project and place for four to six handsets....

I showed up to find that no one had any knowledge of this "telephony lab." Nice... I readied a completely portable iPBX and procured handsets and such. So, after a period of time it looked like there was some no shows for the exhibit floor and "the guy" pointed at a table and said here take that one. I started to say I needed an Ethernet drop when "the guy" interrupted me to blurt that "he knew what I needed." Mind reading with a touch of politeness... Cool...


Actually, it was a bit surreal. Ah, but Jacob Perry did manage to photograph my "bad booth."

"Too bad" is probably more like it. As an SMB lab set up it could have been a contender. As a booth... not so much. I had to get creative. It wasn't too long before someone noticed that I didn't appear very linuxy. I hit the bar and all they saw was the Asterisk CLI..

Actually, there is a side shot in the top photo.