There have been Inkscape workshops in the past.

LGM is not a large conference. I would expect a couple hundred
participants. There have not been booths at the LGM conferences I've
been to.

The more people become interested in a conference, the larger it becomes.

In my view, this makes it doubly important to have an attractive presentation, as well as some video advertising of the fact that we will be attending/presenting at the convention beforehand; to attract more attention from people not only inside the Libre Graphics movement, but those curious about joining it.

I have a few of ideas for how to do this. For example, this year I am setting up a regular Open Graphics Meetup group, like my current London Linux meetup group. This is after a surprising number of people from the Linux group (which attracts devs, admins, musicians, artists, and hobbyists, as well as people curious about what FOSS has to offer), expressed interest in learning more of the graphics-editing end of FOSS.

We are currently a fairly small meetup group with 618 members, but we have new people joining all the time, and we are fast outgrowing the pub location in which we meet.

One bit of personal inspiration came from a Meetup review from someone whom I was able to show the missing pieces of his web design workflow on my x220 tablet laptop (running Ubuntu) during one of our meets (with a pint of cider in hand ;) ):

------ Quote: ------

It was great. As a result:

-I further researched thinkpad models and ordered a used X230 Core i5 8G Ram with an SSD drive for a whopping £250 (one thousand pounds less than what I was planning to spend on a new notebook with similar config).

-I have now completely replaced Photoshop with Gimp, allowing me to do all my web development in Linux.

-I am preparing a short session presenting Gimp as an alternative to Photoshop to be given to the guys at day at the London Hackspace.

-I am migrating from Sublime text to Atom.

I'd say it was super profitable (more than £1000 + Photoshop licence cost + great knowledge)

------ End Quote ------

Source: http://www.meetup.com/londonlinux/events/222329031/

If we can do this off-the-cuff at a general Linux drinks meet, imagine the impact we can have with a dedicated graphics meet. :)

Maybe you can see why I'm excited about the possibilities at the Libre Graphics meet coming to London.

Incidentally, those interested in coming down for a pint beginning again in January (13th), the Linux meetup group is here:

http://www.meetup.com/londonlinux/

All are welcome.

> I'm local to the London area, so I'm able to help set up anything
> we'd like to do.
>
> At the very least I think we can do:
> Video presentations w/animation

That could be interesting. What do you have in mind?

> Fliers/cards.

We could do this, but I'm not sure of how beneficial it would be at
this type of conference. (For something like SCALE where many people
would not already know about Inkscape it would be quite useful.)

Maybe bi-fold cards would work better than fliers.

I'll work up some ideas. I'd like to have one for Inkscape, and one for Inkscape in the context of the FOSS graphics workflow (featuring GIMP, Scribus, Inkscape, Krita, Blender 3D."

This is the question I get most: "How do you replace x-feature of Adobe's x-program in your graphics workflow." The cards will help address some of these questions.

> In addition to creating these items, I'm willing to foot the bill for
> things like fliers if we don't have project funds available for it.

Thanks for the offer! We do have some project funds that can be used
for this if we decide to do it. Even if we don't do it, it might be
good to have a "ready-to-print" flier for other conferences.

I'll work up some ideas, then if we like the ideas, I'll get some printing quotes. I do this for work all the time, so it's not much of a bother for me to do. :) I will definitely post versions of the cards and materials for the project to use for future advertising materials.

> I can also get volunteers from the local Linux Drinks meetup group
> that I run to come help.

Given the size of the conference I don't anticipate any need of
volunteers from Inkscape's point of view but you should definitely
encourage people to attend... it's free and no registration is
required. We can have a "Birds of a Feather" meeting.

Sounds good. I can also set up a London Linux Meetup to fall on the same week as the conference, so people in town for it will have an opportunity to join us for a pint while in town. :)

We are trying to organize a three day hackfest before or after LGM in
Leeds. If for some reason that falls through then we could use help in
organizing a hackfest in London.

Sure. I have regulars who show up to our meets that attend local hackfests, so let me know what you would we would like to do, and I'll make sure it happens.

Again, thanks for your offers! I hope to see you there.

Looking forward to it! It will be awesome to meet you in person. You'll be hearing a lot from me in the meantime, I'm sure. :)

-C

> -C
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Femke Snelting <snelting@...2319...>
> Date: Thu, Dec 3, 2015 at 3:32 PM
> Subject: [Inkscape-user] LGM 2016: Call for Participation
> To: inkscape-user@lists.sourceforge.net
>
>
> *Libre Graphics Meeting 2016: Other Dimensions*
>
> http://libregraphicsmeeting.org
>
>
> The eleventh annual international Libre Graphics Meeting 2016 will
> take place Friday 15th until Monday 18th April 2016 in London, UK.
> This yearly event is an occasion for teams and individual
> contributors/artists involved in Libre Graphics to work together, to
> share experiences and to hear about new ideas. By Libre Graphics we
> mean Free, Libre and Open Source tools for design, illustration,
> photography, typography, art, graphics, page layout, publishing, 3D
> modelling, digital making and manufacture, cartography, animation,
> video, interactive media, generative graphics and visual live-coding.
> The Libre Graphics Meeting is not just about software, but extends to
> standards, file formats and actual use of these in creative work. LGM
> has become the place in which they can discuss their projects,
> coordinate their efforts and, crucially, to meet in person.
> Participants in the LGM include developers, designers, academics and
> activists from around the world, who are all passionate about Free/
> L
> ibre graphics software and technology.
>
>
> *State of the Libre Graphics Union*
>
> We begin each meeting with a joint session that brings together all
> things that have happened in our wide landscape over the last year.
> So, instead of slots in the schedule for general updates on each
> Libre Graphics software project, we invite every team present at LGM
> to submit two slides (maximum), with a short explanatory text that
> showcases the leaps forward that has been made over the past year.
> For first-time presenters and particular big or new topics/features
> in established projects, we encourage additional stand-alone
> submissions.
>
>
> *Special focus: Other Dimensions*
>
> In Toronto we celebrated the first decade of LGM, reflecting on the
> past and considering the future. For the 2016 edition of LGM we
> continue speculating and will expand Libre Graphics into Other
> Dimensions. We are looking for presentations and workshops that
> explore the dimensions of space and material: 3D modelling and
> animation, Libre architecture, Open Source product design and other
> fields of digital making and manufacture. We are also seeking
> contributions that offer reflections on the 'other dimensions' of
> open source communities and that engage with FLOSS tools in various
> contexts including but not limited to teaching, learning, practice
> and co-production. This represents a desire to address the future
> sustainability of the Libre Graphics movement, through a growth of
> the core projects and topics that will, we hope, allow us to welcome
> more and more FLOSS projects and participants to our community.
>
> We are looking for:
>
> * In-depth presentations of Libre Graphics code-contributions
> * Showcases of excellent work made using Libre Graphics tools
> * New and experimental projects in this area to meet the wider
> community, including those in the field of 3D design and making
> * Reflections on the activities of existing open source communities
> in either the production of Free, Libre and Open Source tools or
> their use
>
> Available formats (times include Q&A):
>
> * Entry for State of the Libre Graphics Union (1-2 slides)
> * Presentations (20 minutes)
> * Workshops (1 or 2 hours)*
> * Birds Of a Feather (BOF), discussion meetings or Hackathons (2 hrs
> or more)
> * Lightning talk (7 minutes, selected at the event unconference
> style)
>
>
> *Practical Details*
>
> Submission deadline: 10 January 2016, content selection notification
> by end of January 2016.
>
> http://libregraphicsmeeting.org/2016/call-for-participation/
> http://libregraphicsmeeting.org/2016/submit-proposal/
>