Ask a LinuxWorld Exhibitor

Most Slashdot readers aren't coming to the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in New York this week. If you're not coming, but you have a question you'd like to ask one of the exhibitors, please post it here. I promise to ask 10 of the highest-moderated exhibitor questions on your behalf, and I'll do my best to ask more than 10, time permitting. If you have a question for anyone who is holding a conference session or tutorial Thursday or Friday, please feel free to post it, too. I will try to ask speakers at least a few questions, but that's chancier than getting hold of exhibitors (who are in booths where they're easy to find), so no promises. One question per post, please. Hopefully, I'll have time to type up the answers over the weekend and post them Monday or Tuesday.

Re:What is the best giveaway item?

[GoRK]

People will stand in line at your booth to enter most any contest that has a prize worth about $150 or more. An entire set of golf clubs generally works well with crowds older than about 30. A laptop or high-end palm pilot works well with younger crowds.

At tech shows (comdex, cebit, etc.) that kind of stuff usually doesnt work as well (though the golf club thing is still very popular.) If it's a show with an audience of mostly men, some good looking females in the booth will do a lot for you.

The gimmies are usually pretty tricky. The most effective ones are the ones that people have never seen before. We gave away cell phone chairs one time, which was pretty stupid, but they worked really well because nobody at the oil and gas show had ever seen them before -- even though there were tens of booths giving them away at the tech shows for a couple years, it was still effective. The CD cases we gave away, by contrast, cost nearly four times as much and were not effective.

The new gimmie we're going to use is silly putty we bought in bulk from Crazy Aaron (www.puttyworld.com [puttyworld.com]) ... haven't seen anyone giving it away yet, but someone's probably done it. Anyway, we sliced it up into small chunks, put it in some inexpensive tins... It's actually very very close to the least expensive thing we've ever given away and it will likely be the most effective thing we have ever used. Just in case, though, we have some sticky notes and a drawing for a set of golf clubs too :)

~GoRK

Common Criteria Certification!

[hallkbrd]

When will the various Linux distributers (RH, SuSE, Oracle?, etc) pitch in to get it Common Criteria certified, so I can use it in the DOD? I am sick of having to get waivers and justify non Windows software within the DOD. On requirements that require 64-bit computing such as Oracle, I can justify Sun systems, but for smaller needs I am fighting a hard battle due to no (granted lab environment) CC ratings on Linux.

Thanks