Re: [GNOME-India] meetup.com

[Sriram Ramkrishna <sri ramkrishna me>]

Sorry for my late response.  I have not forgotten!


On Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 6:02 AM, Parth Panchal <parthpanchl gmail com> wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 3, 2014 at 9:24 AM, Sriram Ramkrishna <sri ramkrishna me> wrote:
> > So I was searching around meetup.com, and you can find things like this:
> >
> > http://www.meetup.com/Mumbai-Technology-Meetup/
> >
> >
> > I did a lightening talk at Debconf, about community management and
> > about how interesting it is to meet up with people who don't know
> > about free software.
> >
> > I suggest searching through meetup.com in your area and see if there
> > is something you can get in on and just show up!
>
>
> Cool, I found a couple of medium sized meetup groups in Surat and joined
> them. But I think I don't match their experience level, so could you please
> guide me on how to break the ice and talk about Gnome.

I think the best way is to not focus on trying to sell GNOME.  It is
so much easier to sell a community.  Why?  Because you know and love
the GNOME community and so it is lot easier to talk about GNOME in
terms that people can relate to.  Whether it is exploring some old
church in France, or some anecdote while giving a talk.  Something.
That leads to a lot smoother segway into talking about the desktop.

For instance, at the mixers I go to, I start out something like:

Sri: Hi there!  I'm Sri, I'm here to meet new people and talk about my
charity, GNOME Foundation.  GNOME is such a great organization to be a
part of.  Recently, I was able to visit France, and I gave this great
talk about Getting Things GNOME.  It was a project I worked on for 3
months through this internship I was doing.

> From there, you can easily start branching out.  Take a piece of your
experience, and use the natural enthusiasm you already have to make
the sell.  They will connect with you because your passion is honest.

> >
> I've added a schedule of known events and hackfests to the Indian engagement
> page[1]. Suggestions are welcomed.
> Also, I suggest if we could create a list of recognized Gnome communities in
> India so people could join them.

Excellent!  Anybody interested in volunteering to get out there and do
a talk or mix it up?

sri