Pirates of Silicon Valley Screening
So, we've just finished our first ever event, here at the Bristol OSUM. Photos would normally be here, but unfortunately my camera is on the fritz.
The Event:
We decided to smart small, with a screening of the film Pirates of Silicon Valley. It's a film about the beginnings of Microsoft and Apple, and the rivalry between them. The tagline of the film is "Good artists copy, great artists steal", and the film explores the spread of the GUI, as it was copied by Apple from Xerox and then by Microsoft from Apple. Overall, it was an entertaining film, which accurately covered a lot of the history of the era while remaining fun to watch. After the ninety minute film, our resident IT & law expert Dr. Andrew Charlesworth gave a short lecture on the history of user licenses, from the early days of source-included computers to the present day of copyright and open source licenses.
The Preparation:
We started planning the event about two weeks beforehand. It was relatively simple as we had access to our university's computer science building, which is open late and quite easy to book. We decided to have the event in what is known as the "Virtual Reality Suite", a moderately sized room with three large screens and projectors permanently installed. We booked the room, and started looking for a speaker. We quickly found Andrew Charlesworth, who was well known in the department for his knowledge of law and willingness to speak on the subject. With such a suitable candidate quickly found, we could begin advertisements. We opted to print a few flyers and post them in the Computer Science department, as well as send out emails to all computer scientists and many gamers through our associations with the Computer Science Society and the Computer Gaming Society. On the day of the event, we used a 50% coupon to snag a good deal on pizzas, and ordered as many as our budget would allow.
How it all went down:
At first, I was worried attendance would be quite low, as very few people had talked to me about the event beforehand. However, I soon shook this aside and got to work preparing the room. All went well until the projector started turning off a few minutes after being turned on. Luckily, the double redundancy in projectors meant we were able to, with the help of resident technician Syed Rahman, simply turn on and use another, although this meant realigning the seats in the room. Soon after this was settled, the pizza arrived. I was heartened by the fact that no matter the turnout, a great deal of pizza would be eaten, and that can't be anything but a good thing.
As the start time approached, people started arriving in twos and threes. With five minutes left to go, myself and my compatriot Adam went to advertise in the labs upstairs. "There's a film going on in five minutes' time!" yelled Adam. "It's about Microsoft, and Apple, and it's awesome... Also, there will be FREE PIZZA!" Never doubt the power of free pizza, as within seconds half a dozen people jumped up and ran downstairs. With our mission accomplished, we returned to see quite a few had arrived in our absence. We reached 6:30, the time we had expected to start -- but still people were pouring in. Some ten minutes later, people had stopped arriving and everyone had signed up for OSUM and gotten a slice or two of pizza. Finally, we could begin. Without further ado, I dimmed the lights and Gareth started the film. We were underway.
The film seemed well received, with little crosstalk and quite a few laughs. After it ended, Charlesworth gave his lecture, which was quite interesting, and we let the masses go. In the end, I counted just under thirty people, which probably qualifies as a success, at least for us. We've shown an excellent film to quite a few people, and we've hopefully made a name for ourselves at the University. I'm now looking forward to our next events.
Lessons Learned:
Extra prep time is always useful. Even with the relatively small scope of our prep (plug a laptop into a projector and speakers), we still ended up using far more than I had expected.
Pizza is a great motivator. And it's quite cheap, if you have the right vouchers.
Make connections -- know the resources at your disposal, be friendly with the porters, know who in the department can help you out. Our event wouldn't have happened without the assistance of Dr. Andrew Charlesworth, Syed Rahman, and Caroline Higgins. Special mention also goes to the great porters at the Merchant Venturer's Building, who were incredibly helpful. Finally, lots of thanks to the hardworking OSUM team, particularly Gareth, who did quite a lot of the legwork for this event.
Make sure the OSUM branding is obvious. Probably my own biggest failure was not mentioning OSUM often enough -- make sure there is a sign or something that people can look at, and have people greeted at the door. Wear your Sun-branded clothing. It all helps.
And Finally:
It's over! Both the event, and this long-as-heck blog post. I'm tired, and I'm going to bed!
