Ltx thoughts / ramble

[Night Sky]

Overall, we had a really great time at the event. Going to post some rambling thoughts.  Positive feedback, criticism, etc. Hope some of the organizers see it for next year. 
 

Pre-event: Managed to snag dolphin tickets which I was excited about.  The problem is they didn’t include BYOC tickets. There wasn’t an option to purchase BYOC tickets individually without 2 day event tickets which I was already entitled to.  In my confusion the BYOC tickets sold out. Sucked but it is what it is.  I wish overall the tickets were a lottery system as well instead of rushing when it opens. Would have also hugely appreciated the chance to receive badge and merch pack prior to the event by mail or something to avoid to long entry line which caused missing the welcome main stage kick off. 

Office and labs tours: This was my favorite part of the entire trip.  I’m glad they opened up a decent amount of tours and getting to walk around where the magic happens and run into some staff was really cool.  Some better communication of where to go would have been good, but I kinda just googled where the office was and showed up.  This is what I will remember most.  Had a bonus encounter with Linus as he ran the whale group through which was fun. 
 

Event itself: Overall I think it was really good.  Highlights for me were listening to the sennheiser HE-1’s at the headphones.com booth.   Main stage shows like the live WAN, meet and greets, build your own screwdriver.  Plenty of activities to keep us busy over both days.  Run ins with other creators. Long lines were a pain at times but I think everyone has already given that feedback.  Maybe some kind of reservation and come back system would have helped.   My feedback is to really put Linus to work over the event.  Would love just a simple 2-3 hour Q&A with Linus and Luke on the main stage. They’re who I came to see no matter how fun the other stuff is. Even if cool I wouldn’t have travelled to do some vr or do a case toss. People were cheering like crazy when someone like Dennis just popped onto stage to set something up so there is definitely demand for it.   
 

Dolphin specific feedback: Would have appreciated more organized signage for the dolphin perks.  We had a skip the line punch card but no lines had a lane dedicated to it on Saturday, was half- fixed Sunday. Also not all the activity staff were aware of what the punch card was or how to handle it.   Had to generally walk through the exit to find a staff member, which worked but was awkward. Also for the “exclusive” dolphin meet and greet, it seemed to be open to general ticket holders.  They were letting 1 dolphin, 1 general to meet Linus.  This was a bit odd because it was scheduled for 11:15 but at 11:13 when I got there they were already starting to turn away dolphins after us because the line was full and everyone wouldn’t be able to get through. We would have been kind of peeved if we got turned away since this was supposed to be an exclusive perk that was paid for. On Saturday the main stage reserved seating wasn’t clearly labeled which caused us to have to ask a staff member about it.  Some general badge holders got kicked out of our row without any other open seats which must have sucked.  A notification registration system for events coming up would be good, SMS or email or something.  Especially in the case that you paid extra for it like the “exclusive” meet and greets. Might be good to assign someone to “secret shop” the expo as different tiers.  General, whale, orca, dolphin, byoc, and see how different people experience the event to get an idea of where the friction is. 
 

 

LAN:  didn’t get to attend as mentioned above. But being out of country visitors and not having small form factor PC’s would have been an issue.  Rentals would be great if possible to arrange, basically at any cost which makes it viable. 
 

Merch store:  Crazy long line and the Merch was behind the counter.  If possible I’d like to see it much more open, and Merch set out in a more retail like format.  Would have totally dropped some more money but figured in this case I’d rather just hit up the website when home. I’d have been fine with more booths selling stuff in general as well, maybe not all but 4-5 more with purchasable stuff would have been good. 
 

to reiterate we had a really good time.  Will definitely be back next year if time permits.   Just wanted to bring up some stuff that went well, not well, and what we’d like to see. 

[LinusTech]

Thanks for the feedback. Always looking for ways to improve! 

[m.j. bare]

On 7/31/2023 at 9:59 AM, LinusTech said:

Thanks for the feedback. Always looking for ways to improve! 

Thank you for such a great event. From the perspective of a parent that attended both days, it was a HUGE success. On the above statement...

 

- General recommendations of areas to stay away form while visiting Vancouver, in your Safety tab https://www.ltxexpo.com/safety-policies. After expo close, we wanted to visit a Tim Hortons and made the mistake of going to the one around Hastings street. "Ladies of the night" were in abundance, but we looked past that, walked into Tim's and there was a guy wanking off into the trashcan near the door. We left without beverages. We did eat at Steamworks, 3x, great eats.

 

-Vendors were doing “must be present to win” giveaways, but they conflicted with main stage events. Maybe suggest that giveaways only take place on the 30's (i.e. 1130, 1230, 1330, etc.) 

 

- To speed up participant Whale LAN equipment removal, approval by convention centre to use the underground pickup area (Burrard Foyer). This would be break-down only. We did use it, but it was not common knowledge that it was there.

 

- Rent next segment of exhibition space (B3) for merchandise sales only (and the screwdriver assembly,) section it off with controlled entry/exit and people can roam freely. With more open space and less crowding, you'll make for a more enjoyable shopping experience and will easily make the cost of the expense back =)  In that merchant area have a crap-ton of sharpie pens for sale.  I was within signing distance of you 3x but had no pen lol

 

- Fun idea, post a large world map with Push Pins so people can put a pin of where they traveled from.  Would need a legend of what the different pin colors mean. Bleu = plane, black = train, red = automobile, green = public transit, white = walked, etc.  You would have to mount the map to something like this sheet of foam insulation

 

- The Troubleshooting Speedrun gave off the vibe of an Iron Chef competition in stadium kitchen. Would be interesting to give expo participants the chance to compete against yours staff  (or participating guest vendor/person i.e. Jay’s 2¢.) Pre-expo somehow vet those Expo ticket holders who want to participate. To keep it interesting the two challenges should be on stage at the same time. You could run 2 different problems... one team may have OS issue, one may be hardware, etc. If a participant (or Linus staff) is in the weeds and failing miserably, the commentator can reach into the hat and pull out the next name and hot-swap with the struggling team. Another idea would be a computer build Relay Challenge https://hellskitchen.fandom.com/wiki/Relay_Challenge or a few Lightening rounds between the two sets of teams to see who can complete the most “fixes.”  No need for prizes, just bragging rights. 

 

- The final day prize distribution was a bit of a “goat rope.” Would suggest the use of an electronic Prize wheel displayed on the HUGE screens.  The wheel is spun to see what prize to give, then go to a random name picker and pick the name(s) (https://miniwebtool.com/random-picker/).  The screen grab of the prize wheel shows how you can remove the prize after it has been won, so the next spin will not include it.  Not sure about the name picker, but it can import from a text file which would be handy.  So... spin prize wheel, it lands on “Gizmo” and there are 3 to distribute.  You’d then have the Random Picker, pick 3 names, and those would be your winners of the Gizmos.  As Plan-B, be prepared for a complete technology failure and have a randomly selected and printed list of at least 50 names prior to prize distribution and just go down the list =)

 

Thank you again for making the event happen, it was good times, good eats and an amazing city to visit.  We drove in from from Charleston, South Carolina.