[Members] Promotion: FOSDEM

[Will Sheward]

Dave Cridland wrote:
>
> At the risk of having the piss taken out of me in the office for the 
> next year or so for trying to talk as if I understand marketing,

Relax Dave, that's not going to happen. We're far more likely just to 
proceed straight to firing you.

> what exactly is "the message" we're trying to put across?
>
> Is it really, "Those people at the XSF are really fantastic"?

I was being a little flippant.

>
> And (as Alex said) is the goal really to encourage XSF membership?
>
> I'd have thought our goal ought to be development and deployment of 
> XMPP, at FOSDEM, by encouraging the highly technical audience there to 
> engage with the XSF and XMPP community as a whole.

Yes, all of that. Plus I think Matt Tucker's post a little way down this 
thread (talking about the logo) puts it well:

"Project a more professional image"....

> I suspect the best thing we can do is ensure that the people on the 
> stand know to stay on-message, but that's a bit weak.
Not at all. I don't think we need to 'ensure' anything, the membership 
instinctively know what 'the message' is. We might all express it in 
different ways but enthusiasm for XMPP and its development/adoption is 
what prompts people to get involved in a Standards organisation in the 
first place.

We're not a company, we don't have and should not have a 'corporate 
policy' or 'company line'. The diversity here is the strength. Trying to 
smoother that under an over-arching message would be a mistake. There's 
no contradiction between the diversity of individuals in a standards 
organisation and projecting a professional image.

Will.