What do daemon horns, strong coffee, and K-pop music videos have in common? No, it’s not fanatical worship. They’re all things that could be found on the floor of the 2013 OSCON Expo!
The team touched down in Portland on a sunny Tuesday afternoon. We were there on behalf of the FreeBSD Foundation, and our booth was grouped together with the other non-profit organizations. After moving all of our equipment to the Oregon Convention Center, we set up our space and got ready for the Tuesday booth crawl that proceeded almost immediately after.
OSCON really pulled out the stops for the food as attendees were treated to kabobs and chicken skewers grilled right on the table in front of them. Afterwards, attendees moved on to the Planet OSCON party where they consumed more refreshments, mingled, played laser tag, and took their turn on the lunar bounce.
The next day, we loaded the booth with schwag and waited for the massive influx of attendees. Ben demonstrated the capabilities of FreeNAS and PC-BSD to attendees while Denise enlightened iXsystems friends and associates on some of the exciting changes taking place at the company, and the impact those changes will have on our open source initiatives. The idea of “openness” was prevalent throughout the expo. During lunch, the tables were grouped by subjects of interest to help attendees break the ice and network. Even the booths demonstrated the theme of “openness” as huge, collaborative spaces dominated the expo floor, allowing attendees a place to congregate and brainstorm or talk.
There was lots to do for everyone. Bored? Try your hand at the gaming lounge hosted by Riot Games. Bored and lazy? An artist at the Booking.com booth drew caricatures for attendees. Bored, lazy, and impatient? Ceph sponsored an airbrush tattoo artist who could emblazon attendees with designs in a matter of seconds.
Many big names showed up for OSCON including HP, Fusion-io, and Intel. Intel’s booth featured a demonstration of Tizen in an automotive environment. Intel showed how the system would adjust its settings based on the information it received from the inputs by playing the music video for “Visual Dreams” by Girl’s Generation.
OSCON also held a scavenger hunt for the attendees. The conference organizers scattered twenty different puzzle pieces around the expo and the first 500 to find all the pieces and complete the puzzle would win a limited edition sweatshirt. The day ended with another booth crawl, this one even bigger than the first. After the expo, OSCON held a massive poker party with prizes for the top three chip winners.
On the second day, the convention floor was less full but still busy as people dropped by to learn about FreeNAS and PC-BSD and pick up schwag, of course. The highlight of the day was definitely when Ben went over to the Rackspace booth to take pictures of their giveaway and discovered he won their grand prize.
Ben gleefully walked away with a collector’s Game of Thrones Stark infantry shield and the admiration (and envy) of all the attendees.
As usual, OSCON supplied plenty of caffeine to keep attendees alert. And when that started to fail, they brought out ice cream to provide a sugar high for the final stretch. We finished the show tired but triumphant, having helped spread FreeBSD and Open Source to new faces and veterans alike!
Annie Zhang
Marketing Assistant
