Event Pictures Introduction

The first annual SoCal LinuxExpo was held on November 2, 2002 at USC's Davidson Executive Conference Center. By any measure, it was a great success. We estimate about 600 showed up. Most of the sessions (and ALL of the technical sessions) were standing room only plus overflow. For example, we estimate that about 120 people listened to Robert Love talk about what was being included in the newest version of the kernel (in a room designed for about 90 chairs).

The Expo floor, about 30 booths spread over 9,000 square feet, was almost completely filled. It was about two-thirds end-user groups (Linux User Groups, and other non-profit groups associated with Open Source software). The remainder were commercial vendors, who helped sponsor the event. Sun and IBM both had presences, as did Sharp. All the vendors seemed happy with the foot traffic through the expo floor. (Most of the time the aisles were quite crowded).

Everyone seemed very happy with the Expo, which is about the only regional grassroots Linux event left in this country, all the others having gone commercial. The main question was "When is the next one?" and the most frequent comment was "you need to get a bigger place for the next SCALE!"

We can answer that question now: SCALE 2.0 will be November 22nd, 2003, at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

And it WILL be bigger than last year. We hope to get more speakers and more booths for SCALE 2.0. There will be awards for coolest booth (commercial & non-profit), best info handouts, and some other categories we haven't nailed down yet. If you're a vendor, or a LUG or other non-profit, start planning now. Stay tuned here for more info. See you at SCALE 2.0!