There's a few threads now, about VCF exhibit design. I may post the same basic message in a couple of them, but point to this one for details. It's pretty long, but I'm saying: my friends here are thinking-through their exhibits, and who will be attracted to them. I suggest being more deliberate. David Gesswein posted some of his deliberations; I'm posting what I did last year, in cooperation with others, by luck and intention. A Xenix exhibit by content, may be limited to certain interests; don't be shy about that, but ask for suggestions otherwise. Keywords: intention, process, discussion. ----------------------------- To put it simply: different exhibit designs, will attract different audiences of "people". Which "people" are you intending to attract? Be specific about your audience; and what you expect out of them. And then the discussion can be about the exhibit design, or the content, or some strategies and gimmicks, for the intended result from the specific audience. "Intention" is a key word. I think the discussion would be better directed, to a notion of intentionally attracting specific groups and therefore naming and categorizing such groups. An exhibitor can either decide on a group and create an exhibit to attract them; or more likely have an idea for an exhibit and try to tailor the exhibit toward some group, or recognize which group is more likely to be interested. Then others can discuss the merits of any of those considerations. I observe that the notion of an exhibit, is moving from "this interests me, this is something I've done, I'm gonna show my work or interest"; to a desire to have some impact on some group (not "people", sorry) about some product or concept. If you wanna have an impact - attention, interest, etc. - you are obliged to identify *who*. Then you can figure out their interests; then you can figure out how your exhibit's content can attract them (or not). YOu can work that forwards, or backwards. "My Xenix word-processing exhibit which is my interest, won't attract teenagers who want gaming. That's fine, I'm focused on people who did word processing in the 1980's or earlier". Even so, having some text-based game program around, would not be a bad idea. David Gesswein's post, described his process for his recent exhibit designs; and also specific strategies for drawing interest. He didn't specify audiences but they were implied. David uses fewer words, better, than I. I don't/didn't plan to exhibit this year. But I'm impressed that this kind of discussion is going on. It's very thoughtful. Here's my thoughts about what I exhibited last year. --------------------- Last year, I chose to show a relatively impressive S-100 system - the Ithaca Intersystem DPS-1, two of 'em. To me, the amazing thing was to make them work! So my exhibit (and Web pages) were about that process of repair and diagnosis. For many people that's the hardest part; for some like me it's the most fun. http://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/ith_feb16_repairs.html http://www.retrotechnology.com/vcfe11/vcfe_11.html Target audience? Probably "hardware" people over 40, plus people doing repair of S-100 stuff. "Impact" strategies? Lots of blinkin' lights, I included a Jade Bus Probe (look it up), and the Ithaca front panel is the best IEEE-696 toggle front panel ever made. And they booted CP/M - check how many DPS-1's described on the Web, aren't working. I displayed one-page flyers with bullet points, Web links. "Concept?" - show a good working S-100 system, support other S-100 exhibitors, I called that out beforehand. Bill Sudbrink showed working IMSAI and Altair and Cromemco early video products. A few other folks had S-100 systems, or sold S-100 in the Dealer's area. John Chapman gave a good talk on S-100 repair, I supported him with good questions, comments. We and other people did active repairs at John's exhibit, very nuts-and-bolts S-100 boards and meters and a hot soldering iron. But other audiences? Under-25, non-techies - they saw my "ugly boxes of big boards", yawn. John had tools, chips and cards on his table - that's interesting to tinkerers young and old. Collectively, we "represented" S-100. That was my prime objective. Hard for me to see how that could be topped, this year. ------------------ In general and to the topic: I think one emphasis for an Xenix exhibit, would be word processing and coding. Both use text tools, printers, formatting. Lots of keyboard time. In the early 1980's, "word processing" for home and small business was ground-breaking. There were still jobs for secretaries and documentation-writing and production. Not to mention, C programmers writing for Xenix, Unix, and of course those micro-computers. I'm sorry if that's boring for 20-somethings and younger. But their parents and grandparents DID this kind of work - or designed the software and hardware for it - and they too will be visiting VCF-East, so they are a target demographic. How to make this interesting for teens? - that's a considerable challenge that may only be met by other exhibits. But I dunno, someone may have an idea..... Herb Johnson retrotechnology.com