NEWSLETTER
No.2 AUTUMN 1999
Go Internet or Die says Intel Boss. Wow! What a headline on page 19 on BBC2's TeleText recently. Well, he actually said "Go Online or Fold". The Chairman of Intel has warned, according to the report, that firms that do not go on the internet now will fold within a few years if they fail to heed his warning.
At a Seminar Andrew Grove is reported as having said "There won't be some Internet companies because they will all be Internet companies." (Presumably those that are not will have already folded.)
"Many Internet Companies are getting a lot of publicity at the moment but a lot won't make it". He went on to say, according to the report, "If they are customer-orientated this traditional business tenet will ensure that those companies will last".
Members organise and man stand at Computer Fairs!! Following the decision to accept the offer to promote the Club at the Prestige Computer Fairs we have, at the time of going to press, attended Fairs at Letchworth (The Broadway), Bedford (The Bunyan Centre) and Luton (The Vauxhall Leisure Centre). The first 2 were fully manned but the Luton was only run for 3 hours with half-manning. Despite that the interest was steady and impressive bearing in mind many came from south of Luton and thought that Haynes was too far away. Several came from Hitchin and hopefully may join the Club. Bedford was steady and much interest was observed.
These two Fairs functioned with us knowing what we were doing.
The first, at Letchworth, was our learning curve and whilst we went in where angels feared to tread it was generally agreed at the end of the day that it was far easier than we had envisaged.
We had very little in the way of display material as the ordered boards went walkabout to Enfield. We had them in time for the Bedford Fair. Some smaller boards were obtained from St Albans and several suitable boxes were eventually obtained from Rymans.
Speed of erection is important as we found out at Letchworth which took us about an hour. By Bedford it was down to 15 minutes and at Luton we managed it in 10 minutes with dismantling taking a similar time. I thank all those who assisted. I hope you all enjoyed the experience. It certainly was a new way to meet people whom you would have normally brushed by.
John Peachey had very kindly done a Banner and George Farmer had done a very good map. Application forms and our Programme of Activities were in steady demand.
As we learn more the stand will improve and hopefully our target of growing from 30ish to say 40 or 50 or even more will be met. We do need to have a greater percentage attendance with more computers present.
Ideally we want an attendance of 15 to 20 per meeting. With that the Club will be well funded and activities will be well supported and practical.
The Programme of Activities is always available and runs for about 6 months into the future hence those who ask "What do you do?" are handed that and told "We are a mixture of Novices and Experts.
You come and participate on Tuesdays and can volunteer an hour or so at some of the computer fairs we attend."
We cannot actually do every fair and the original intention of once per year at each venue (5 annually) seems to be nearer 12 or more and we are deeply indebted to Robert for his kind gesture.
The next Fair before we close this Newsletter is Bedford Addison Centre in Kempston on October 10th. We'll sort out the manning arrangements at the next Club meeting. The Addison needs to be satisfactorily manned and more hands wouldn't go amiss.
"WEBWISE" Recently the early morning programme on BBC2 looked at the multitude of providers and commented that the disadvantage of those that are free is that it might be difficult to log-on due to excessive demand.
AND NOW FOR THE CLOSING ODE
This our second newsletter and the Club is a much more vibrant place following the meeting in February when it was decided we needed an adrenaline shot.
Well you, me and the Club have had one so let's go forward with this new spirit of adventure like Captain Kirk and boldly get on with it. Refer to your programmes for the Summer recess and when we reconvene in September.
