This is an unofficial announcement since not all the details are solid, but the time is drawing close so we want everyone to know.
Richard Stallman and Bruce Perens are coming to Belfast on March 16th and myself and others are organising a whole-day event there. "FOSS in Business" is the working title for the event.
The event is being tailored to appeal to IT decision makers in medium sized business and in public administration, but it will be promoted to every kind of free software user and potential free software user.
The plan for the event was decided back in December. Some problems made it stall, but those are fixed now. So we've got great speakers and it will be a big opportunity to for free software awareness - but the timescale doesn't leave any more time before we have to work to spread it and get the best audience possible. All help there appreciated.
The venue is Spires, and it holds up to 1,000 people, so there's no admission charge and no registration required, we just want get as many people in there as possible. (especially CEOs and CIOs for Bruce)
Stallman is aware that there will be a business slant, and he'll adapt to that. He'll either give his (rarely given) business speech "Free Software in Ethics and Practice", or a GPLv3 speech.
As well as Northern Ireland, we'll be promoting this in the Republic and in Great Britain. One idea might be to organise a bus to Belfast from somewhere / some places in the south?
Keep in mind that this hasn't been formally announced, so some changes can still be made, but the date and the two keynoters are set, and the other details mentioned here are fairly set. There will be other speakers, but who they are is not set.
The official announcement should happen in the next few days, but if there are any suggestions or questions, now would be a great time.