So what are we?

[srochford]

If a simple click through advert to sell to every school in the UK doesn't get the sales bod interested - he can't be much of a sales bod, or doesn't think the education market could drive enough sales for him.

He's probably right. If you think of the outrage that's been expressed elsewhere that someone might phone and try to sell you stuff, you can see how hard it can be to start selling :-)

I'm sure I'm not alone in barely noticing advertising (I see the irritating message which tells me I'm playing into the hands of BSF by blocking adverts even though I do no such thing; I'm afraid I couldn't tell you anything about adverts which are on pretty much every page!)

Who *does* click on the adverts on Edugeek? That might be a useful bit of info you can give to companies (ie we get x thousand visitors per day and y% of them click on 1 or more adverts)

I think how you describe Edugeek depends on who's asking. If it's a technical person in a school etc then you can explain that it's a place you can ask (mainly) technical questions and generally get good answers. If you're trying to explain it to someone in marketing then I think it's way more difficult to explain what we do and why.

[teejay]

The thing is, it's not about click throughs, it's about getting brand recognition into the edu community. If you see a nice, clean non-pushy advert on Edugeek, the brand name is likely to stick in your memory bank for when you may be looking for that type of product.
If you contribute to the community, then there is an even bigger chance of getting business :-)

[pete]

"The main factor in the year-on-year reductions in user and hardware defenestration in the education sector."

"One of the few places you can get an honest or straightforward answer about $gov_it_policy"

"A place where a sensible supplier can prove to customers that they might be more human than weasel."

For instance - in this financial year I've spent ~£14k+ with suppliers who have a regular presence on here. I've chosen them over comparable suppliers because they've demonstrated that they want to help and will go the extra mile for customers (no matter how obscure the request) and will continue to do so even after they've cleared the cheque .

[gaz350]

Think i've spent over £30k this year from new suppliers i have found via edugeek
(ok mostly CPLTD but shhh)

[elsiegee40]

As said earlier, I think the strapline "The educational IT professionals' lifeline" sums it up beautifully

Alternatively..

Edugeek is...

...an international online community of IT professionals, predominantly working in education establishments, where knowledge and experience is shared to the benefit of all.

As edugeek supports education establishments that are invariably working within very tight budgets it is free to use. In other words, a community service.

[tmcd35]

How about..."An open door to the Education IT sector".

That should cover, and mean something different to, both marketing and technical bods who use this site - no matter where they hail.

[ozzy]

Let's not forget as well as all the awnsers it's also some place to have a moan and get stuff off your chest that you could not do at work (before you put some idiots head through their monitor)

[russdev]

When people ask me about Edugeek.net I call us a organisation I then talk about: -

A) Work we do and who we work with
b)the community (aka forums)
c)Some of the things we have done in past

I don't call us a forum (mainly as EG is much more than that and also it has negative view if we describe it like that)

Maybe "a community based organisation"

Russ

[EduTech]

20k Strong IT Attack Force! :-) or a huge family of geek's!

[Diello]

"A peer support and special interest/pressure group for IT professionals and decision makers in the education sector" tends to be my answer.

EduGeek: Where We Go Before Google!

[GrumbleDook]

I've always described EG as a peer-support community, working together to share advice, best practice, and provide each others with answers. It is home to the widest range of IT support staff and companies from basic technicians and engineers, experienced and knowledgeable IT managers all the way through to key suppliers and commercial partners who help support establishments getting the right technology for the job.

I then give examples of community based projects (EduJoomla), community knowledge (deployment techniques), community connections (Conferences and EduGeek@BETT) and community referrals (Ruckus/Net-CTRL and Smoothwall)

People tend to be amazed at this, and then I mention the support from Becta and elements of SSAT, naming companies who are openly members and then talking about those who are lurkers too. My usual suggestion is that they follow the forums for a fortnight as the best way to see how this works in real-time and it gives them to extrapolate how many individual connections can be made.

[CPLTD]

a superb resource for people interested,working and a passion for IT

[Edu-IT]

a superb resource for people interested,working and a passion for IT

Sounds like marketing -------.

community referrals (Ruckus/Net-CTRL and Smoothwall)

How much does it cost to get in that list? :P

[mattx]

a superb resource for people interested,working and a passion for IT

Just side tracking and speaking personally for a moment:
I certainly don't have a passion for IT !! In fact I hate most aspects of it.
I'm certainly not a professional [ as that has been mentioned a few times ] - I've only been working in IT for 20 years, maybe in another 10 or so I may give that title to myself.
Interested ? Not really, only the history of IT is interesting to me. Certainly a good resource though !!

[RingOfFlame]

... I don't call us a forum (mainly as EG is much more than that ...

Playing devil advocate for a moment though. If you were to take the forums out of the equation what would be left of interest on this site?