I attended today’s No Kings rally with a backpack full of supplies, a handful of flyers, and a clear goal: invite people into the Capital Region Mesh project. That meant sparking curiosity, recruiting visitors to the website, encouraging newsletter signups, and extending a warm invitation to our upcoming meeting on October 29.

As an engineer by trade, I’m used to solving problems with systems and specifications—not face-to-face persuasion. Outreach like this felt more like sales, a field I’ve never trained for and rarely practiced. I was confident in the print materials I’d produced, but the live conversations pushed me well outside my comfort zone.

This wasn’t a solo effort. Four friends joined me in the field, each equipped with a personal tracker node to assist in testing coverage, connectivity, and crowd dynamics. Like the rest of the attendees, they each had their own reasons for being there, and I am grateful for their generous assistance with my little passion project. Together, we ran a live experiment in public outreach and ad-hoc infrastructure deployment—learning in real time what works, what confuses, and what breaks under pressure.

What followed was a mix of awkward starts, technical surprises, and moments of genuine connection. This post isn’t a celebration of flawless execution. It’s a reflection on what worked, what didn’t, and what I’ll do differently next time. If you’re building community tech, trying to explain complex ideas in public spaces, or just curious about how mesh networking lands in a crowd, these lessons might offer useful insight.

Hard to Approach, Harder to Explain

Outreach at a public rally is not for the faint of heart—especially when the topic is as abstract and unfamiliar as decentralized mesh networking. Approaching strangers to discuss a niche radio infrastructure project felt like explaining quantum physics with a crayon and a handshake. Many attendees were wary, scanning for a catch or hidden agenda. Others simply weren’t in the headspace to consider radical lifestyle shifts or technical alternatives to mainstream communication. Leading with an offer of a flyer was probably not the best choice either, but I didn’t want to avoid doing the obvious stuff just because it felt awkward—everything felt awkward.

Even when someone was open to talking, the conversation often stalled on abstraction. Mesh networking isn’t intuitive, and explaining it without a physical demo or detailed use case diagram felt like showing someone a circuit board and asking them to visualize the internet. Each interaction required a custom approach, tailored in real time to the person’s background, mood, signage, and curiosity. It was high effort, low leverage—and exhausting.

Looking back, I wish I’d led with more curiosity. Instead of starting with my pitch, I could have asked why each person was there—what drew them to the rally, what they hoped to find, what they cared about. That might have opened a more natural path to shared values and made the conversation feel less like a detour and more like an attraction.

Takeaways

  • Secure a fixed location: Create a space for people to opt-in to the conversation rather than chasing them down.
  • Prepare outreach materials in advance: Scripts, rehearsed dialogue trees, and use-case-driven messaging reduce cognitive load and increase clarity.
  • Bring demo devices: A variety of pre-configured kits tied to specific use cases would make the concept tangible.
  • Lead with curiosity: Ask why someone showed up before explaining why you did. Avoid forcing the conversation into the aforementioned scripts.

Height Is Might

The Wednesday night before the rally, I ran a field test with two friends. With almost no one around, we confirmed node visibility, messaging, and GPS location reporting across hundreds of meters at street level. We tested up and down hills, even around corners completely obscured by buildings. Everything worked seamlessly.

But on the day of the event, surrounded by a dense crowd, the results shifted dramatically. Connections were spotty, and signal quality dropped sharply. Location reporting especially was unreliable, as my fellow testers (quite reasonably) clipped their personal trackers wherever they could—not exactly ideal positioning.

The difference was density. In a packed environment, bodies and structures became obstacles. Line-of-sight mattered more than raw distance. Our gear “worked”—but only when it could punch through the crowd.

Takeaways

  • Install nodes as high as possible: Elevation improves coverage and reliability, especially in crowded or obstructed environments. We knew this going in, of course—but theory only gets you so far.
  • Test in conditions that match the event: A quiet street at night isn’t a proxy for a bustling daytime rally.
  • Secure a fixed location: Having a static position enables elevated placement for stronger signal.

Resistance Is Feedback, Not Rejection

Many people were hesitant to engage. Some assumed there was a catch. Others braced for a sales pitch or political angle. Plenty simply refused. I get it—approaching strangers with infrastructure talk at a rally isn’t exactly sexy. It’s not particularly fun at work—and they’re paying me! The reluctance wasn’t personal. It was situational, reflexive, and often protective.

But when that resistance softened, the conversations shifted. People were curious. They wanted to be good neighbors. They wanted to help. They just needed clarity—what they were being asked to consider and why it mattered.

The idea of local, resilient networks resonated. Not with everyone, and not immediately. But enough to make the effort worthwhile.

Takeaways

  • Frame the effort as educational: Positioning the project as a learning initiative—not a product or campaign—helps people relax and engage.
  • Lead with values, not specs: People connect with purpose before they care about protocols.
  • Disarm with branding: Worn merch (shirts, hats) with a clear, friendly message may help spark curiosity and lend credibility. People are conditioned to respond to uniforms and visual cues—looking like “normal people” can make a message easier to dismiss.

Refining the Signal

The No Kings rally was a stress test—for our gear, our messaging, and our stamina. It surfaced real friction points and offered glimpses of what’s possible when the right person hears the right message at the right time.

Next time, we’ll be better prepared—with a fixed location, elevated nodes, outreach kits tailored to use cases, and branded materials that invite curiosity. We’ll also refine the path from conversation to action, making it easier to connect, contribute, and follow through.

If you’re curious about Capital Region Mesh, want to help refine our outreach, or just want to see the gear in action, join us on October 29. Full details are on the event page. If you can’t make it, there are plenty of other ways to contribute.

We’re committed to open source values—and we’d love to have you on board.

Capital Region Mesh: resilient by design, open by default.