You are probably all aware of Mike Chambers blogging from the Macromedia DevCon, as well as all the other blogs blogging from the conference
Its no big surprise that this is heavily focused on technology, especially with the Macromedian’s using the new blogging tool of the season: video blogging.
But even with all the cool technology, I have to admit that what I find most interesting to read out of all the blogging so far is John Dowdell’s writings from his lobby and poolside conversations. Which just clarifies what I find the most interesting with the various conferences: Meeting people and seeing creative sparks fly and ignite impressive use of technology. And that is what I find most interesting and fun at the conferences, meeting so many creative and talented developers!
In that respect it would almost be prudent for Macromedia to pay all the conference visitors, because many of them will go on the make great promotional experiences based on Macromedia products. :-)
But lets get serious here. Macromedia ended up with approximately 2300 visitors to the DevCon, if all of these visitors payed the ~$1000 entry fee, that adds up to $2,300,000 in tickets as well as the money that various third party companies have to pay to attend the conference to show off their products. What am I getting at? Well, with that much money, why did they choose to treat their speakers so bad?
Dude, LET IT GO! ;)
It would be nice, however, to hear an official Macromedia statement on why certian things have (or have not) happened with regards to DevCon 2003 – I’ll admit to that.
“It would be nice, however, to hear an official Macromedia statement on why certian things have (or have not) happened with regards to DevCon 2003 – I’ll admit to that.”
?? What do you want? Can’t tell from what you wrote there, sorry.
jd
Jarle,
What the $1050 went to:
– 1 fantastic conference experience with wireless throughout the conference center, a great cybercafe and excellent facilities
– 3 evenings of free food and drink (beer, wine and soda) (including Tuesday night’s party at Universal Studios where the park was open for DevCon *only*)
– breakfast every day (and an excellent selection of teas) – breakfast in the hotel cost $14 for the same spread
– lunch every day (and good food too – even the boxed lunches were great)
– 8,063 bottles of soda and water (as of Wednesday morning)
– 6,672 Bagels and Danish at breakfast (again as of Wednesday)
– 17,400 Hors d’oeuvres at the receptions
– A massive nearly 500 page conference slides book
– free T-shirts out the wazoo (my bag totalled 7 t-shirts from the conferens, two hats, one laser pointer and a bezillion CDs, 4 ounces of silly putty and a frisbee)
– unparralled networking atmosphere
– lots of friendly Macromeida people to talk to incase you didn’t bring friends
The only beef that I have about the conference was the 8 to 1 ration of men to women (my estimate). One person I spoke with was hesitant to attend the reception on Monday after feeling like the object of too much attention at Sunday’s pool party. That’s also a reflection on the behavior of the attendees, and I’m not sure what Macroemdia could have done to change this.
It would have been nice to see a more diverse crowd at the show. It would have also been nice to see more diversity in the speakers too. Macromedia’s staff there was however very diverse, and it’s nice to see that.
Most of the attendees I spoke with felt that the conference was an excellent deal at the price. The hotel rooms at the Dolphin were another story though. Too many people thought that they were paying extra for the mouse.
CHris
Oh, I forgot:
– bar none, the best conference bag I’ve ever received.
CHris
Sounds like good value for money, certainly. And if it was anything like it looked like – it was probably one of the better (if not the best) Flash conference anywhere in the world for 2002. (sorry FF). And I know I should let this go, but its not less of a fact after the conference than it was before: Not covering the expenses for the speakers for such a huge event with so much money involved is not a good way to treat people and the community, Macromedia should be able to afford to at least cover the expenses of the speakers.
Oh, Chris. I am REALLY looking forward to seeing your speakers notes and speech material posted on Flazoom, when can we expect to see it up?