360Flex will be better thanks to the community

We've got 90 replies so far to the survey... really? Only 90 people took the time to answer 3 questions (plus an optional 4th) to help us make the event better... That means those 90 wield a lot of power. We're glad those 90 took the time to answer and hope everyone takes a minute to give us their thoughts. We'll be closing the survey down on Monday, 10/29/07 so get your answers in before then.

I wanted to take a minute to address some of the answers to our "what else" question. It's an open answer field. We don't know who these are from, but we're glad for each one.

"Make it $500 standard corporate rate. Offer the $140 discount to independent developers, without a corporate backing. Print a Corporate Supporters brochure for all corporations in that $500 category. 1/4 inch for each person sent. So, multiple attendees mean a corp can add up display space to tell what they are doing (recruit, etc.)"

That's an interesting idea. I don't know how the corps would react, but it's interesting since in most "enterprises" the more something costs, the higher value it MUST be. Don't ask me why, but that's the truth. We're gonna think on this one.

"I attended Seattle and brought my wife. One of the attractions for both of us was getting to see Seattle (we're from Chicago), staying close to the city center is important for my continued attendance at 360 events. I don't care much about the food, sorry. 360 Seattle DID gave the best conference food ever, but I'm a picky eater and - since my wife was along - we went out to eat."

We like downtowns too. It seems to be winning in the polls, so we'll likely stick to 'em.

"Speakers are what make the event. You get what you pay for. Better food or better speakers."

I personally think the that speakers we had in San Jose and Seattle are the best (with a few exceptions that we took care of). Hands down, I don't think there are better people in the field than those speaking at our events. Linking payment to quality of speaker is a slap in the face of the 70+ presenters we've had thus far. Free does NOT equal poor quality in the case of speakers. Well, at least our speakers.

"With a bit of extra work, you can find great speakers in most regions of the world without having to pay them to speak. If you keep the spirit of this a community conference (unlike MAX which is fun and good for the community, but clearly has a big corporation behind it), I don't think that is a requirement--getting a chance to speak at an event like this raises your profile and stature and is a reward in its own right. No one is paid to speak at BAR Camps or User Groups.... "

Honestly, that's what we thought too, but a very vocal minority (and all of Europe) disagreed.

"Is it a conference or a restaurant?"

Good question... and something we're now re-thinking. Ortega likes to eat though. He didn't earn the nickname FFM (Fat Funny Mexican) by fasting!

"Appreciate your efforts."

Thanks. Little notes like that mean the world to us.

"I can't believe you would actually think that the event price should be the same as the name. Grow up! Speakers want their costs covered. If you can't do the math and still offer a great conference experience, don't bother wasting speakers and attendee's time. All attendees want is value for money (not necessarily $30 tickets), a good venue/location and great speakers. All speakers want is for their expenses to be covered (airfare and accom) After all that - If you can't afford to pay for food and beverage at the event, or at least organise a sponsor to cover these costs - you really should forget about the whole developer event game completely!"

The matching was more of a nice joke, that obviously got lost in translation... Before throwing stones, I would suggest you attend a 360|Flex to see what it's all about. The cuteness may grow on ya! :P

"Speaker fees should be covered since they are sharing their knowledge and expertise and loosing money each day they are not at work. So at the minimun they should not invest in hotel reservations, flights or food during the event. That's the same as Adobe do with their events and 360 should provide the same experience to be a full great event. Thanks for running this survey :)"

So should speakers who use a canned preso that everyone has seen 3 times before, refund a small percentage to each attendee, many of whom are indep. consultants and are likewise losing money by being at the event? Additionally we thought, and I still think, speakers can learn at conferences too. As Tom said, speakers at our events are attendees with a little more responsibility. Maybe that's why we don't get speakers who think there's nothing left to learn. We get speakers who come up to us and say, "Damn that session was great. I didn't know that!"

All in all, each opinion is valuable. While we may not like what some of them say, that's the nature of opinions (go ask Salt-n-Pepa their thoughts on opinions). All comments, positive or negative, thankful or downright mean spirited, go into the hopper and get evaluated, and discussed. Believe it, future 360|Flex events will take this feedback and make the most of it.

We are also leaving the results public. Therefore, any conference can take advantage of our poll and use the data as they see fit.

If you're reading this before 10/29/07, it's not too late to answer! Go fill it out . Make your voice be heard. How many other conferences ask these questions and share the results with the world?