360Flex Atlanta Wrap up
Days two and three are now done and gone. Time for some thoughts.
Tuesday.
Went well, no keynote, so a little less stress. The USB copying was still the order of the day, man we need a better system! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and the Effective UI and Universal Mind party was off the hook!
We moved from Fight Room (another group had it) to Adidas, and it was a dope space. Less seating so there wasn't as much, lounging, but that made for way more mingling and networking, which was the point of the party... well that and to drink and eat!
Stats is by far the coolest place we've had a party at. The Red Lion restaurant was ok, but Stats, was off the hook!
After the budgeted drinks ran dry, UM and EUI kicked the party up a notch, opening up the bar on their own dime. That was great! Two excellent and cool companies!!
Wednesday.
Keynote time. The keynote went off without a hitch, we had some sweet ass community demos; Renaun showed off some cool Pacifica action, Joe had an awesome musical composer, Ben showed what he's been up to with OpenFlux, Zach gave a demo of the new Yahoo! Maps API, Adam told us all about Merapi, and his new Flexglossary project, and juan showed us all what Drgrafa was.
Tom and I did our traditional money talk, showing that (excluding charges for Milan) we made a little money. We went over what we've changed from Seattle and what we've learned. Everyone seemed to enjoy the info. I think it went well.
The raffle was a little rough. Rough like ghetto, two laptops, an excel file, and a web based SQL screen for our DB. Since we moved to using an AIR app for session surveys, we had to abandon the reach in a box, and pull out surveys way of picking winners. Unfortunately, now we're dependent on an internet connection, and the SQL server being up and running. BUMMER. since right at lunch, our hosting partner had some difficulties on the MySQL boxes.
We finally got a semi workable system and were able to raffle off al the cool stuff we were given; two "on AIR" cameras from Adobe, two 5 day training courses from Sterling Ledet, 3 copies of Sorenson Squeeze from Sorenson Media, and some cool AIR 1 launch posters from Adobe.
All in all I think (correct me if I'm wrong) that the conference went really well. I can't wait to see everyone again, next time. The Koi will eat well again.
Tuesday.
Went well, no keynote, so a little less stress. The USB copying was still the order of the day, man we need a better system! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and the Effective UI and Universal Mind party was off the hook!
We moved from Fight Room (another group had it) to Adidas, and it was a dope space. Less seating so there wasn't as much, lounging, but that made for way more mingling and networking, which was the point of the party... well that and to drink and eat!
Stats is by far the coolest place we've had a party at. The Red Lion restaurant was ok, but Stats, was off the hook!
After the budgeted drinks ran dry, UM and EUI kicked the party up a notch, opening up the bar on their own dime. That was great! Two excellent and cool companies!!
Wednesday.
Keynote time. The keynote went off without a hitch, we had some sweet ass community demos; Renaun showed off some cool Pacifica action, Joe had an awesome musical composer, Ben showed what he's been up to with OpenFlux, Zach gave a demo of the new Yahoo! Maps API, Adam told us all about Merapi, and his new Flexglossary project, and juan showed us all what Drgrafa was.
Tom and I did our traditional money talk, showing that (excluding charges for Milan) we made a little money. We went over what we've changed from Seattle and what we've learned. Everyone seemed to enjoy the info. I think it went well.
The raffle was a little rough. Rough like ghetto, two laptops, an excel file, and a web based SQL screen for our DB. Since we moved to using an AIR app for session surveys, we had to abandon the reach in a box, and pull out surveys way of picking winners. Unfortunately, now we're dependent on an internet connection, and the SQL server being up and running. BUMMER. since right at lunch, our hosting partner had some difficulties on the MySQL boxes.
We finally got a semi workable system and were able to raffle off al the cool stuff we were given; two "on AIR" cameras from Adobe, two 5 day training courses from Sterling Ledet, 3 copies of Sorenson Squeeze from Sorenson Media, and some cool AIR 1 launch posters from Adobe.
All in all I think (correct me if I'm wrong) that the conference went really well. I can't wait to see everyone again, next time. The Koi will eat well again.
posted by John Wilker
at
11:42 AM
10 Comments :
What happened with the API contest? Has the deadline been extended? I'm dying to finish my Ribbit app and enter it.
Sorry I missed Atlanta! Some one should warn the Blue Monkey that we'll be there... ;)
I'm with Jonathan, what about the API contest?
I worked really hard on my entry so I'm dying to know what the results of the voting are.
It rocked!
I'm also curious about the API contest... were the winners annouced yet?
Thanks guys! Best 360 yet, no question. Thanks for all the hard work it took to pull it off.
Greetings
I know I already shared these thoughts with you guys. But just thought I'd post them so you could find them again...
Thoughts for next year...
> Set up a local WiFi network (non-internet) & server.
> Post all presentations to server. Allow us to download copies of presentations, etc.
> Use Adobe Connect (or similar tool) to share speaker's presentations over the local connection. Often I found it hard to read the code examples, even in the closer rows. This would resolve the problem...
> I miss tables, no biggie...but I really did like having tables in Seattle.
> Survey, need to expand. I think "Yes/No" is often an impossible answer. Perhaps making all entries scalar 1-5 and an additional comment. Also there was no over-all conference entry. Also, I think it'd be good to see a list of all submissions. a) to Confirm feedback was submitted. b) because sometimes it can be difficult to remember if I had already submitted feedback. c) option to update.
(Oh, and I know it was a quick app, so these are just suggestions for next year - not criticisms.)
> Area for improvement, I think the rooms were a tad too small. Or maybe some seminars were too full and others too empty.
> I know you guys do not "pre-register", however, I think it might be useful to create a Flex app of the schedule and ask people to RSVP their interest in a given seminar. Don't limit the choice to one seminar, but rather allow someone to check say up to two. As often we find ourselves debating between a couple of seminars and do not decide until the last minute which to attend. Doing this would help you gauge the ratio of interest in the seminars. Perhaps you could have one extra large room and one smaller room. And the feedback from RSVP'ing would allow you to plan accordingly.
Also, don't require registration, because we all know many of us register at the last minute. Rather provide a select option for: (a) Registered (b) Planning to Attend (c) Interested (but uncomfirmed)
This will give you a heads up and help facilitate planning.
> Food (after-parties). We often run out of food. A thought occurred to me...set-up a donation jar. I am sure many people like me would have dropped a $5, $10 bill or more...no problem. And a special thanks to all those companies that jump in and buy another round of food. *cheers*
> Loved the pre-conference hands-on training...
> More communication...if I knew you guys still needed help stuffing folders & what not Saturday night I wasn't doing anything - could've/would've helped.
***
All this said...great conference. Lots of good speakers. Nice swag. It's neat to see you guys learn and grow. I love how you guys are open with the figures afterwards. Such openness and honesty is uncommon in business today - shouldn't be. It also helps remind us that this is just two guys trying to do something cool! And for the most part succeeding quite well.
Hi Tom / John
where can i find the presentation slides of the 360 presenters..
@gaurav,
You can download them here.
http://www.360conferences.com/downloads/Speaker%20Presentations.zip
@John
Thanx for prompt reply.
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