360Flex where's the NE love?
To quote DMX, "Where my dawgs at?"
You Bostonians, New Yorkers, Rhode Islanders, Jersey boys, this is for all of you. "Where you at?"
I know it took Tom and I longer than expected to make it to the east coast. I know a lot of you wanted New York, Boston and even DC. Are you pouting? :)
We looked a little at Boston when planning Seattle before it was "Seattle". We looked again before Atlanta won the bid. Boston is EXPENSIVE! Unless ya'll want to pay $1,500 to attend, there was no way we'd even come close with our budget to being in Boston. Same goes for New York and Joisey. I'm sure we could afford parts of Jersey, but really, would ya'll go to those parts?
DC we didn't even look at. We won't either. There's already too many other events in DC? Why would we camp in some one else's backyard? It's bad form.
So we're in Atlanta, and honestly, for now, that's as "east" as we're getting. Orlando would likely win for the next 360|Flex East Side, since they were our first choice. Though Tom still wants to try to make Philly work, but I think it's more for the Philly Cheesesteaks! That boys stomach does too much leading sometimes. :)
So I'm curious, in looking at our registrations, where's the North East love? Comment and let us know if did we do something wrong? Or if there's anything we can do to help solidify the deal? :)
You Bostonians, New Yorkers, Rhode Islanders, Jersey boys, this is for all of you. "Where you at?"
I know it took Tom and I longer than expected to make it to the east coast. I know a lot of you wanted New York, Boston and even DC. Are you pouting? :)
We looked a little at Boston when planning Seattle before it was "Seattle". We looked again before Atlanta won the bid. Boston is EXPENSIVE! Unless ya'll want to pay $1,500 to attend, there was no way we'd even come close with our budget to being in Boston. Same goes for New York and Joisey. I'm sure we could afford parts of Jersey, but really, would ya'll go to those parts?
DC we didn't even look at. We won't either. There's already too many other events in DC? Why would we camp in some one else's backyard? It's bad form.
So we're in Atlanta, and honestly, for now, that's as "east" as we're getting. Orlando would likely win for the next 360|Flex East Side, since they were our first choice. Though Tom still wants to try to make Philly work, but I think it's more for the Philly Cheesesteaks! That boys stomach does too much leading sometimes. :)
So I'm curious, in looking at our registrations, where's the North East love? Comment and let us know if did we do something wrong? Or if there's anything we can do to help solidify the deal? :)
posted by John Wilker
at
7:19 AM
14 Comments :
I keep telling you "Baltimore, MD" is the place to be....
Very few nor'easterners consider anything beyond D.C. - travelable.
Now let me explain to you why! Consider how long it takes a person to drive across the state of Washington or Georgia, let alone Florida & Texas? In about that same amount of time you could cross thru much of New England. I had a friend from California who did not think it far to drive from New Jersey to Connecticut. Where as friends in Connecticut thought it far to drive 25 minutes. In part due to the relative size of the states.
Look at the northeast...how many states are in the northeastern U.S.
- Maine
- Vermont
- New Hampshire
- Massachusetts
- Rhode Island
- Connecticut
- New York
- New Jersey
- Pennsylvania
- Delaware
- Maryland
- Virginia
- West Virginia
13 states....and six of those states could practically fit in Georgia.
The same number of states that make up the entire western side of the U.S. (Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Alaska)
Or the whole midwest (North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Kentucky)
The entire south is composed of only 11 states. (North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiania, Arkansas, Oklahoma,Texas)
***
You see, it's all about how many state borders you have to cross. This is an irrational barrier - but one that very clearly exists to all Nor'easterners. The truth of the matter; it is likely a psychological compensation for the size of our states.
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In truth, I think a couple of factors occurred....as I would have really loved to attend the conference (and have been dying to see the Georgia aquarium)...but...
> This 360 Flex conference was really close to itself and even closer to MAX.
> Price increase, though not substantial, raises it from budget to moderate.
I think these two factors contributed to a possible lesser interest on the part of my employer. Our company also relocated so this was an external factor that further influenced the matter.
While I would personally love to attend. This would require flight, hotel, plus a $480. We're talking somewhere between $1,000-$1,500. That's just well beyond my personal budget.
That said, I wish everyone a blast and good time at 360Flex 08. And I really hope the organizers break even this time, maybe even make a bit of a profit (at least gas money would be nice, right?)
***
I know my above comments on northeast and the weird travelling mindset may sound like BS. But it's really not, the NE is just pretentious that way. Even if we don't mean to be...
Hopefully the NE will visit FlexManiacs 2008 in May -- in Washington, DC.
I certainly hope they attend something. If they can't make to 360|Flex, webmaniacs is as good a runner up as any. ;)
@the saj,
You know, I thought it was a "crossing so many states" thing myself. Very interesting! Thanks for the feedback!
It's a very weird thing...granted...but it does seem to be the case.
While I lived in Connecticut, anything more than 20-30 minutes seemed a bit too far to drive out for a visit.
Where as when I resided in California, driving from the mountains in Lake Arrowhead down to Huntington Beach seemed a very plausible thing.
***
All this said, I still think the next 360Flex Europe should be in Belgium. Particularly, near the Van Steenberge brewery.
If you have not yet drank the joy that is Van Steenberge beer - you have not yet drank beer.
;)
I keep coming to the site because I'm still on the fence. Since you ask so directly and since I did feel disappointed that it was going to be in Atlanta, I feel obligated to respond.
For me there are two reasons I'm still waffling, the first and probably most important is that I'm having about as much fun programming now as it is to go to a conference. If I didn't have a fun project happening right now I'd definitely go to Atlanta.
The other is that I'd be excited to go to NY or Boston because I can take the train, visit friends over the weekend then go to a great conference and get an exciting city in the little spaces in between. I would do that regardless of price for a nice personal-oriented conference like 360.
I don't have anything against Atlanta, but it doesn't excite me. The concrete per person ratio seems really high and I don't have any friends that live there. I was at a multimedia conference in Atlanta once in the mid 90's and it was a big impersonal pandering monstrosity, so though I know that that won't be flex360 intellectually, that may be tainting my thinking subliminally as well.
Also, I don't like flights as much as the train and so it seems more like it would be a work trip when work is plenty fun as it is.
I still want to go though, and I still may.
I would try Phili or Baltimore because I've never been there and I'm curious about them. Toronto or Montreal would be great(or of course "Albany, the Capital of NY State" Where you could buy a conference center for what you'd pay to rent one anywhere else) so there may be something to the number of state lines theory.
There is definitely a comfort zone, but San Jose was in it, I don't know why Atlanta isn't. Cultural snobbery is a remote possibility.
It's worth saying, too, that though really far away - the Ebay site with the beautiful coy fish was something special and will be hard to replace regardless of city.
I'm still looking forward to 360Flex Connecticut. :ha, ha: Of course, the best time to come to CT would be late September / early October which competes with MAX and might be a bad business move...
Questions that come to mind:
Is 360Flex putting on regional conferences or national conferences? If regional conferences, how is a "region" Defined? Is "East Coast" too big to be a region?
What are you doing to tie the conference to the region in terms of speakers, sponsors, topics, etc...? It seems to me that we're going to see a lot of the same presenters in Atlanta that we saw in Seattle. Will we also see a lot of the same attendees? If so, what are the implications of that on conference planning?
I don't, personally, need answers, but these are the types of questions I'd be asking myself from a business perspective.
@Cortlandt, and @jeff
Good points questions! Guess Tom and I will have some things to think/talk about next time we're in the same room. Excellent!
I am a transplant to New England (Boston specifically), so I can't speak for everyone. Nonetheless, I see New Englanders will come easily to events in Boston and generally even down to NYC. Beyond that it becomes a matter of simply flying different directions (and in reality just a difference of a couple hours in travel).
Having run the Flex Camp for some 300+ people from all over NE (and even further actually), I think you should not have so easily overlooked Boston. First of all, there are a lot of Universities that host conferences and are significantly less expensive than the standard conference locations (but with most if not all the amenities). Also, there is a *huge* Flex presence here (and in NE) with easy access from NYC.
So, I think it could potentially not be as expensive as you thought *and* would be a guaranteed sell-out IMO. If you ever want to reconsider the location, please let me know - I would be happy to help and share my experience running Flex Camp.
@Brian,
Good points, we've actually been thinking, that moving forward, hotels may not be our venue of choice. We're still collecting our thoughts on that, but as we hear form more and more attendees, we're re-assessing.
Thanks for the feedback!
There is a fantastic college right outside of Hartford (Connecticut) that hosts our local Adobe User Group...
Very modern with some great facilities. No idea how they would they react hosting a multi day conference, though.
Not to push, of course.
Hey Jeff, when we hit CT in 2017, that place will be at the top of our list! :)
atlanta is a great choice - a lot of northerners live there. Baltimore at the waterfront would be cool.
skip Boston - they are losers and cheaters! Go NYC.
This yankee is looking forward to Hot-Lanta. But next time go during baseball season - turner field is excellent!
@Anon
It is pretty amazing to us how many Flex Coders are baseball fans. A lot of people went to a Mariner game (some did two!) during 360|Flex Seattle.
We may need to start organizing baseball field trips!
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