Next message: Martin Maney: "Re: [LUNI] Who lives on the west side of St. Charles?>>> becareful what you leave around in bits"
On Tue, Mar 27, 2001 at 04:40:45PM -0600, jeff@gerhardt.org wrote:
> Please forget flames, I need serious input of what went wrong and why the
> Comdex/Linux Business Expo conference crashed and burned so bad.
I hope you don't consider this a flame; it certainly isn't intended as such.
But to give away the basic thesis right up front, I find the large-hall
lecture these things offer basically useless. I've been to several such
trade shows, for quite varied trade categories, over the decades, and the
differences between them are mostly superficial. I'm not saying they don't
serve a purpose; it's just not a purpose that speaks to me.
> 1) Did you even hear about the conference?
Yep.
> 2)Did you see any of the promotional material for Comdex and if so, did you
> see the attached information on the Linux Business Expo?
Yes, but only as it was en route to the recycling bin, so all I really saw
was the outside of that mailing. Comdex is a huge waste of time, maybe even
worse than, oh, NAMM, say. (last time I was at NAMM was the year most of
Toto was doing a promo show for the then-new Yamaha DX-7. That half-hour
show was easily 90% of the best of three (four?) years of NAMM.)
> 3) Did you know that Ziff Davis no longer owns Comdex/LBE and does that have
> any bearing on if you would go or not?
Only if it changed dramatically. As far as I can tell, I am interested in
approximately none of what most of the PHBs who attend Comdex go for, and I
assume it would be the same, reflected, if Comdex became something I cared
about. I suspect the problem with the LBE's conferences is that the PHBs
have learned that "those arrogant Linux guys" expect real content in their
conferences, and they're the ones who can drop two grand and write it off as
an expense without batting an eye.
> 4) Is the $1900.00 price what kept you from signing up?
That would surely have been a stopper for me.
> 5) What price IS fair for 4 conference sessions a day for 3 days?
How big are these "conference sessions"? Over 100 bodies, I'd say they were
worth about squat. Get it down to a workable class size, say thirty, tops,
and you might pique my interest. But then you'd have to allow enough time
to actually dig in, to get to some real substance.
I don't think that even LBE's "conferences" are structured *that* usefully.
> 6) Is $1900 to much if you also get a crash course on Linux Admin and a
> chance to take the LPI exam?
IMO, yes. If that came to 4 8-hour days (8 hours mot counting lunch and
breaks), then that's over $50/hour to attend something on the order of those
useless large-class lectures. Absolutely ridiculous!
> 7) WHY did not you sign up?
Too expensive, damn little that sounded like it would be worthwhile even if
someone waved a magic wand and paid my way, and then there's the not so
small issue of taking a week out of my life.
Bottom line: I've seen Comdex, and I don't need to waste my valuable time
like that again, I hope. It wasn't even funny once.
Zinger: just because it's about Linux doesn't mean it's useful.
<musing>
Y'know what I'd like? I'd like a LugCon. A science fiction convention for
Linux, or, better, for all free-ish Unixes. I know a bunch of folks I'd
like to see on panels there, too. (know some of the folks I'd hope to see
on the ConCom too. be very afraid...)
If you don't know anything about how SF conventions are done... the only
quick hint I can think of is that you don't buy a ticket or an admission to
a con: you buy a *membership*. It's an approach that seems a natural fit
for the GNU/OpenSource world, and every now and then I pause and wonder that
no one's done this yet. Then I think about the lack of free time. And now
I think about the LinuxBeerWanderung, which was certainly more along those
lines than the average Expo...
</musing>
-=-
Linux Users Of Northern Illinois: General Discussion Mailing list.
For unsubscription, archives, and announcements only see http://luni.org
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29
: Tue Mar 27 2001 - 21:10:18 CST