Admittedly, this was the first Gnomedex I’ve attended. I’m told it was very different from past years. Overall the event was a lot of fun and several of the speakers were fantastic. But, like anything, it can be improved. Here are my suggestions for improving Gnomedex 2008 which I hope is held again in Seattle.
- Reduce the number of breaks – Three a day is too many in addition to the lunch break. The nature of Gnomedex is casual enough that when I needed to use the restroom or grab a drink I could leave my seat and return within a couple of minutes. I usually went out during the Q&A sessions. Each break means more noise and distractions get invited to the session. I’d line up talks to lunch and maybe throw in one break in the later afternoon.
- Wire the room – The wireless internet ranged from unusable to OK by the 2nd day. As good as the food was, I’d rather have a few less choices in the buffet line but a fast, stable connection.
- Stop the Hecklers – The speakers have carved out time in their schedule to speak to us. Many have traveled to Seattle and hopefully spent some time preparing a suitable speech. The very least they should have our attention and respect. As much as I agree with Dave Winer calling out Calacanis, he should have held off until the Q&A. People yelling, “RIGGED” and “PUT THE SHOE ON THE HEAD” stopped being funny about 5 seconds into the joke.
- What’s the point? – I still have no idea what the “open money” or “energy” guy were trying to get across. A clear opening statement from every speaker would help such as, “Here is what I’d like to get across to you….”
- More from Chris and Ponzi – I know Chris and Ponzi run the show but I was looking forward to hearing from them both and was disappointed when that didn’t happen. I follow Chris because I find his views on technology interesting and I’m certain I’m not the only one. I would have traded half the sessions just to hear Chris and Ponzi talk about whatever they wanted. When I attend a Microsoft or Apple event I expect to hear from Gates or Jobs. The same thing goes for Chris. He’s the man, he’s the brand.
- Simplify the Giveaways – Today was a lot better than yesterday but there’s got to be a better way to hand out the prizes. Collect the business card beforehand, put them in a large bowl and have your dad pull them out one after another. What took 30 minutes the first day should take 5.
- Less is More – Cut the session talks down to 20 minutes. Several of the speakers could barely fill 20 minutes yet were scheduled for 45. Watching the Justin.TV guy was painful. For the speakers to deliver a crisper, quicker, more concise speech by putting a limit on the number of slides and cutting back each talk to 20 minutes. Did you notice how much more engaged the attendees were during the 5 minute Ignite talks? Guy Kawasaki and the opening keynote are excluded.
- There’s no need to hand out pads of paper and pencils – I didn’t see a single person use either and they just got in the way.
- Put up a Twitter screen – Unless your Engadget, live blogging is dead. Attendees tend to Twitter during the talks and wait till later in the evening to blog. I know this is a limitation of Twitter but I would have enjoyed an easy way to track my fellow attendees via Twitter. How about a Gnomedex Twitter widget just for this purpose?
- Find the hot, behind the scenes story and call it out – The elephant in the room this year was the Winer vs. Calacanis feud. Everyone was talking about it on the Gnomedex IRC channel as well as on Twitter and the blogs. It overshadowed most sessions today, but it would have been fun for Chris to bring them both on stage and referee a debate. I’m sure both of those guys would have been up for it.
This years Gnomedex was though-provoking and very enjoyable. Chris and Ponzi pulled off a great event.
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