No News is Good News?
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010I attended WWDC this year, in part because I knew there was going to be a new iPhone release and it would likely be accompanied by new a new version of the iPhone OS. Of course there are also lots of tidbits regarding Mac OS/X and Apple’s PC hardware.
I also considered attending Delphi Live this year. My current project timelines would have made that difficult, but I was prepared to justify it, except for one thing; there was no promise of any information regarding Fulcrum, the 64 bit compiler, or a preview of either.
I’ve been developing with Delphi for a long time now, so most of the benefit for me is in seeing what’s new. I’ve collected a lot of resource material over the years, and while I still learn something new all the time (at the expense of forgetting something else - let’s face it; the noggin is full), I value conferences mostly for getting me excited at the prospect of something new and potentially profitable.
I didn’t get the impression that the last Delphi Live was earth shattering, and when I emailed Frank Stepan to get some additional details on the Intellibook offer, because it wasn’t very clear, he informed me that “To receive an Intellibook notebook you are required to register for a minimum of 3 days”. Suddenly, Delphi Live didn’t look so appealing.
If the organizers of the conference read this, might I suggest a couple of changes to their approach?
1) Always make sure there is as big an announcement as possible at each conference so attendees are the first to know, and if preview editions of upcoming releases are available, make it part of the conference goodies.
2) If you’re going to solicit early bird registrations, at least make sure the conference agendas are full. When I looked there were a couple TBAs only 3 days prior to the end of early bird registrations (in fact I just checked and there are still 2 TBAs). I want to know what I’m going to get for my time and money, and need to know so I can decide what days to attend.
3) Publicize any software discounts from third party vendors and exhibitors.
4) Schedule the conference around the same time as other complementary events. I am thinking specifically of WWDC. If Delphi Live is only a couple of days, it might make a lot of sense for it to be before WWDC or after. If EMB is going to produce a development tool that targets Mac OS/X it would make a lot of sense to make it easy for such developers coming from afar to attend.
5) if an Expo is an integral part of the conference, shouldn’t there be at least a listing of Exhibitors?