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I recently attended the WTIA Fast Pitch Forum & Technology Showcase. The conference featured two dozen of the of the hottest technology companies in Washington presenting their business in a competition for “Best In Show”. I Can Haz Cheezburger is well-known online for their hilarious LOLCat pictures.
I guess Gnomedex is all about the geeks – and registration is now (officially, seriously this time) open for 8.0 this August. You can go directly to the order form or… wait a while before making a decision.
I’ve been staying out of most post-Gnomedex discussions (and fights) intentionally. People seem to have already made up their minds about the event, one way or another. One thing’s for sure: people certainly are passionate about their personal and professional perspectives!
I’m only beginning to sift through the Gnomedex information inside and outside of my own communication spheres – and it’s beyond overwhelming. Feedback has been quite constructive, and I was definitely sensing an increasing amount of disparate frustration with random elements across our conference’s universe. It boils down to both Ponzi and myself doing our best to cater to 375 special interest groups – which is both our blessing and our ongoing challenge. Is Gnomedex really a “conference” anymore?
Christopher “The Name Inspector” Johnson did an accurate gnomenclature of our conference brand today…
To understand this name, you first need to know (if you don’t already) that the conference is run by Lockergnome, the brand under which net entrepreneur Chris Pirillo and his associates do all their stuff. That’s where the Gnome- part comes from. The -dex part, of course, is a reference to COMDEX, a big computer trade show that took place every year between 1979 and 2003. COMDEX got too big and then hurt feelings in the media world in 1999 when it made its press admission criteria overly exclusive, and has never recovered from the resulting backlash. It’s currently in a state of limbo.
I’m not sure who started the rumor, but it’s only gotten stronger over the past few months – and I’m not sure why it was started, who started it, or how it may have damaged the perception of our effort in Seattle. I do believe that the vicious rumor started somewhere in Silicon Valley.
Register now, while you still can. We haven’t done it yet, but we’ll likely sell out the Gnomedex conference for the third year in a row. Yes, there’s still time to register if you haven’t done so already. Again, we still have seats in the main hall available. I’m repeating myself on purpose. Anybody can register. You can register. Your spouse can register. Your friends can register.
On June 28, 2007, at the Microsoft Campus in Mountain View, CA – I’m streaming “Under the Radar” live! There are a few presenting companies, and I’m hoping to catch a moment or two with them all on-cam with our community:
So, uh… for the past few years, we haven’t announced any Gnomedex speakers before opening conference registration to the world – largely because we’ve always taken special care to craft our content around the registered audience. Some might argue that we’re putting the cart before the horse with this approach.
Not sure if many of you caught the non-announcement, but I opened the registration process for Gnomedex last week. We’re kinda already 1/3 sold out, I think – so I figured I’d better say something pretty public about it before too long. Here you go: no press release, just a single blog post that will likely get buried by the other important news of the day. You have until August to make up your mind – but we’re probably going to sell out again (although, not as quickly as TED 2017 will). John from Feedia has been beeifng up Gnomedex.com for your perusal – and Ponzi and I have decided to put the sponsorship prospectus online this year. Sorry the site’s URLs aren’t SEO friendly, but I’m not a Joomla expert by any stretch of the imagination. I am, however, an expert in making videos that are more entertaining than watching paint dry:
Congrats to Scott Beale for getting his photo of John Edwards at Gnomedex 6 into the latest issue of Time Magazine. Sadly, “Gnomedex” didn’t score any ink in the article – but that’s not keeping us from rolling forward with Gnomedex 7. If you wanna save the date, put August 9th – 12th 2007 on your calendar (Seattle, mixer on Thursday night, possible unconference on Sunday). Oh, and you might also think about penciling in the middle of January 2008 for a special Gnomedex back in Des Moines, Iowa.
What about August 9th through the 11th (2007) for Gnomedex 7.0? I’m sure there are going to be scheduling conflicts, but consider this your “warning shot.” I realize this may concide with some family vacations, but you realize that Seattle is an amazing destination for kids of all ages? Okay, so… we’re thinking about setting the date for the next Gnomedex for that weekend (evening kick-off event on Thursday the 9th, and the conference on both Friday and Saturday). We’ll be doing it at Bell Harbor again, so… start making plans, and prepare to snap your passes quickly. Group discounts will be available this year.
I’m not sure who started the rumor, but Gnomedex isn’t dead. At least, not to my knowledge? If it’s dead, nobody bothered to tell me. We’ve had quite a bit of upheaval lately, but throwing Gnomedex out is not one of the things that’s happened. Quite the opposite in fact! We haven’t done any updates on the Gnomedex Web site largely because there hasn’t been much news to share.
Before you send me an email with constructive feedback for Gnomedex 6.0, I’d encourage you to post your thoughts in this page’s comment thread instead. I’ve listened to a lot of feedback over the past couple of days, doing my best to adjust on-the-fly. I answered a lot of questions one-on-one, too. Still, I wanted a semi-formal way to collect your impressions in a single thread – so that everybody can see what could have gone better, and what went better than expected. I should list twenty things we could improve upon for next year, but I’m really tired and want to sleep for a week first. Feel free to post anonymously if you want, or send trackbacks from your own site to this post. I know we could have done a few better, so it’s not like I’m only looking to hear about the “good stuff.” Ponzi might be putting together a survey soon, too. Until then, don’t hold back – what are your thoughts on this year’s Gnomedex while it’s still fresh in your mind?
Okay, you know how most conference t-shirts suck? They’re splashed with sponsor logos and no fun to wear on Casual Fridays. Who really cares that you were at “Fast Food Fest ‘99″?! I have a million and one of those types of t-shirts in my closet, and they all get thrown into the “donate to Goodwill” pile at the end of the year. Sorry, but I’m not interested in being a walking NASCAR chassis. Last year, we got a little geeky with the “Feed Me” shirt. This year, we’re totally stylin’ with a shirt that says it all without saying anything:
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