Reflections on CTC 2005, Jun 26

The Collaborative Technologies Conference for 2005 finished a few days ago. Preparation for the conference has consumed many of my weeks during the previous four months, and I'm amazed at how quickly it has zipped by. The marathon trip to get home is now almost done too; in two hours I'll be there, the final end point in a transit of 28 hours.
With a few days of distance between sitting in this airplane seat and beautiful conference location in New York, the high- and low-points of the conference for me are:

• Getting to meet with others who are equally passionate about the collaboration industry. I live in the middle of nowhere, and yet I've had the privilege during the previous 7 years of building relationships with many very cool people at vendor organizations, ISVs, and organizations. It was purely delightful to be able to walk up and introduce myself to people with whom I've carried on email and voice-only relationships. To all of the people that I (finally) met and was able to share some moments in discussion ... THANKS!


• IBM Lotus were notably absent from the demo pavillion (although David Marshak and Shawne Robinson, both of IBM, spoke on my two panels). Numerous people in the blogosphere have already pointed this out, and I'm adding my voice. As Ed Brill acknowledges, I badgered him at a plethora of points in time to secure an IBM Lotus presence in the demo pavillion. Perhaps next year. One particular conference attendee would frequently turn to me during or after a session and say, "But I've had this for years in Lotus Notes".


• I moderated two sessions: one on Collaborative Workspaces, and one on Extending Collaborative Applications to the Mobile Worker. During years of attending conferences, I've sat through numerous panel sessions where the panelists either droned on about items only slightly related to the topic, or otherwise gave a pure product pitch instead of making an educational contribution. So, as the moderator, I made the decision two months ago to set a highly structured and coordinated educational format, to pre-screen the slide decks, and to be extremely inflexible on the duration of time that my panelists had to speak. This was all communicated in advance to my panelists, and they each rose to the occasion, for which I was grateful. Attendees at my sessions as well as the conference organizers were also pleased with how the sessions went.


• I haven't laughed so much in years as I have during the past week. I attended the conference with Eric Mack, and with a mixture of computer troubles, plane delays, and overtiredness, we laughed and laughed and laughed. Truly "a happy heart is good medicine".


• MediaLive is to be commended for putting on a truly awesome first-time collaboration-focused conference. I know I've already said it, but the diversity of sessions and speakers, the provision of great food, the selection of a great location, and the coordination of many many details doesn't just happen. Eric, James, and Jennifer, among many others, did a great job over many months of getting everything ready. Unfortunately the audio equipment and wireless network let them down big time ... but we survived.


• The two GEEC dinners I organized were a blast. It was a delight to share a dinner with a small group of fellow GEECs, and to hear how each became a GEEC (and in some cases a geek). I learnt a lot that I didn't previously know, and it was neat to put a face to a name. I'll be organizing more of these dinners, and I encourage others to do the same. "GEEC" isn't a trademark held by Shared Spaces, so feel free to use it if you want. Or even better, put your own spin on things and come up with your own term.


• Finally and most importantly, I've missed my family. Being away from them for 10 days is a long time, and I'm so looking forward to being with them again. I value family life beyond many things, and even though my household leaves little time for rest and quietness, I'll be staying at home for a long time to come. Attendance at a conference once or twice a year is okay, but being away more than that isn't conducive to healthy and rich family relationships.

Comments

[Ed Brill]

Yes, as I've commented elsewhere, IBM is generally cautious about new startup conferences. It's clear we could/should have had a stronger presence, but I'm not sure how much so. Do you know the final delegate (paid attendee) count for the conference (not including other vendors/speakers)?

Also, I'm very sorry that my personal schedule didn't allow me to get to New York. With the DNUG/Tech Forum event, and some personal stuff, it just was bad timing. I'll share more offline.

[Brian Hoogendam]

Michael - good to finally meet you. Had a good time discussing things with you and hearing you offer your perspective. I will keep you posted on our progress.
Regards,
Brian