Recovered from the Wayback Machine. I was signed up to do two sessions, but had to cancel. I was broke and had to move out of San Francisco in June. Back then, conferences didn’t pay travel expenses.
I received a brochure from the Nextware conference being held in Baltimore in May. The conference will cover an interesting mix of topics such as Web Services, XML, open source, wireless, and a host of other topics all related to a common theme of the next generation of software. The effort is being organized by Ken North, managed by Penton Communications, and yours truly will be giving two presentations.
We’re seeing a new trend in conferences this year — different technology topics, usually related to some common theme, combined into one offering in order to cut costs and increase attendance. I think it’s an idea whose time has come. In the last few years, we were seeing too many conferences being held by too many organizations on too many separate topics. That was back when there was money to burn and people could afford to attend 3-4 conferences in a year. Today, conference organizers have to assume that each person reading their brochures is going to one and only one conference — competition will be fierce. End result: Conferences with a lot to offer.
Now, if you’re thinking about attending a conference this year — HINT HINT — I’ll be speaking about Bringing RDF out of the Lab and The .NET Free Zone, covering .NET technology alternatives. Baltimore in the spring time, right next to Washington DC in the spring time. Cherry Blossoms and me speaking on .NET and RDF — what more could you want?
