360Conferences

Our partners are important to us. Without them our model of conferences, couldn't exist. They believe in us, we believe in them.

What's that mean? In a nutshell, it means that they see the benefit of affordable developer-focused conferences. They see that while our conferences aren't the massive Java-One type of affairs, our ability to have them more frequently across a range of topics makes up for the smaller volume per conference.

No one can go to MIX, MAX, Comdex, Where 2.0, OSCON, etc. all in a year, it'd be cost prohibitive. But if the conferences were cheaper, it would be easier to attend them all.

That's our model and that's where our Partners come in. Without CFDynamics, Eventbrite and EventVue, we'd never be able to produce conferences that cost as little as ours do. Where else can you get high quality speakers and sessions, the best and brightest of the community, for 3 full days, for only $480.00?

The answer is easy, and not rhetorical, 'nowhere'.

As we go, we're hoping to partner with more and more companies to bring even better and even more affordable conferences to the community, it's about time!

So say thanks to these great companies!

I grew up going to the San Diego Comic Con back in the day. Back then though, it wasn't the 110K+ attendees it is now. I remember hanging with my pops, walking around saying hi to all the friends he saw once a year, brushing into artists like Sergio Aragonés and Moebius and getting some drawings from them. Yes, brushing into...not waiting in line for who knows how long like you currently have to. It got to the point that even the vendors that I liked, that my dad didn't such as movie poster/button/toy vendors, began to recognize me even though I was a growing tyke. The thing I remember fondly was that back then the community was more like an extended family.

We want to try to recreate that. There was two reasons why that family feel grew. One was that the event was small back then. We've covered that with the future 360 people size limit.

Another thing I seem to recall was early registration. That's when most of the "family" would register. We're going to do an interesting twist on that. For our conferences, we'll help maintain relationships that can grow stronger each year. To do this, we're implementing the Alumni first registration period. What this is going to be is a set time frame for Alumni to register before the general public has the chance to register. If all 360 reregister for the next version of a given conference, so be it. We want to get to the point where everyone knows everyone and networking time turns into bonding time.

We maybe crazy, but that's okay. Crazy never hurt anyone. =)

Tom sent me this post, "Take a look, see if it's good." It was.

Adam's post pretty much explains not just his reasons for going to conferences, but also explains why Tom and I produce them.

And on a related note, what's with the no-wifi nonsense?! I have Verizon broadband [sic] for my laptop now, but still... ack!

We hear you, Adam. As a conference attendee who has sat in a session trying in vain to lock onto the Access Point, believe me, we hear you. Most conference centers offer wifi, but it's almost always so completely inadequate that less than half of the attendees can use it. We're doing everything we can to make sure our events, are not "like other conferences". In fact, we scratched a few venues off our list because the hotel didn't have free in-room wifi. That's how much we're looking out for you.

Among Adams many other points (all good), he has this to say.

Lastly, seeing someone in person provides a very helpful new perspective on what they're meaning to communicate online. It's easy to misread text on a page, especially when there's no immediate opportunity to follow up with questions. But in person, issues get cleared up on both sides, and that's good for everyone.

This is what we're all about. Conferences that are so big you can't truly meet anyone, suck. It's really that simple. At 2000+ people, you completely lose the community feel. You can spend 3 or 4 days at a conference and never even see some one you know is there, weak.

For future 360 events, will continue our '360' theme by being small, 360 attendees, small. Sure we could do more (we are for 360|Flex Seattle because we lost our heads for a second), but why? We've found that small events, done well, with the attendee in mind, not only create a much more enjoyable experience, but are just better conferences. Aren't we being elitist? No. Sure, inviting every person we've ever met to our respective weddings would have been neat to, but would it have been fun? Nope. Sometimes, you have to fore go growth just for growth's sake. We hope you all agree.

I came across this conference today, and was impressed. The C4 conference (from what I can tell) holds to the same ideals we do at 360Conferences. No corporate schilling, just people enthusiastic about a technology (Macs in this case), and about the community around them. On top of that, C4 is small and affordable, only $512.00


Our hats are off to Jon "Wolf" Rentzsch