Robert Scoble has a nice write up on why tech conferences are expensive to run, but leaves out one of the most successful “nouveaux” conferences around, Code Camps, which happen to be totally free. Thom Robbins (a Microsoft Developer Evangelist) is the man behind the idea, and has his Code Camp Manifesto. Code Camps seem to have developed out of the backlash against big, corporate conferences (like Mix06), and are totally driven by the community. Scoble mentions “that it is easy to 40 person conference for free, and a 400 person inexpensively, but 1,000 person conferences go up exponentially.” I can understand why Scoble purposely avoids the topic of Code Camps, since Microsoft has a vested interest in both conference types succeeding. But, the most recent Boston Code Camp had more then 300 people in attendance, and it was totally free. Conference space and projectors are always some of the most expensive items for a conference, and getting free ones for Code Camps (outside of using a Microsoft office) isn’t always easy to get, but it is possible. Just look at some of the Code Camps given over 2005 (like Philly Code Camp). My point, Scoble is correct up to a point. 400 person events can be done for free, but it isn’t easy. I’m hard at work on the next NJ Code Camp, and 300 people is the conservative number that we are using. We can’t host this in the local Microsoft office, so we are working on creative alternatives. We even have the local Java Community interested in doing a joint .Net and Java Code Camp for this event! How’s that for a free 400 person conference?
When I first saw Mix06 advertised, I was very skeptical about the conference. The first thing that stuck me was why Vegas. In my mind, Vegas is for conferences that can’t draw people on their own content. OK, I know this is the first Mix06 event, so maybe they decided to hold it there to guarantee a decent size audience. But, I’d be more inclined to go to an event that had the same content, and was cheaper to attend because it was a cheaper location. If I’m going to a conference, it is for the content not the nightlife (OK, I like the nightlife, but I’m going to have just as much fun in Podunk as Vegas, because I’m hanging with my friends). The more I saw of the content of Mix06, the more I was intrigued and wanted to go. At the moment, I’m still not going, not because I don’t want to, but because I only have so many events I can go to during the year, and I’ve already planned for TechEd and a couple Eastern US Code Camps.
The other question I have is what is Mix06’s relation to TechEd? TechEd has always been first and foremost for the ITPro, not the developer. Because Microsoft does not have a yearly developer conference (PDC don’t count since they are not annual and they cover future, not current technologies), is this Microsoft’s attempt to separate the developers away from TechEd? If so, they should have said something, and all the developers would have told their bosses that they wanted to go to Mix06, instead of TechEd. This sounds like a potential marketing blunder on Microsoft’s part.
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