Gnomedex 2007: Was It Worth It?

August 14, 2007

I have been back from Gnomedex in Seattle for a couple days now. Getting back to the normal schedule and playing a little catch-up. I still have a lot of stuff to go over, but I thought I would provide a little analysis of Gnomedex. Call it my little bit of feedback for Chris.

2007 was my first Gnomedex. I have been aware of Pirillo for a few years, but didn’t really follow him much. But, this year, when I really jumped head first into blogging as my publishing medium of choice, I found myself on Pirillo’s blog one day and decided he was a guy worth keeping an eye on. When Chris switched his publishing methodology into live video, I took note. My video guy and I were pondering why he made the move. After all, live video is a consuming way to create content. And when you add IRC to the mix, you are really opening up in a big way and, with that, comes annoyances. Chris seems up for it, though.

Seattle

Gnomedex is the yearly conference he and his wife, Ponzi, put on in Seattle. Why Seattle? Well, I imagine it is because he lives there. Plus, a lot of geeks live on the west coast. I was asking around and it seemed I lived in the back-country of tech over here in Florida. Many of the attendees seemed to come from Seattle or the Bay Area (meaning San Fransisco). Seattle, while not really that convenient for me, is a good location to do the show. It is a beautiful city, and I have to say you can’t really beat the location right on the water like that. You can read my impressions of Seattle over on my personal blog.

The Content

I have attended some conferences in the past and I can say that Gnomedex is definitely different. The audience is mostly bloggers or people wanting to do business with bloggers. And the topics covered were pretty diverse. Now, I have to be honest, I didn’t really see the point of a few of the speakers. Namely:

Robert Steele. Robert Steele ended up getting around to a point relevant to bloggers and that is how important the blogging movement is to steering the future of the country and being a source of information and holding the government accountable. That said, the guy was WAY too political in my opinion. It was, in my eyes, 30 minutes of bashing everybody under the sun and saying Bush and Cheney should be impeached mixed with 15 minutes or so of something useful. But, again, this is Robert Steele you’re talking about. He made some good points, but considering where he was, he was only proving to me that the statement “opinions are like assholes” was true.
Michael Linton. He made a talk about open money that, quite frankly, went way over my head. And judging by some of the comments I heard from other attendees, I wasn’t alone.
Sterling Allan. He made a somewhat interesting talk about alternative energy, but again, I didn’t really see what it had to do with bloggers.

Since this is my first Gnomedex, I really don’t know how it compares to past years. I think most of the talks were pretty relevant, but a few just left me wondering why they were there. That said, another part of me realized that that kind of thing goes with the territory, and here’s why:

It is a blogging conference. Bloggers are, by nature, pretty opinionated and they like to profess their opinions. Also, the thoughts of bloggers are all over the board. So, considering the audience, the selection of speakers was actually fairly representative. Personally, though, I would prefer a little more applicable stuff rather than the “get you thinking” stuff. Let’s talk about something I can use, not the reasons why Bush should be impeached. Steele makes his own speeches, but having him as the “keytone” speech really had me wondering if I was at a tech conference or a rally for Democratic Underground.

The speakers that were spot on related to us were Guy Kawasaki (the best speaker, IMO), Cali Lewis, Ronni Bennett, Jason Calcanis, Darren Barefoot, and one of the founders of JibJab. All spoke specifically to what they were doing on the web. Interesting talks and applicable. Also, Josh (another attendee) makes mention of a couple of interesting appearances. Namely, Jason Calcanis getting bashed by Dave Winer for “conference spam”, and the humbling appearance of Derek Miller who spoke from his bed over video phone. Derek is suffering from cancer and is still fighting it strongly. Derek’s appearance was very moving and, I could tell, a little hard for some in the room to watch.

The Value

I’ve had people ask me if my trip was worth it. It’s an interesting question and not one that can be judged by the conference alone. Gnomedex is clearly one of those conferences where the value you get from it depends highly on how much you put into it. It is what you do with your ideas and the connections you make when you are there that determines how much you’re going to get from Gnomedex.

For me, the value of Gnomedex is not so much in the speakers, but in the people I met while there and the overall vibe I got from it. The conference has a unique energy to it. These are bloggers, and they love to talk. And Pirillo has a wired personality, which adds a lot to the show’s vibe. If I can put that vibe to work for me, apply some ideas I got, then I get value from attending Gnomedex. If I do nothing to followup, then it would be a waste of time.

To Chris Pirillo

Chris, I know you’ve been here before. So, in the chance that you read this post, keep up the good work. I enjoyed meeting and talking to you for a few minutes while I was there. Gnomedex is an interesting conference, and calling it the “un-conference” really is appropriate. The energy you bring to it plays a large role in what carries the conference along. I can guess the amount of work that you and Ponzi had to put into that thing to pull it off. So, well done, my friend. I would be interested to see why you called it “imperfectly perfect“, although I think that’s an apt description.
Will I go next year? Probably.