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EECI 2011 - my thoughts

I just got back from attending the EECI conference this past weekend. The conference was both informative and educational. There were a few things I would like to change, but more on that later. In the photo above you can see the line up for beer at the end of day.

I just got back from attending the EECI conference this past weekend. The conference was both informative and educational. There were a few things I would like to change, but more on that later. In the photo above you can see the line up for beer at the end of day.

The best thing about this conference was meeting so many people that I have followed on twitter, blogs and the ExpressionEngine forums for several years. I had an extensive list of people I wanted to meet and I think I managed to successfully meet all of them plus a whole bunch more. The only exceptions were people who didn’t attend the conference - most notably Andy Harris.

The topics that speakers were all interesting and I only missed one due to going too long at lunch, but that’s okay as that talk was directed at add-on developers and I’m not planning on developing add-ons in the near future.

look at all those keeners waiting to be edumacated.

The Stairs of Doom

Team 3 - working hard on DevDay

The artwork in The Invisible Dog was interesting to say the least.

Conference Flaws

  • The venue was cool and close to the subway but the seating was terrible. 300 people without tiered seating meant that those in the back could not see above the heads of those in front of them.
  • music was too loud during DevDay - it was not possible to concentrate listening to music that I didn’t get to choose. If people want music let them use headphones
  • The awkward bathrooms. Properly vetting the venue would have turned up the problems with the bathrooms. Doors didn’t close or stay closed. Exposing your self to people in other parts of the room due to the window - also being able to be spotted by people in the other building.
  • no printed schedule. Was impossible to know which speaker was up next.
  • could have fixed that by providing wi-fi. If one did not have a data plan one could not surf. This was totally unacceptable during devday. Additionally for people traveling from overseas data-roaming plans are insanely expensive. I chose not to purchase when I found it was going to cost me $1 per megabyte.
  • More coffee. There wasn’t enough coffee on site. Two possible options here, brew more or get a sponsor (starbucks?) to set up shop and sell coffee on site (hopefully at a discount, but if not no biggie).

If you’ve missed the conference or would like to review the speakers slides you can find a list of them in the this forum thread or EECI 2011 Cheat Sheet.

Final Thoughts

I will be returning to the next EECI conference held in North America. I’m hoping for Toronto as that’s where I live. However pretty much anywhere would be great.

Had some really great times talking to @mrherbivore, @knight777, @lisawess (thanks for the hug), @cwcrawley, @joelbradbury, @causingeffect, @boyink, @bransinanderson, @nicolasbottari, @ajp, @low, @erwinheiser, @jimpannel, @lealea, @jackmcdade, @moogaloo, @iso100, @erikreagan and so many more.

Was also very surprised by how many comments I got from people who have followed my move from Korea to Toronto. Honestly am humbled that so many of you found it interesting. My tweets and blog posts were mostly me thinking out loud.

I’ve decided to not comment on dildogate here, but have left a couple of comments on the topic on other peoples blogs.

If you would like to see more pictures of the conference and New York check my flickr sets EECI at The Invisble Dog and NYC (forthcoming)