COMMON rates (was RE: Congrads John Earl!)

 >> I wonder why these other conferences were really started.  To fill a
niche that they felt that neither COMMON, nor the tech conference were
addressing, to grab some bucks, or to address some personal grudge.

Well - since I am one of the organizers of one of those conferences (RPG
World running right now in Orlando) I can speak to that.  Our conference was
started to fill a niche.  Whenever we speak at COMMON, Tech conference, User
Group conferences etc. we always get asked the same question by
programmers - "Why isn't there a conference that just focuses on RPG? I
don't need all this Java, WebSphere, (insert flavor of the month here) and
there aren't enough RPG sessions".  Also some managers won't send their
staff to conferences like COMMON because they fear that they will spend time
learning Java instead of learning more about RPG.  We responded by providing
a conference that focuses entirely on RPG.

I also feel that a great many people are happier with a smaller conference
where they can establish a relationship with the speakers and "follow" the
same speaker though a variety of topics.  It makes the experience that much
closer to having a private training class.  Several times in the past few
days people have remarked to me how much they enjoy the intimacy of a
conference like ours compared with COMMON where they felt overwhelmed.

Different people like different things.  That applies to the size of a
conference just as much as it applies to choice of car vacation spot etc.
Why would we expect anything else?

If the alternative conferences (with the possible exception of the IBM Tech
Conf) did not exist, it would not significantly affect COMMON's numbers.
For one thing they are meeting a different need and for another even if
_all_ the people that attend them showed up at COMMON (which would never
happen no matter what), it wouldn't make much difference to COMMON's numbers
in terms of a percentage - they are all too small.

Jon Paris
Partner400
www.Partner400.com