The larger part of the question is "Are COMMON and other conferences
still relevant?" I believe the answer is absolutely! Meeting face to
face with other users has so much value, it's just hard to quantify.
Pete mentioned value in the halls, in the evening events, in the sit
down and talk times and those are ABSOLUTELY true. Then you still have
the actual educational content! Like Pete I attended my first local user
group 'a long time ago' and I remember it was a vendor pitch but I
learned a lot (and even eventually purchased their product!) Over the
years it became time to give back and I do so frequently. BUT I learn at
every single event. Some of the stuff is 'slap your head' stuff (You can
DO that!?) and some is general overview kind of knowledge needed to
understand how things work. Recently Pete and I were working together
on a project and I did something that stopped him cold: "You can't do
that yet." He said. I replied, "Sure you can." and showed him how. You
don't get that sort of thing on a web page, a webinar, or from a PDF
document. I have had a hundred of those situations go the other way
where the look on my face was just as surprised. Now I know each person
learns differently from another but face to face where you can actually
stop and ask questions combined with personal discussions and
conversations ARE important and extremely valuable educational methods.
_\\// COMMON!
- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis
www.frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com
www.iInTheCloud.com
