We spoke with Simon Awesomeyear (you may know him as Goodyear – we promoted him) about a new thing we are doing at Forcelandia this year, and here is what he had to say:
There are in general three broad reasons to attend a community conference: the content, the sponsors and the networking. For me, personally, it’s the third that I get really excited about: having the chance to talk to so many other people that do what we do, that have the same problems as we do (work ones at least ;), and that have the same forward-thinking questions and concerns that we do. And at Forcelandia, a lot of that happens through the days and then the networking dinner on Wednesday night (you’ve all got your tickets for that, right?).
But still, we want more – so we thought, how could we make that networking opportunity even better and more valuable for you, our amazing attendees? It’s this type of question that keeps us up at night.
And this year, I think we have hit upon the perfect solution: Booth Duty!!
No, you don’t have to stand on a booth; that wouldn’t be much fun for you. Instead, we have secured one of the bars at the Kennedy School for Forcelandia – The Boiler Room for those of you who know – which has booths in it (see what we’ve done there?). So far, so good. But what are we going to put in those booths, I hear you ask? (And a jolly good question that is, too.) We have asked our fantastic speakers to give up a little extra of their time to pull a shift of Booth Duty and make themselves super available to you for an extra session of conversation. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t approach them through the rest of the event, but sometimes you want to flip open a laptop or work something through on a beer mat and this gives you the perfect chance to do so.
Our speakers have jumped at participating in this version of Booth Duty, so Forcelandians – take note: this is a GREAT opportunity to follow up on session questions, points they may have made in blogs or on Twitter, or maybe you are searching for advice or thought leadership! (We do ask that they not be code reviews.) Take a look at this line up – how could you not have something to ask them – I know they have lots of opinions!
And if you can’t think of a specific question, then by all means, drop by and listen to the interesting conversation! It’s not often when we have this many great minds, in one place, with time to chat, so don’t let this opportunity pass you by – grab your ticket to Forcelandia fun now!