gdp's Comments

360|Flex Conferences : 360Flex - Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:36:08 +0000

Uhh....yeah. Uh-huh. You and Ashish Patel. We have our eyes on ya! LOL

360|Flex Conferences : You're in Good Hands: Adios from Tom

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 13:57:17 +0000

Yup, exactly. Now I get to actually enjoy the sessions and hang out more with attendees. Wooohoo! :)

TapLynx : 360iDev: Action! Suspense! Sumo take-downs!

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:50:52 +0000

I'm glad you found links to the vids. :) If the peppers or Pearl Jam, we definitely know who they'll...uh...call...maybe? I'm glad someone else (aside from myself) made a fool of themselves on Rock Band. Yay for letting loose.

Our Start Up Story : Announcing PoochPooTracker.com!

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 19:03:44 +0000

I don't know about the poop part, but I love the street names around your neighborhood. Did you leave the poop behind as proof? LOL

pulse12 : Becoming part of the continent

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:28:05 +0000

Thanks for the kinds words, Hofo! It's definitely speakers like you that make the events (360|iDev and 360|Flex) so special.

360iDev : Apress is the Official Sponsor of 360|iDev

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:47:25 +0000

@Chuck Well, they'll be there so you can definitely let them know! :)

Our Start Up Story : Sales is tough, but keep at it and listen to the quiet voice

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 01:36:16 +0000

Yeah, I think your right. It just seems counter-intuitive when your "young and hungry" to say, "Yeah, this sale just isn't right." You think your product is perfect for everyone and a sale is often a necessary vs a nice to have.

Our Start Up Story : How to Fail

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:40:51 +0000

It's really odd for us. We focus on the short term, i.e. the actual show. However, we realize that our first show in a new market will likely not make much money and that the payoffs will come with later shows. I.e. the new line of show/efforts is long term planning.

360iDev : 360iDev speaker and attendee badges

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:16:14 +0000

As you wish! Done and uploaded. Sorry for the delay.

Our Start Up Story : Setting your price

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:17:51 +0000

I wonder the same thing about our conferences all the time. We offer more per show for less money than other shows. I wonder if many people bypass us because we're perceived as "cheap". Also

Our Start Up Story : Partnerships: Business goals are not equal to personal goals

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:17:52 +0000

Well, when I said consulting didn't count, I strictly meant in regards to John and I. We were more glorified employees of contracting firms. We didn't find our own clients or projects. In other words, we had pimps. :) You and Jesse Warden qualify as consulting businesses that "count". You guys are your own shop. I hope that clears things up. :)

Our Start Up Story : Partnerships: Business goals are not equal to personal goals

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:15:47 +0000

Yes, you are the odd egg out. LOL No, what I think you have that at least in the case of John and I is experience. We've never really been in a business all our own. Sure, we've consulted but that doesn't really count. Plus, when you go into a partnership with friends, like John and I did, you think you already know things. "I know him. What he wants, how he thinks, etc." I know many people say that going into business with friends is bad. However, John and I are of the belief that our friendship has carried us this far. We may fight and we may disagree, but we're still friends.

Our Start Up Story : Partnerships: Business goals are not equal to personal goals

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 01:15:32 +0000

"I hear you bro" button. I love it! That's the thing about partnerships. They're not really written about much, so I'm going to try to write more about my experiences. The biggest question I had for so long is: Do all partners argue this much? I'm guessing perhaps some do. Which is good, since that means we're "normal". LOL

Our Start Up Story : Starting up is hard for a Tinkerer

Thu, 9 Apr 2009 19:58:58 +0000

@Chuck Thanks for the encouraging words. I'm glad I got to play as well. :) I'm loving the Kindle and will have to give Calibre a try. Now I'm sad I waited so long on an eReader, though looking at the other devices (including Kindle 1), I might not have enjoyed them as much.

Community, Code, Randomness | johnwilker.com : This is why Journalists suck

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:42:01 +0000

You left out TechCrunch. I could be mistaken, but here's the situation as it went down. I'm at the Silicon Valley iPhone meetup (led by Tim Burks). I announce the show and it's incredibly low price. A shout from the audience, "Is there a TechCrunch discount?" To which I reply, "No, tickets are priced low already. There's not really room for discounts." Now, I thought the person was asking if there was a TechCrunch discount out there. However, after relating the story, many pointed out that the guy was likely from TechCrunch and was asking for a discount code so he could write about it. I have no way of knowing which was true, but I certainly hope that TechCrunch is not that low. With holding news that your customers could use simply because no discount was giving seems shady to me. However, I'm with you on the press front. People keep saying they're lazy and don't want to work for a story. You have to spoon feed them, etc. I just can't believe that. Maybe it's true though. I'd hope not, because if so, that's a sad statement on journalism as a practice.

EventVue : Tradeshows may be dying, but permission and community will save them.

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:03:55 +0000

Thanks for the kind words, David. The odd thing is that it's incredibly simple to be driven by the community. There's no secret sauce John and I have. We lay most of our thoughts out on various blogs. There's nothing to stop folks out there from applying it to their own shows. The sad thing is too many conferences are not there for the community aspect, but rather for other motives. To each their own, for me though, make mine community focused. Sad thing is that EventVue wasn't in existence when we started, so now we gotta "work it" into our modus operandi. With people like Rob there to help us, I'm sure we'll get it right.

EventVue : Tradeshows may be dying, but permission and community will save them.

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:36:09 +0000

It's odd. My business partner and I joined the conference space in 2007. At that time, conferences were $2000 to attend, tried to have attendee count in the thousands and provided very little value. John and I chatted with each other and we decided to launch a conference. We had never planned anything larger than a house BBQ or our weddings. However, we had been to enough conferences to know what was broken. Therefore, we bandied our thoughts and came up with what we wanted in a conference. It's goals were simple and we put this on our "About us" page. 360Conferences, Inc. puts on conferences that are: 1. Affordable - We don't sacrifice quality, only profits. 2. Fun - It's primarily geek fun, so uptights beware. 3. Community Driven - Our events encourage and foster interaction. So here's our breakdown of those goals: 1. - Affordable: Our show registration prices start in the $200 range and end in the $500 range. Let's be honest, the most valuable part you get from a conference is the shared knowledge of the collective. You shouldn't have to pay $2K to participate in that sharing though. 2. Fun: We won't lie. We like parties. But we're talking $3K to $5K per night for some drinks and food for a few hundred attendees. Nothing outrageous. The most "extreme" cost is the PlayStation 3 and XBox 360's we have for guitar hero. The community appreciates it so much that, get this, THEY bought US Rock Band. They played it and left it with us for future gigs. I don't know much about the industry, but I bet that's a first! These networking events are important to build strong relationships within the community, but again, they don't need to be out of control expensive. The key is the people present, not the environment. 3. Community Driven: We specifically go out of our way to foster community interaction. We tell our attendees, "You are here to learn not only from the speakers but from one another." Our primary show, 360Flex, is already well on its way to being known as THE place where the Flex community meets. The community conversation hums along on it's own now fostered and pushed more so by the attendees than us. Most sessions are almost like panels with audience helping, not just listening, to the speaker. We just launched our iPhone development event, 360|iDev, with the exact same goal. This is a new community that needs each other in order to succeed. Why build the same app as someone else, when instead you can work together? Trade your accelerometer knowledge with someone who has Open GL ES smarts. Shows got used to the phat profits of the good times. Many of them laughed at us. "You want to cap attendance at 400. Why even bother with the show?" "Your profit margins are only a fraction of total revenue? You're doing it wrong!" "There's only two of you? You man the reg desk yourself? Yuck." I told John awhile back. "It may not seem smart yet, but you just wait. A consolidation of the market is coming!" (Little did i know that it would be the economy that would cause it, but oh well.) "When it does, all these conference companies with the high overhead costs, dependency on fat profits and a bigger-than-thou attitude will fall. They'll need to try to become lean and focused like us but they won't be able to, not quick enough to survive at least. When that happens, we'll be there. Still serving our customers, still keeping it real." Here's to 2009, what is looking to be our best year yet. Tradeshows are a dying breed, but community events like ours are just beginning to bloom.

Our Start Up Story : Recession-Proofing

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:16:04 +0000

Yeah, I agree on the last sentence. I think that's the attitude I've taken over the years. Each FT job was not only a paycheck, but an experiment I got to participate in and learn what works and doesn't work for a business. I don't think FT was security, but rather an easy out of having to deal with the whole sales of you as an independent contractor. Prior to the Valley, I was a no one (and to most, I still am LOL). I know that trying to be an independent contractor would've been too hard for me and would've caused a lot of unnneeded stress in my life.

Our Start Up Story : Recession-Proofing

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 06:02:21 +0000

Yeah, I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with being focused on one thing. I wish I had that sort of dedication and single minded passion. Instead, I get bored quickly and find myself moving on to something new. In past jobs, I'd usually find something I'm interested in, introduce it into my current job, then leave the company to get a job where I use that new skill full time. As for being cogs, I don't mind that either if you're okay with being a cog. John and I had this discussion once. Some people just like the safety of a FT job, where they do the same thing everyday for years on end. Sadly, I think a lot of people feel the way to escape being a cog is to climb the corporate management ladder. I told eBay management once, "Look, I don't want to climb the management ranks, so can we devise an employee progress plan that does NOT have a goal of management?" It came as a great shock to them.

Web Business Freedom | How To Start And Grow A Thriving Web-Based Business : Top 10 Ways To Improve Your Personal Brand Image Online

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:55:01 +0000

"I admit I personally err on the more conservative side of presenting myself on and off the web." That statement saddens me. The reason Twitter, Facebook, etc are so successful is because people are themselves finding new friends and old friends. The more we start to "clean up ourselves" on the tools, the less useful the tools become. I used to be a party animal, but now I'm more conservative. I have been writing poetry for my wife for years at this site. Does this mean I should go back and delete all the poems that reference drinking, partying, whatever? No! It was my life. I met great friends during that time and I'd be lying to myself and others if I pretended they didn't happen. Be who you are. Life's too short to have to pretend to be someone you're not. If your job doesn't like it or you don't get hired for the job, be thankful. They probably helped you do something you were too scared to do yourself.