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by James Robertson.
Original Post: Scoble on the value of conferences
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But, let's look at the real value. Let's say I'm a corporate developer, and my boss is about to spend a million (or more) on developing .NET apps. How do I get my questions answered? Am I gonna see if my architecture is really the right way by reading a weblog? Give me a break! (Well, Chris Brumme might change my opinion there, but still, give a corporate developer 10 minutes with Chris, and he could switch his architecture and save his team months of development work).
Let's say you're a small guy. Probably a consultant. You do a job here, and a job there. What will make you more valueable? Your relationships with key program managers at Microsoft. Why is that? Well, let's see, if a client is hitting a wall, in, say C#'s new reflection features, and you can open your IM up and ask the guy who runs the C# team a quick question right in front of your client, think you'll get the job? Yeah, Eric Gunnerson has a weblog too, but there's nothing like hearing him talk, and then getting his business card and making a HUMAN contact after his talk.
The same is true of things like this conference I'm at - I've been talking to a whole lot of peoplepersonal contacts a whole lot better. And the after hours talks with people are really useful as well - it's all personal, direct - and exactly the sort of contact you won't get electronically.
So yes, the notes I've been taking are worth reading (at least, I like to think they are) - but don't mistake it as "Just like being there". I'm capturing, but a lot of what I get is summary and interpretation.
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