{"id":1633,"date":"2010-02-07T20:04:09","date_gmt":"2010-02-07T19:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.craigmurphy.com\/blog\/?p=1633"},"modified":"2010-12-07T00:54:51","modified_gmt":"2010-12-06T23:54:51","slug":"ddd8-post-event-commentary-ddd8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.craigmurphy.com\/blog\/?p=1633","title":{"rendered":"DDD8 – post-event commentary #DDD8"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the 30th of January 2010, the eighth DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper <\/a>(DDD8) took place at Microsoft’s Reading Campus.<\/p>\n

20 sessions over four session rooms – it’s an event that attracts a lot of attention, both from speakers and attendees. <\/p>\n

For example, DDD7 in November 2008 attracted 79 session submissions (100 inc. grok talks) gathered over a period of 3 months. DDD8 attracted 79 session submissions over a period of 3 weeks<\/em>. For us, this was the quickest DDD that we’ve organised so far!<\/p>\n

From an attendee’s perspective, DDD7 saw 350 registrations within 4 hours, after which a waitlist kicks in. DDD8 saw 360 registrations within 15 minutes<\/em> of the registration page going live. A further 200 waitlisted places were recorded inside the next 15 minutes. Over 100 of the waitlisted places were processed and converted into full registrations – kudos to the attendees for actively managing their registrations. By cancelling your registration, you allowed a waitlisted delegate the chance to become an attendee! Further DDD stats can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So, we have enough session content for at least three days worth of conference. And we have demand in excess of 700 delegates. It’s a problem we have been aware of since the DDD3<\/a> (remember these<\/a> photos and this blog post<\/a>?). But it’s a problem we really struggle to solve, partly because to solve the problem would involve a combination of many things. We could change the venue. We could run the event over two or more days. Both of these affect the “make up” of a DDD event, not to mention the financial cost. As organisers, we don’t mind giving our time for free. Many speakers don’t mind giving up their time either – for many speakers, we would like to think that DDD provides a relaxed start to a career on the speaking circuit. We are open to suggestions<\/strong> as to how we can move the event forward – there will be a DDD9 and there will be regional DDDs, please, tell us what we can do to make DDD better for you!<\/p>\n

Who said that?<\/strong>
\nIn the week after DDD8, much was written:<\/p>\n

@irascian<\/a> Ian Smith wrote this<\/a> piece – thanks Ian!<\/p>\n

@RTPeat<\/a> Richard Peat wrote this<\/a> piece – thanks Richard!<\/p>\n

@joblogs83<\/a> Johan Gant<\/a> wrote this<\/a> piece – thanks Johan!<\/p>\n

@nhaslam<\/a> Nick Haslam wrote this<\/a> piece – thanks Nick!<\/p>\n

@martinpeck<\/a> Martin Peck<\/a> wrote this<\/a> piece – thanks Martin!<\/p>\n

@markhneedham<\/a> Mark Needham (speaker) wrote this<\/a> piece – thanks Mark! Mark’s slides can be found here<\/a> and a video of his session here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

@robashton<\/a> Rob Ashton (speaker) wrote this<\/a> piece – thanks Rob!<\/p>\n

@mikehadlow<\/a> Mike Hadlow (speaker) wrote this<\/a> piece – thanks Mike.<\/p>\n

Tim Ross<\/a> wrote this<\/a> piece – thanks Tim!<\/p>\n

@chris_alexander<\/a> Chris Alexander wrote a couple of pieces, here<\/a> and here<\/a>. Oh, wait, there more here<\/a>! Thanks Chris – you were, ahem, taller in real life than in your Twitter picture!<\/p>\n

@guysmithferrier<\/a> Guy Smith-Ferrier<\/a> wrote this<\/a> piece – thanks Guy!<\/p>\n

@pcurd<\/a> Peter Curd<\/a> wrote this<\/a> piece – thanks Peter!<\/p>\n

@tentonnebaby<\/a> Oli Francis wrote about it here<\/a> – thanks Oli!<\/p>\n

@danielrmay<\/a> Daniel May wrote this<\/a> piece – thanks Daniel!<\/p>\n

@cargowire<\/a> Craig Rowe wrote a piece here<\/a> – thanks Craig!<\/p>\n

@Cranialstrain<\/a> Ian Battersby wrote this<\/a> piece – thanks Ian!<\/p>\n

@philpursglove<\/a> Phil Pursglove wrote his piece over here<\/a> – thanks Phil!<\/p>\n

@pkiddie<\/a> Paul Kiddie wrote this<\/a> piece over here – thanks Paul!<\/p>\n

@hahughson<\/a> Hamish Hughson wrote this<\/a> piece – thanks Hamish!<\/p>\n

@JohnnoNolan<\/a> Johnno Nolan wrote this<\/a> piece – thanks Johnno!<\/p>\n

@silverSpoon<\/a> Andrea Magnorsky wrote this<\/a> piece – thanks Andrea!<\/p>\n

@calcock<\/a> Chris Alcock wrote a good round-up post for The Morning Brew<\/a> (if you haven’t subscribed to this, you should! It’s followed by the likes of @shanselman<\/a>, it’s a must read!)<\/p>\n

There’s a little bit of content over at slideshare<\/a>. And @chrisntr<\/a> Chris Hardy has added some content here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Happy Birthday…<\/strong>
\nSome folks even had a birthday celebration at DDD8, @ben_hall<\/a>: http:\/\/vimeo.com\/9238695<\/a><\/p>\n

And Barry…<\/strong>
\nBut, for one person, this was the end of an era. For eight DDD events in a row Barry Dorrans<\/a> has made it on to the agenda – and if memory serves me, he has always been very high in the voting. Well, except once, when he had to bung me a grand to nobble the votes, but we don’t talk about that, much. Barry is now in Seattle (we have photographic evidence to prove this) working for Microsoft – working for Microsoft almost excluded him speaking at future DDD events. Although I have hinted that if he makes a celebrity appearance, we might let him in…especially if he brings Scott Guthrie and\/or Scott Hanselman with him! Other Microsoft celebrities do exist; I merely used the two Scotts here! <\/p>\n

All day, we did nothing to Barry. Even when Barry discovered @plip<\/a>‘s laptop unlocked and started tweeting from it, we did nothing! I have a spot of video footage of @plip and @blowdart at the point of realisation… We did nothing until the start of his session. Barry thought he was playing a prank on @ben_hall<\/a> by getting both Chicago 1 and 2 to sing happy birthday, little did he know what we had planned for his session! <\/p>\n

Video for the bulk of Barry session can be found here: http:\/\/vimeo.com\/9241853<\/a> This video also carries some content from Barry’s appearance on Crystal Maze: “You’re going to need these bellows!”<\/p>\n

The interuptions, which Barry kindly documents here<\/a> are also available:
\nhttp:\/\/vimeo.com\/9205053<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/vimeo.com\/9205726<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/vimeo.com\/9205478<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/vimeo.com\/9205839<\/a><\/p>\n

Phil Pursglove<\/a>, the man who sourced the Crystal Maze footage of @blowdart<\/a>, created a Twitter list for DDD8<\/a> speakers – good work!<\/p>\n