Geodog

First impressions of Day One of Etech 2006

ETech is big, much bigger than 2003 or 2004. Someone said that there were a thousand people in the room for the opening keynotes, and I believe it. I guess the industry is back (or another bubble is forming). There were lots of familiar faces, people like Doc Searls, Phil Windley and Robert Kaye, who I think of as the grey hairs of the conference set, as well as the people like danah boyd, Joel Spolsky, Scot Rosenberg, Kevin Burton and Rohit Khare, whom I have seen at lots of previous conferences. There are a lot of new faces as well, and more than half the room raised their hands when Tim O'Reilly asked if this was their first one Etech. It is a much more international crowd too. The rowdy Brits from BBC that I have seen at previous years are sitting behind me, but to my left is a huge contingent that I am guessing is from Japan. As usual at geek conferences, there are far more men than women, although there do seem to some women. And as usual the visible representation from people who themselves or whose ancestors came from Africa or Latin America appears to be nil.

There are too many people to fit comfortably in the big room they are using for the keynotes, and the people are spread apart too widely -- I suspect there is going to be a lot of competition for the center seats and I fear the keynotes are going to be a bit of an ordeal. The hotel is different too, a Hyatt trying to be a downgraded Bellagio, with that same fake grandiosity and pomposity that makes me wince. The wireless seems good for once, and I found a power strip easily enough, so as long as the content is good I can't complain too much.

Posted by Geodog at March 6, 2006 11:19 PM | TrackBack