While at 360Flex San Jose 08, I sat down with Dan and he interviewed e about juggling all those things I do.

Dan just posted the presentation publicly. He said kind words about my presentation too. Here is the video for those that don't like to click links:

I put my name in the title of this blog post for aggregators. It's the first time I've done anything like that and it feels weird. Sitting at the speaker / sponsor dinner of 360Flex San Jose, John and Tom announced they were starting to get into their groove and if we thought the conference needed any changes, we should tell them now. They are definitely getting into their groove. This has been the smoothest and most successful 360 event I've been to.

Here are some of my random thoughts about my conference gong experience and I sprinkled in some possible improvements along the way.

• I gave one of the best presentations of my life. The crowd was very interactive and the feedback was fantastic. I got compliments from many people. I haven't had a chance to watch the recording yet, but am looking forward to it.
• My keynoting skills sucks. I was caught off guard when most people had no idea who I was; and didn't properly introduce The Flex Show, or tell people I was Editor In Chief of Flex Authority. I also introduced my component business for the first time. I said "public beta" 3 times when I meant "private beta." Major mistake.
• I hate traveling. It brings the worst out of me. I've been back home for 5 days and haven't recovered yet. Additionally, I gained five pounds or so during my time at 360Flex. Too much eating out, not enough vegetables / fruits. Too much Pepsi. All my fault.
• Speaking of Pepsi, eBay had a magic box that gave you free soda if you pressed a button. I think that was part of the reason I gained weight, because I Went from one or two Pepsi's a day to as many as the machine would give me. I discovered that John likes Coke. Maybe that's why we work well together on the podcast; it's a Yin and Yang type of thing.
• In the previous two conferences, Atlanta and Seattle, I felt like I helped out because I was there the day before cutting stickers and stuffing folders. This time I ended up at the Tech Museum in San Jose instead. It was an awesome Museum; I was not expecting it to take the full day. I saw my first IMAX movie and got really nauseous. By the time I got around to calling John to ask if they needed help, they were all set. I did no work behind the scenes. Although, Tammi did end up helping out at the registration desk on one of the days. I remember Nicole (John's wife) teasing me a few times about the amount I "dote" over Tammi. I believe here intent was sarcastic meaning I don't pay nearly enough attention to her.
• At 80 minutes, I would say that sessions are too long. Most conferences I've been to have them at 60 minutes. Most user groups I've been to do the same. Since a lot of presenters test out presentations at user groups (or other conferences) before giving the grand show at 360, I'd suggest that they make the session shorter. This could just be my personal preference. The other side of the equation is that I ran out of time.
• I often forget everyone's name and face; although I improve slightly once we tie it back to an IM or Twitter ID.
• Some sessions were way too crowded; and seats ran out. Lots of people sat against the walls. I have a few ideas of how this may be addressed. An easy way is to survey attendees about "favorite sessions". With that data, could decide which ones need more seats / bigger rooms. Perhaps an even better solution is to create a scheduler app. They could report on the data get an estimated seat count for each session.
• If I ever get a chance to remake a Star War movie, I'm going to add a scene where the characters sit by a pond and watch fish and turtles swim around while sipping Root Beer Floats.
• In Atlanta, I asked my session crowd how many people listened to The Flex Show. Almost everyone raised their hand. In San Jose, I asked the same question and only about 1/3 raised their hand. I am not nearly as prominent as I like to pretend I am. Unfortunately, due to a shipping mishap (my fault), postcards for The Flex Show were not distributed to attendees as part of the welcome packet. I don't plan to print out more postcards of that design. I was thinking about stickers maybe.
• Even though I don't feel I helped out at this conference, some of my past ideas did come to fruition. They had 360Flex branded Jones Sodas. This came up in a twitter thread a long time ago and Juan even created some mock up labels. Honestly I don't remember if Root Beer Floats was my idea or not, but I took it and made it my own.
• Adobe video taped all the sessions. I think long-term this was a good thing. But, short term I heard a lot of "I'll just skip going to a session and watch it later." I'm worried that good presentations do not make good video, and some people (including me) missed out on part of the conference going experience. After watching the Wednesday Keynote I'm still not convinced that presentations make good video. I'm hoping that technical presentations will fair better than "Stand a clap" keynote stuff. Although, it will be a significant improvement over just releasing PowerPoint slides. I think slides are useless w/o the talk.
  I also don't like it when I get handed something to sign at the last minute. I usually refuse to sign w/o being given proper time to read such documents (and/or discuss with a lawyer). I'm a control freak so I wanted to review the recording before giving approval to post it live. I think I was the only dissenter on this. John, Stacy--the Adobe rep behind the recordings--, and I had a laugh about this at one point. I don't remember John's the exact words, but the gist was that I'm particular. "If Jeffry signs, everyone will sign."
• They have a chill out room. It had a "check in with work and be quiet" vibe. Instead of a chill out room, or perhaps in addition to, I'd say they add a "fun" room where Guitar Hero / Rock Band can be played all day.
• For the first time, I got to meet Deepa, Doug, Stacy, Rachel, Alex and probably other people I should remember, but don't. I got to hang out with Leif, Dan, Ryan, Ben, and other people whom I've already forgotten. I'm sure I'm already connecting names tot he wrong handle / blog. Ryan mentioned he wanted to interview me, and unfortunately w never hooked up to make that happen. Maybe at Max. I did do an interview w/ Dan, though, and that should hit the tubes at some point next week.

My brain is full. Or empty. I'm going off to bed. You'll see this all in the morning.

For those of you who want to find or meet me at the 360Flex conference, my intended schedule is attached.

( Click the download button ) in the footer of this post. On the "empty" slots I'll either be bugging John and Tom at their reg booth or hanging out at the House of Fusion booth.

I do not have any breakfast plans for Monday morning yet if someone wants to meet up.

And of course, if you're in the area, you're invited to the Star Wars excursion on Wednesday.