We've discussed parties and prizes and pictures and places, but we haven't discussed much about the conference itself. What did you learn there? What sessions were the most interesting and valuable to you? What did you like best about being an attendee?

I'm looking through the show guide now, and I want to know what I missed. :look: While I enjoyed working at the WHT exhibit booth, I'd like to hear about the rest of the conference from those who there. And those who couldn't attend at all are probably also interested in what you can tell us about specific conference sessions, keynote addresses, and educational sessions.

Lois

other than learning what some people looked like, nothing :)

on the trip BACK, I learned that you need to wait 15-20 min to change a blowout tire in the mojave. I nearly burned myself badly on that scorching tire.

other than learning what some people looked like, nothing :)

Either you already know a lot or there was nothing there to learn. ;)

I'm going with the former. What value do you see in the conference for people newer to the business? What kind of information could they pick up?

on the trip BACK, I learned that you need to wait 15-20 min to change a blowout tire in the mojave. I nearly burned myself badly on that scorching tire.

See? You learned something. :P

Sorry to hear about that experience. :(

Lois

I learned quite a bit about market trends and industry forces. It was really interesting to listen to the M&A guys about what is happening in their sector, as well as listening to the marketing-related speakers about what new strategies they are relying on.

I was personally really disappointed with the marketing sessions, people blow so much money for so little return. I guess I did "learn" something, a lot of hosts fall into the trap of wanting to be in the top of the various directories around the internet, and they pay top dollar to be there even if they can't recoup costs for customers gained by those sources for over a year(and that is conservative, some were way longer than this that they spend in marketing for each customer!).

always surrender when you have hard 16 and the dealer is showing 17 or above.

always split aces and 8s

if you are showing 14 or more and the deal is showign a 4 or less - stay and let them possilby bust out.

I agree with (Stephen) - it's interesting to see what people will spend to acquire customers. Some of these guys run big hosts and at least seem to be successful so I guess it's a case of if it works for you...

It would seem Sailor still has a bit to learn about Blackjack ;)

FYI ....... http://www.hostingcon.com/2006/blog/?p=56

Hmm.. I learned a little about the WHT members.

I also learned that 116 even if it is dry heat is still blistering hot!!!

I learned you can purchase a 9 pound hamburger!!

lol nice one ^^

Met many people, including some big players in the industry, and ofcourse the WHT Crew :D

Learned a bit more about the hosting industry basically through interaction with others and so on, mostly on some of the new products out there but that's about it. Still had a great time though :)

I agree with (Stephen) - it's interesting to see what people will spend to acquire customers. Some of these guys run big hosts and at least seem to be successful so I guess it's a case of if it works for you...

It would seem Sailor still has a bit to learn about Blackjack ;)

well I won 350 and walked away with - so I am happy vs some of the ""pros" that lost. I will take being dumb and winning any day.

I learned you can purchase a 9 pound hamburger!!

Could anyone there eat one ? Sounds big !

but we haven't discussed much about the conference itself. What did you learn there?
Not a great deal sadly.

Most of the items that were of interest all coincided on Tuesday, which didnt help, a free set of webcasts/cds/mp3s or whatever to the full-conferece pass holders would have been nice, rather than it costing as much as the conference again.

The "education" level of some sessions amazed me, I couldn't work out if either hosts *really* are that dumb in general or the speaker was dumbing it down for 3 year-olds - such wonderful tidbits as ...

"a little known way to spy on your competitions search engine results" which equates to typing link:{domain} into google

"if you charge less than your competition, you will have to sell a lot more to get the same profit" - which of course is nonsense - you have to sell a lot more to get the same *income*

there were plenty of examples of this throughout, the seminar on backups over lunch, providing enough technical-total-b*ll*x as to actually be humorous to see what rubbish would be spouted next.

I just came away with a feeling that if the "experts" really had any clue about what they were doing, they certainly weren't sharing enough of the detail to fill others in ... the "informal" sessions of vendor training were more business helpful.

On the other hand I did make copious amounts of notes, most of which had little to do with the exact item being discussed, but things it triggered me to scribble down, and some of those *will* be useful in the coming months.

The exhibitors section was good for networking with suppliers and others, the nighclubs didnt really work for that, and mealtimes most people kept within their cliquey little groups (although the bleary-eyed breakfasts were good for general chat).

I was quite disapointed in the quantity of vendors, the big flashy M$ stands etc are all well and good, but IMHO the cpanel/wha/lpanel/comodo stands as small as they were, got more visitors. I would have like to see a greater number of industry suppliers there, perhaps the pricing of little "Booths" put people off, and I know having their items stuck in customs hindered several people (and a fair number of apparant no-shows)

Overall, an experience glad to have taken part in, put faces to names, and beers into hands of people know previously only by email, but to warrant going again, would need to see it signifiantly enlarged in both meeting range (maybe am and pm sessions of each item so we dont miss the few that are relevant ?) a "networking" dinner (like speed dating with geeks between courses ?) would be good etc

Mirage was a nice enough venue, although the several mile hike through it to get to the meetings was interesting ...