Spiceworld London 2016
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@Kelly said:
@Breffni-Potter I think it would depend on what you were valuing. If you're looking at going to a tech conference and a chance to meet vendors I think it would be a terrible value.
Meeting vendors works really well. You just have to know how to do it. At the conference proper (all there is in London) or the "no talking" official events you get almost no chance to talk. If you go with the crowds to the unofficial events, you get tons of access to vendors with time to talk.
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@Kelly said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Kelly said:
There are more person to person interactions with vendors and Spiceworks staff, and not just a booth crawl.
there is an epic booth crawl, but those of us in the know just skip that. I don't visit the booths t all.
I meant that the interactions consist of more than just the booth crawl.
Not the official ones
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I guess these events are great for networking but unfortunately networking isn't a skill I've ever managed to master.
I wondered about this before my first SpiceWorld, but I realized that it was more like meeting up with friends I'd never met in person before. I wasn't networking. I was just hanging out.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Kelly said:
@Breffni-Potter I think it would depend on what you were valuing. If you're looking at going to a tech conference and a chance to meet vendors I think it would be a terrible value.
Meeting vendors works really well. You just have to know how to do it. At the conference proper (all there is in London) or the "no talking" official events you get almost no chance to talk. If you go with the crowds to the unofficial events, you get tons of access to vendors with time to talk.
I was responding specifically to @Breffni-Potter's question about the value to him. As a UK based MSP, American sales reps aren't going to provide him much, if any, value.
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I heard there was a conference in upstate NY that would be a great way to network and be introduced to technical topics.
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@Kelly said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Kelly said:
@Breffni-Potter I think it would depend on what you were valuing. If you're looking at going to a tech conference and a chance to meet vendors I think it would be a terrible value.
Meeting vendors works really well. You just have to know how to do it. At the conference proper (all there is in London) or the "no talking" official events you get almost no chance to talk. If you go with the crowds to the unofficial events, you get tons of access to vendors with time to talk.
I was responding specifically to @Breffni-Potter's question about the value to him. As a UK based MSP, American sales reps aren't going to provide him much, if any, value.
I don't know if that is true. Most of the ones at the UK event are American ones anyway. Katie and Richard are US based. Brian from Scale is German and does the US events, that isn't an issue here. I think the country basis isn't as big as you'd think. AetherStore is nearly 100% European staff.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Kelly said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Kelly said:
@Breffni-Potter I think it would depend on what you were valuing. If you're looking at going to a tech conference and a chance to meet vendors I think it would be a terrible value.
Meeting vendors works really well. You just have to know how to do it. At the conference proper (all there is in London) or the "no talking" official events you get almost no chance to talk. If you go with the crowds to the unofficial events, you get tons of access to vendors with time to talk.
I was responding specifically to @Breffni-Potter's question about the value to him. As a UK based MSP, American sales reps aren't going to provide him much, if any, value.
I don't know if that is true. Most of the ones at the UK event are American ones anyway. Katie and Richard are US based. Brian from Scale is German and does the US events, that isn't an issue here. I think the country basis isn't as big as you'd think. AetherStore is nearly 100% European staff.
Perhaps not. However, what I stated reflects my experience at SWL. With the exception of the vendors that were primarily US based, they either weren't interested in engaging or weren't capable of reframing their information. I was actually interested in the offerings from one vendor who was international, but despite asking them to put me in contact with a local sales rep I kept getting UK regionalised information and pricing.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Breffni-Potter said:
Some stall holders were just grumpy, disinterested. I don't get why they were there. One of them when I tried talking to them said "We sell storage systems for the 50k mark, so mainly enterprises" - But you are at a heavy duty SMB focused event?
Austin gets that, too. Lots of vendors have never heard of the community and just get sold the stall by sales people without explaining to them who the audience is or outright telling them things that are inaccurate. You get a lot of vendors there that are pretty confused or just don't care and actively shun the audience they just paid for.
That was the case for Cylance - they only sell to 250+ seat places.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Kelly said:
@Breffni-Potter I think it would depend on what you were valuing. If you're looking at going to a tech conference and a chance to meet vendors I think it would be a terrible value.
Meeting vendors works really well. You just have to know how to do it. At the conference proper (all there is in London) or the "no talking" official events you get almost no chance to talk. If you go with the crowds to the unofficial events, you get tons of access to vendors with time to talk.
Except there were very few unofficial ones. And everything in London closes up so early. @scottalanmiller and I who are so familiar with SWA were pretty bored at night
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@Minion-Queen said:
@coliver said:
I heard there was a conference in upstate NY that would be a great way to network and be introduced to technical topics.
Thank you @coliver!
Except the cost of said conference is much higher due to the time & travel expenses required. So thanks but no thanks
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Oh I understand
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I won't be going to MangoCon for the same reason I won't be going to Austin
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I think it's still worth going to spiceworld London.
As far as content goes, for an IT tech conference, you get a lot of interesting talsk and not always from vendors. The drill is stil the same, ie vendors flussing things up, but I find it interesting depending on the projects that you are involved in you can always make some good conversation. Most of vendors are pretty nice @Lenovo - unitrends - cyberoam - webroot etc .. you ll always get some annoying one ..
In terms of value for money .. you get decent food, decent swag and a good free booze party ... I don t think is all that bad..
I can't compare it the Austin one but as a UK venue it's not all that bad ... will need to find the time to come over the pond and sample the Austin one ..I hope soon ...
Stef
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If you're looking for a great tech conference in London check out BSides. It runs along InfoSec typically and as such is a security focused conference. Very few vendors to get in the way (5-10 maybe) and everyone talks to everyone at the breaks.
Problem with this conf though is trying to get a ticket. Supplies are very limited.
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Nice suggestion.
https://www.securitybsides.org.uk/
Do you know how long it runs from/to? There is no schedule yet or rough outlay of timings.
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@Breffni-Potter Here's the details...
Security BSides London 2016
June 8th 2016
ILEC Conference Centre
47 Lillie Road, London, SW6 1UD
