We’re big Gowalla users at BKWLD, thanks to Aaron getting us started on it.  We’re also big on going to lunch together.  And our location right near Pike Place Market gives us a lot of options.  Now you can follow along at home!

One of the goals BKWLD planned for ourselves this year was to attend more events and conferences.  More accurately: to attend events at all.  In previous years we’ve balked at the cost of most conferences and the expected return we’d get on that money and time.  We decided to give it a chance with the SoDA Click New York event last year, to see whether our assumptions had been valid.  It was a good experience, largely because it got us out of the day to day and thinking bigger picture.  Thus this year’s initiative was born.

We went to StackOverflow’s Dev Days earlier this year.  One big plus of it was it’s cost: $100 a head.  The speakers gave us an overview of technologies that we don’t use regularly (there wasn’t a lot of LAMP love) and the FogBuzz keynote made me realize that some of the issues we’ve faced in the growth of ground(ctrl) and Elastic aren’t unique to us.  Which brings us to SXSW, which 6 of us just back from.

We brought a pretty big team to SXSW and it works there since the conference is so multidisciplinary.  During the day we split up often, so that people could meet with other folks who were there or attend panels specific to their interests.  As anyone who is our friend on Gowalla will attest (sorry for all the spam), we “checked in” to let each other know where we were.  Some of the panels I enjoyed the most were on iPhone UI design, new methods of tactile interaction, and the marketing strategy behind the Bing launch.  I was able to meet some the Appcelerator dev’s at the meetup they held, which was a great opportunity for me to ask them questions.  During the night we caroused between the free parties that different companies held (Pure Volume, Gowalla, etc).

So will we go again? I think so.  In talking with our crew, it sounds like we unanimously agreed that the panels lacked enough depth.  Many were overviews or stated the obvious too much.  There wasn’t enough detail and brainy insight.  That being said, there was usually a tidbit or two I picked up from the panels I attended.  And, there was a lot of value in getting time with coworkers in a stress free environment.  As opposed to doing some extracurricular activity (like our snowboard trip in December), the framework of a conference focused our conversation on work themed stuff, spurning creativity and new ideas.  I think this last point is what would have me taking us back again.  While we could plan a fun activity locally for a much lower cost, having a structure based on learning (even if it fell short) is special about going to a conference and led to growth outside of the sessions.

Next up for us is An Event Apart in Seattle.  If your company is thinking of going to industry events and you want to chat about whether it’s worth the cost or not (I’m still chewing on this myself), hit me up in the comments.