While the opening keynote was fine, and I am looking forward to the rest of the day’s sessions, I do have some negative feedback for the organizers of the O’Reilly Open Source Conference. I don’t (yet) know of a more effective way to provide this feedback, so this blog entry will have to suffice.
Unlike any other conference I’ve attended (some hosted by O’Reilly, such as eTech), there was no coffee at the first break this morning. There was coffee when I arrived, but that’s not really the point. At the break, when I was ready for more coffee (can you tell I’ve not had enough yet?), the only choice was to pay megabucks for Starbucks. No thanks, I’ll pass.
Overall, the logistics of this conference are quite different from any other I’ve attended. For one thing, the actual conference isn’t at the official hotel, which results in more travel and hassle than normal. Plus, the signage for the conference has not been clear (or is it the lack of coffee?) resulting in confusion. Finally, the program was obviously printed far too much in advance, as so far, none of the sessions I’m attending today are even listed in the official program. Thank goodness O’Reilly does have an up-to-date web site.