Tuesday, November 07, 2006

The Conference. The Bag.


It's a bag
Originally uploaded by Blue Blanket.
The day – alright, the evening – dawned and it was time to get signed up for the web 2.0 spectacular. Schlep along to a big signing-up area, show some id, get a name badge on a lanyard (technical conference term) and your Conference Bag.

For those of you who’ve done this before, you’ll know this is a critical moment. Not only do you get a sense of how a conference will be from the bag itself – in this case, a rather nice tote with lots of pockets and in a good quality, backpack-style material – but you always have the at sense of anticipation about what’s inside.

As well as half a ton of paperwork, this included:

- Some breath mints
- A voucher for $5 for Starbucks (thank you, IBM)
- A key ring which is also a bottle opener (beer, not wine)
- Some breath freshener spray (what does this say about the conference delegates??)
- A t-shirt from someone called grassroots.org
- A neoprene latptop sleeve (cool!)
- A brush (like a shaving brush) for cleaning your keyboard and monitor

A promising start. Says the most easily-bought delegate at the Palace Hotel… However, as an old lag when it comes to conferences, here's a top tip. Once you've got all excited over your bag and its contents, don't use it during the event itself. There'll be several hundred other folk all carrying exactly the same model about and the risk of you walking off with the one belonging to the person sitting next to you at lunch or coffee is very high indeed.

Oh, and in late-breaking news, the eagle-eyed among you will have spotted that the Web 2.0 Conference has suddenly got more important. Apparently, as of this morning, it’s a Summit. Well, THAT’S impressive...

No comments: