I spent yesterday at 2gether08 and thought it was great. It had a lot of the elements that make Reboot a success: a good venue that feels down-to-earth; lots of tracks to choose from scope for doing a few things on-the-fly; a bit of social network technology but nothing too fancy; and a cafe area in which to schmooze. I spent a lot of my time in the cafe bit, catching up with people I’ve not seen for a while, but also saw a couple of good sessions.
These unconferences are typically way cheaper than conventional ones, and seem to create much more enthusiasm from participants – partly because we know we have to make a bit of an effort. When you’ve spent £1000 for some conference, of course you feel obliged to moan about the slightest imperfection in the temperature of the coffee; when you’ve spent a hundred or so, you know you have bring a bit of goodwill along as well.
