I work for a market research company that is also a part of AOL (which is also a part of Time Warner). Our stock price is not awesome right now, either.
So I went to an industry “technology” conference in NYC a week or two ago. It was really just an excuse for the industry organization to bilk some cash out of our companies. The content was really light, and I was disappointed to see that the ratio of legit “tech” people to “brass” people was terribly skewed in the executives’ favor.
That conference either needs to be redone to actually cover technology, or it needs to go away and be rolled back into the main organization conference. That’s just my opinion.
To balance the scales I am now going to the Lone Star Ruby Conference in Austin. It’s wicked cheap, and filled to the brim with content. The creator of ruby is also speaking. How freaking cool is that?!?
I’m totally pumped.