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When I fi rst got into the technology and IT journalism racket as an
editor at PCWorld magazine way back in 1992, computer conferences
were king. Huge, big-tent confabs like Comdex in Las Vegas and
PC Expo in New York drew tens—if not hundreds—of thousands
of attendees. Flights were booked solid for days. Cab lines in Vegas
snaked around hotel entrances and oft en forced people to trudge
the astonishingly long blocks between venues along the Strip.
Th e editorial planning for these events was robust. We’d hold
multiple full-staff meetings in the weeks ahead of these shows,
assigning beats and lining up coverage responsibilities for the team
of editors sent to cover keynotes and announcements. It was an era
of conference gigantism. Like the dinosaurs that roamed the earth
more than 68 million years ago, these industry-wide events were
huge, powerful ... and extraordinarily vulnerable.
I began thinking about this when Microsoft announced that it
would be holding another Build developer conference this year,
returning to the Moscone Center in San Francisco from April 2-4.
Build, of course, has its roots in the old Microsoft Professional
Developers Conference (PDC) series, which itself launched the
same year I arrived at PCWorld. No developer conference would
ever approach the size and scale of a general computing event like
Comdex, but those early PDCs could pack them in. Th e inaugural
1992 event, which launched the Win32 API and introduced fi rst
mention of Windows 95 by its code name “Chicago,” was attended
by about 5,000 people. Later events would draw 8,000 or more.
Th ere is certainly value in big-tent, destination events—see the
ongoing success of giant shows such as the Computer Electronics
Show (CES) or CeBIT in Germany—but the IT/computing industry
in North America has seen nothing like Comdex or PC Expo
since they both waned in the early 2000s. Th e great lizards of the
past have been supplanted by smaller, more nimble mammals bet-
ter designed to endure a global cold snap and adjust to changing
environments. The annual Microsoft TechEd North America
conference, considered a large IT/computing gathering, draws an
estimated 10,000 or so attendees. Build attendance, meanwhile, is
strictly gated. Last year, registration for the Build 2013 conference
sold out within hours.
Or consider the Live! 360 DEV conference, which takes place
in Las Vegas next month (March 10-14). I’ve been active with the
Visual Studio Live! conference going back to my days as editor
in chief of Visual Studio Magazine, and now that the event is part
of the expanded Live! 360 conference program, I continue to
consult with the team to this day. Th e Live! 360 organizers place
an extremely high premium on fostering interaction between pre-
senters and attendees, encouraging people to approach speakers
throughout the show. Live! 360 DEV expects to draw 700-plus
attendees. It’s the absolute antithesis of the Comdex approach and,
frankly, it’s pretty cool.
In an era of accessible streaming media and limited travel
budgets, it really doesn’t make sense to drop 100,000 people into a
room and call it a conference. Smaller events promise better focus,
greater interaction and, ultimately, better value to the developers
and attendees traveling to the show.
By the time you read this, Build 2014 registration will have long since
sold out. If you didn’t hit the Web site early on Jan. 14, you’re almost
certainly out of luck. Enjoy the streaming Web video and congratulate
yourself for saving several hundred dollars in frustrating air travel.
For those who did sneak in, I expect you can look forward to
an outstanding event. Take advantage of the small footprint. Seek
out presenters, ask smart questions and argue with your fellow
attendees. There’s a lot to get out of these shows, and often the
smaller events aff ord the biggest opportunities to learn and grow.
Take advantage of it.
Conference Calling
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used by 1105 Media, Inc. under license from owner.Visit us at msdn.microsoft.com/magazine. Questions, comments or suggestions for MSDN Magazine? Send them to the editor: [email protected].EDITOR’S NOTE MICHAEL DESMOND