Comments on: 360Flex:Milan - A Critical Review http://thecourtsofchaos.com/2008/04/14/360flexmilan-a-critical-review/ the random thoughts of robin harrison Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:35:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Tom Ortega http://thecourtsofchaos.com/2008/04/14/360flexmilan-a-critical-review/#comment-796 Tom Ortega Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:46:00 +0000 http://thecourtsofchaos.com/?p=21#comment-796 Thanks for the brutally honest review, Robin. I'm currently writing up a "Where things went wrong with Europe" post for the corporate blog. It's the first time I feel the need to explain ourselves, so your post is not unexpected. I have to agree with you on a lot of your points and I'll flush it out more tonight in a post. Quickly though, the two biggest problems, in my mind, with 360|Flex Europe were marketing and time. We just assumed that our brand would carry across and that we would line up the technical speakers and attendees. Talking to folks who did show up, they found us by accident more so than by knowing the brand. We had a solution to that problem in mind, but that leads us to the second problem: time. Time is an issue in general, since John and I do these shows part time. We've now realized that doing 2 shows in 1 quarter is not possible on a part time basis. 360|Flex Europe '09 will be in a quarter on it's own, to get the planning and attention it rightly deserves. (John will hate me for saying this next bit, but oh well) I'm also hoping that John can go full time with 360Conferences soon. I think having one dedicated person on the shows will be a huge boost to details and organization overall. That being said, despite the "poor showing", our first European was a valuable learning experience for John and I. We hear all of your concerns and have a few you weren't aware of (that I'll still discuss). I'll add another comment with the links to these various writeups I have in the works when I'm done. One thing we're known for in the States is continuous improvement, show after show. Don't think this won't be applied to Europe as well. We'll have to dust ourselves off a bit, but we'll be back. With more knowledge and a better understanding of the European community. Hopefully, we'll get more write ups like this that lay out where we can improve, so we can follow up on them and improve. Thanks again for the review. Sorry we disappointed, but we'll do our best next time to give you the experience you've grown to expect from the 360|Flex brand. Thanks for the brutally honest review, Robin. I’m currently writing up a “Where things went wrong with Europe” post for the corporate blog. It’s the first time I feel the need to explain ourselves, so your post is not unexpected. I have to agree with you on a lot of your points and I’ll flush it out more tonight in a post.

Quickly though, the two biggest problems, in my mind, with 360|Flex Europe were marketing and time.

We just assumed that our brand would carry across and that we would line up the technical speakers and attendees. Talking to folks who did show up, they found us by accident more so than by knowing the brand. We had a solution to that problem in mind, but that leads us to the second problem: time.

Time is an issue in general, since John and I do these shows part time. We’ve now realized that doing 2 shows in 1 quarter is not possible on a part time basis. 360|Flex Europe ‘09 will be in a quarter on it’s own, to get the planning and attention it rightly deserves. (John will hate me for saying this next bit, but oh well) I’m also hoping that John can go full time with 360Conferences soon. I think having one dedicated person on the shows will be a huge boost to details and organization overall.

That being said, despite the “poor showing”, our first European was a valuable learning experience for John and I. We hear all of your concerns and have a few you weren’t aware of (that I’ll still discuss). I’ll add another comment with the links to these various writeups I have in the works when I’m done.

One thing we’re known for in the States is continuous improvement, show after show. Don’t think this won’t be applied to Europe as well. We’ll have to dust ourselves off a bit, but we’ll be back. With more knowledge and a better understanding of the European community. Hopefully, we’ll get more write ups like this that lay out where we can improve, so we can follow up on them and improve.

Thanks again for the review. Sorry we disappointed, but we’ll do our best next time to give you the experience you’ve grown to expect from the 360|Flex brand.

]]> By: polyGeek http://thecourtsofchaos.com/2008/04/14/360flexmilan-a-critical-review/#comment-795 polyGeek Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:06:46 +0000 http://thecourtsofchaos.com/?p=21#comment-795 Thanks for the detailed review. It sounds like everything that could go wrong did. I think the recipe for success that the 360Flex conference has for the US may not translate into success in Europe. It wouldn't be the first time that we Americans didn't get you Europeans. :-) I'm bummed that you won't be back at 360Flex in SanJo. Like you, I was the first person to purchase a ticket - after they announced. I'm going to have to make it to Flash on the Beach one of these years so that we can hook up. Thanks for the detailed review. It sounds like everything that could go wrong did.

I think the recipe for success that the 360Flex conference has for the US may not translate into success in Europe. It wouldn’t be the first time that we Americans didn’t get you Europeans. :-)

I’m bummed that you won’t be back at 360Flex in SanJo. Like you, I was the first person to purchase a ticket - after they announced. I’m going to have to make it to Flash on the Beach one of these years so that we can hook up.

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