System iNetwork

April 1, 2008

Guest Blog: A Quick Chat with Scott Klement

One of my favorite things about COMMON is being able to see our tech editors in person. Because they live all over the country — and some even live in other countries — most of my interaction with them is via e-mail. So it's great to see some of them face to face here at COMMON. I ran into Scott (who, by the way, is a speaker in nine sessions at this conference!) and asked him to give me his impressions of this year's COMMON so I could share it with you in this blog. Here's what Scott had to say:

My overall impression of this year's annual conference has been very positive. First of all, I just love this hotel. It has several huge atriums full of plants, fountains, restaurants, and shops. The biggest atrium has a river running through it, and they give boat tours on the river. How many hotels do you know of that have boat tours inside the hotel? I'm loving every minute of it.

I've also noticed quite a lot of "first-time attendee" ribbons on people's badges. I'm really thrilled to see so many people coming for the first time, and I find it very encouraging.

In fact, I've been getting a very positive vibe from this conference. The first timers are excited, but so are the experienced folks. The attendees at the talks I've given seem very excited about learning new things, and that carries over to the speakers, who feel excited to teach those things. What a great feeling!

I've also asked several vendors how their businesses are faring in today's market, and the majority of them told me that business is good and that they're experiencing growth. That's wonderful to hear! Quite honestly, it was not what I expected. I thought I'd hear gripes (as I did last year) about how hard it is to find people interested in buying more stuff, but I really haven't heard that this year.

It almost feels like the community has been revitalized. I can't really put my finger on why they feel this way, but I have to tell you, it makes me feel good just to be here in the midst of it.

— Linda Harty, web strategic editor

Posted by rsanders at April 1, 2008 10:00 AM