Going to BoS 2009?

[Jason Glover]

So tell me ... who's going to BoS 2009?

I am coming from a bloody long way away. In fact I'll put it out there that I'm travelling the most miles to get to this conference and if anyone's travelling more kms than me I'll buy them two rounds of top shelf tequilla :p

But what about the rest of ya? Who's going to this year's conference?

I sure would like to get to know some of you online before hand to maximise the value of my trip. Don't want to be sitting by myself at the foreigners table ya know ;p

So this is the official call to y'all to drop a note about yourself if you're going to the BoS 2009.

Cher (as we say in Kiwiland)

[Chelle Obligacion-Gray]

Hi All!

I'm coming all the way from the Philippines and really looking forward to meeting other software entrepreneurs and possible collaborations. Exchange of experiences and knowledge.

And I'm looking forward to Geoffrey Moore and Jennifer Aaker's talks =)

@Neil I think the virtual meet up is a great idea.

[Ricardo D. Sanchez]

I want to attend, I am not sure yet. It all comes to affordability, I am spending all my time and cash (not much) on a new project.


- Which speaker at BoS 09 most interests you?

I have a great deal of respect and admiration for all speakers, however my two favorite ones are Joel Spolsky and Paul Graham.

- Where your favourite place you've been on holiday?

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It's about 3 hours from the city I was born (Guadalajara) and it is right on the beach. I was there for Christmas about 6 years ago with my family and we had a great time enjoying the sun and sipping some tequila, it was specially nice because at the time I was living in Minneapolis, MN and the fact that we were in a beach in December at about 85 degrees made it specially nicer!


- What kind of activity to get into to offset the rigor mortis of software development?

I spent a lot of my time with my kids and wife when I am not glued to the computer... we spent a lot of time hiking, camping and watching movies.


- What's your home town ?

I was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. I am currently living in Austin, TX and loving it :P


- When people ask you what you do at parties, do you lie?

Not really, however I usually say I work on "computers"... I used to try to explain I did software design and development, primarily web development to what people responded: "ah, you work on computers..."

[Cary Millsap]

Hi Jason. You're going to really enjoy the conference and San Francisco. However, don't get it into your head that seeing San Francisco is seeing the USA. :-)

Thanks for breaking the ice. I'll give it a shot.

- Which speaker at BoS 09 most interests you?

I'm eager to see Joel Spolsky again. And I'm eager to see Geoffrey Moore, whom I've never seen before. I really enjoyed Paul Kenny and Dharmesh Shah and Steve Krug last year. The great thing about last year is that two of the speakers I enjoyed the most—Steve Johnson and Jason Fried—were people with whose work I was completely unfamiliar before the conference. This year, I won't be caught as unprepared, but I do expect to be surprised again in a positive way.

- Where's your favourite place you've been on holiday?

Northern Italy, Austria, and southern Germany. I went on business a couple of years ago but was able to take my family. The scenery is breathtaking, and for some reason the whole place just resonates with me.

- What kind of activity to get into to offset the rigor mortis of software development?

Family. I've got two boys, 11 and 9, and a little girl, 3. The older boy and my daughter may run my business someday. The younger boy is a serious baseball player. I spend a lot of time playing and coaching baseball in the summers. In the off-seasons, I build things. I have a wood shop behind my house, where I build furniture for the family and friends, and lately I've gotten more involved with small-scale metalworking. I have a Sherline lathe (with its own microscope!), so I can build small cylindrical things like nobody's business :-), which works out nicely when we need cannon barrels made for my boys' (or my) model airplanes. I hope to have a Sherline mill someday soon. I have spent so much of my life between my own ears (mathematics and computer science) that it's a thrill to make things that actually have perceivable, discussable mass to other people.

- What's your home town and what's big in the news there today?

I live in Southlake, Texas, just north and slightly west of the DFW Airport. The Texas Rangers Major League Baseball club is based only about 20 miles away, and I'm taking my older boy to a game tonight. It's the first season in a very long time that the Rangers have been playing well. They're leading their division at the moment, so there's some hope in the air, which makes watching even more fun.

- When people ask you what you do at parties, do you lie?

I still can't believe how difficult it is sometimes when people ask me what I do for a living. I don't lie, but sometimes it would probably be better if I did. "I own a computer software company" generally works a lot better than "I'm an Oracle database performance specialist." I spend a lot of time looking at my shoes really wishing I had a more well-rehearsed answer available than I do. Looking back, probably my most successful answer has been, "I travel a lot." Which leads, of course, to, "What do you do when you travel?" The answer to that is easy. I help businesses solve their computer performance problems, and I speak to groups about how they can do that better themselves. I write a lot of software on airplanes and in hotels.

[Matt Richards]

I'm still waiting to see if I can make it, but the speaker list makes it very tempting.

- Which speaker at BoS 09 most interests you?
Michael Lopp, but I also want to hear Geoffrey Moore, Paul Graham, Donald Norman, and Joel Spolsky.

- Where your favorite place you've been on holiday?
Cancun. Very relaxing.

- What kind of activity to get into to offset the rigor mortis of software development?
Ice hockey. You can't think about your problems while you're out on the ice.

- What's your home town and what's big in the news there today?
Colorado Springs, CO: Building new facilities for the US Olympic Committee

- When people ask you what you do at parties, do you lie?
No, but I have a lot of trouble explaining. I need to work on my elevator pitch.

[Jason Glover]

Cary Millsap said:

Hi Jason. You're going to really enjoy the conference and San Francisco. However, don't get it into your head that seeing San Francisco is seeing the USA. :-)

No need to worry about that. Coming from a tiny little island at the arse-end of the world we tend to be up on our geography of others (because we don't have much geo of our own) and other people's history (because again we've only been around for 150 years) and of course most of our TV is imported from the home of the brave.

One of the pleasant aspects of SF being my first introduction to America is that it is jam packed full of culture and history and - hopefully - devoid of the kind of people who left comments on this article about Hotels in the greater metropolitan area .... (http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/affordableamerica/2009-...).

LMAO

Who still thinks you can catch AIDS off a door knob?!

We have people like that here too, unfortunately they don't all fit onto the smallest island we have so we have to let them intermingle with the rest of us. :p

- Where's your favourite place you've been on holiday? Northern Italy, Austria, and southern Germany. I went on business a couple of years ago but was able to take my family. The scenery is breathtaking, and for some reason the whole place just resonates with me.

That's a beautiful area, huh? I have inlaws in Munich so we've seen a lot of that area. Entertained the idea of moving there just about every time I've visited but the feeling wears off as soon as I come home and go to like any one of our beaches back home.

I have a wood shop behind my house, where I build furniture for the family and friends, and lately I've gotten more involved with small-scale metalworking. I have a Sherline lathe (with its own microscope!),...

Oh that is brilliant!! I know exactly what you mean about getting your hands into something "real". My outlet is cooking (you can't eat a chair! ;p) and pottering around in the garden. I have a book on permaculture which is waiting for me to tire of my love affair with making software and then it's off to a life style block somewhere to raise some chickens.

[Cary Millsap]

That article's comments are part of what I meant... There are such extreme ends of the spectrum there (actually I'm sitting in Monterey at a conference as I write, so here), and it seems they're always in full head-on-collision mode. Some people seem to thrive on the conflict. <grin>One name I've heard them called is, "Californians." <grin>

I'll look forward to meeting you at the conference.

[David Archer]

Hi Jason,

I've decided to hop on board an join you all as a first timer at BoS 09 from Sydney, Australia. I think that might be just slightly further than Auckland (I worked there for a couple of years, living on Waiheke Island, and my brother makes wine in Martinborough).

So, to break the ice ....

Which speaker at BoS 09 most interests you?
I've been reading Joel Spolsky's blog for years, so looking forward to hearing him in person. Somehow, I think he might be just like his blog!

Where your favorite place you've been on holiday?
I had a month in Italy last year and loved it. I spent at least half my time cruising through the countryside on a Vespa ... sigh.

What kind of activity to get into to offset the rigor mortis of software development?
I've spent the last couple of years intensively travelling which has been hard. I live near the beach in Sydney, so I try to (badly) surf when I get a chance. Playing music is also good, and my 3 and 5 year old kids consume the rest.

What's your home town and what's big in the news there today?
Sydney is my home town. My big news is that I have finished building my office and have just moved in - bliss! The big news in Sydney is that the government and opposition have finally agreed on some achievable renewable energy targets, and some hackers have managed to break into the police computer system at the same time as the police are gloating about breaking an underground hacking ring!

When people ask you what you do at parties, do you lie?
I sold my software company a couple of years ago, so now I find its easier to say I work for myself in IT. Unless you work in IT, thats all they really want to hear!

See you in November!

[Darren Miller]

Hey Jason,

I'm also coming to San Fran from Sydney, Australia. And, for the record, it is further than Auckland (http://www16.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sydney+to+san+fran = 11,932kms).

[Jason Glover]

Oh strueth! Looks like I'm going to be shouting drinks for a load of aussies ... how did I manage that? Ah well, not to worry.

Not long to go now and getting quite excited about it.

[Jason Glover]

How awesome is Tripit.com? I've just used it to plan my BoS trip (which extends to Vancouver afterwards for a little R&R). I had started a calendar in Google Calender for it, but the time zones were doing my head in.

TripIt ... you just forward your confirmation emails to it. How cool is that?

It can't tell me where to get a decent Gin Martini, but I think I can work that out myself once on the ground.

See ya's there

[James Swafford]

Hi Jason, I'll be there.

- Which speaker at BoS 09 most interests you?

I'm really, really excited about the entire line up. That sounds like a cop out though, so if I have to choose, I'll say Joel and Kathy. I'm still not sure about the whole Cranky PM thing.

- Where your favourite place you've been on holiday?

Hmm... probably London. My wife and I took a vacation there about 7 years ago. That was a great time.

- What kind of activity to get into to offset the rigor mortis of software development?

I have a six year old son and a three year old daughter, so a lot of my 'downtime' goes to them (I've
played lots of trainset and princess dolls.) I love to get outdoors, to camp, hike, or just cook out.


- What's your home town and what's big in the news there today?

I live in Greenville, North Carolina. It's a typical college town I guess. The big news would have to be
the big football game this weekend (East Carolina vs Appalachian State).


- When people ask you what you do at parties, do you lie?

I don't lie, but I do practice "language negotiation." I'm a Java Enterprise developer. To most
people, I simply say "computer programmer" or some such. But no, I don't lie, and I don't worry
about being branded a geek. If someone can't handle my geekness, to /dev/null with them!


See you in San Fran!
P.S. --- first post!

--
James

[Jeff Widman]

Hey Jason,
I'll be there... Looking forward to it, as it's got a phenom list of speakers! (The "Getting Things Done" conference by David Allen was the only other conference I attended last year that had speakers of this caliber.)


- Which speaker at BoS 09 most interests you?

I went last year, and really enjoyed Dharmesh Shah for all his data points and random factoids he throws out from experience. But undoubtedly Don Norman. Ever since I read "The Design of Everyday Things" I've been curious just who he was in person...

- Where your favourite place you've been on holiday?

This isn't a suck-up to Neil, but def 7 week long backpacking trip in the UK. Me and two buddies slept out pretty much every night, behind restaurants, in fields, etc. Lots of adventures, 350 miles of walking, and extremely frugal (I was a college freshman, and spent about $2000 USD total over the 7 weeks.)

- What kind of activity to get into to offset the rigor mortis of software development?

I'm actually more on the marketing side than the development side. But I probably go backpacking once or twice a month (that kind of freedom is why I love what I do) and then I find new clients always have unique project twists. It's the admin that brings on rigor mortis!

- What's your home town and what's big in the news there today?

I split my time between Bellingham, WA (5 minutes from the Pacific Ocean, half an hour from Canada) and Silicon Valley. Biggest news as of late--one of my clients, Mint.com, was just acquired for $170 million. (Zero equity for consultants. :-/)


- When people ask you what you do at parties, do you lie?

Nope--it's my chance to do market research.
I tell 'em "I help companies use Facebook to build brands and connect with their customers... how do you use Facebook? And what companies are doing a good job connecting with you on Facebook?" etc