I’m at WebVisions today and tomorrow. Jeremiah is streaming live on Ustream if you want to check out the action.

Ahhh, conferences. If I had the time and money, I’d probably just go to conferences and classes for a career. It’s a blast to learn new things and listen to different perspectives. But, I’m practical and know that you won’t get much done if you’re only learning, so usually end up doing one or two outings a year. This is my third year at WebVisions, and I have to say, I much rather would’ve gone to Microsoft’s Mix. Ok, maybe being in Vegas has a lot to do with that preference. Local conferences aren’t always much fun, you don’t get to experience the whole thing as real life is still very present. But, with baby #2 nearing arrival, leaving town wasn’t an option.

The WebVisions lineup and sessions seem a bit weaker (IMO) than in years past, but we’ll see how how I feel afterwards. Take any of my criticisms with a grain of salt though, it would take mountains moving for me to get in front of an audience to present. I can barely ask a question without shaking.

AJAX Workshop

I was late (shocking, I know) but this turned out to be a bust. The speaker was definitely knowledgeable about the topic, pretty similar to my own level of knowledge I’d say. But, unfortunately I didn’t take my own advice about not attending technical/programming sessions at a designer’s conference. The presentation was geared at beginners and it was a “presentation,” not a workshop. I was expecting to be able to plug in the laptop and work through some examples and exercises after seeing some demos and a bit of lecutre/presentation. But instead it was just demos/presentation without the ability to reinforce what was being said through concrete exercises. You can’t learn this stuff by listening, you have to do it.

More later, the Inventrepreneurship session is shaping up nicely.

Tags: webvisions, webvisions07