MADExpo 2013 Call for Speakers is now open!

A Skewworks/Lee presentation sounds like fun! I think I’ve got the arcade prop covered :wink: It wouldn’t be a show without a cannon though.

Could always fly the grand kids out and let them stay at Great Wolf Lodge and go to Busch Gardens nearby while you attend the conference.

A combo talk would be awesome!

And yes, arcade cabinet logistics must be dealt with :wink:

TTT - Call for speakers is open until Feb 25th. We’ve already had quite a few great submissions, look forward to more!

http://madexpo.us/speakers

@ stevepresley - A question.

How many participants were there in 11 and 12?

Sad news. It has been canceled:

http://madexpo.us/

@ Architect -

Yeah…sorry that Steve or I did not get a chance to post here first.

The website pretty much says it all. We reached a point where we had to make a go/no-go call, and unfortunately, the numbers just didn’t work.

I’m sure I speak for the entire organizing committee in expressing my gratitude for all the support shown by the tinyclr community for our event, and our apologies for any inconvenience the cancellation causes.

We’ll no doubt find other opportunities to get together in person.

I was really bummed when I got the email on this. It’s definitely something I was looking forward too.

Having already booked the time off work I call on GHI to host a FEZExpo on the same dates in MI :wink:

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Bummer! Didn’t a few of this crew make it to NYC Maker Faire last year? My vote would be to make that the next best gathering of forum folks. I have some solid plans in place to make it this year.

Yea. This sucks. I guess everyone got word that I was actually going to be able to attend this year… Sorry everyone :wink:

Maybe… That’s a long, expensive trip. I like the idea of a weekend FEZcon hosted at GHI :smiley:

@ ransomhall - Are you planning on going to NYC MF this year?

@ architect - yes. I’ve been trying for a couple of years and finally got authorization from my in house accountant, with the condition she and my son would also attend :slight_smile:

Exhibiting or just attending?

Probably just attending. Although I could be convinced to do some sort of FEZ/Gadgeteer type booth if others want to collaborate. The biggest lesson I learned from our local mini faire last year was that exhibiting prevents one from enjoying the entire event.

I bet if we prodded the MS Research Gadgeteer gang in Boston, they would come over with some toys. Maybe even GHI (although Detroit is a lot closer)? Would be a great debut for whatever new stuff is ready by then… hint, hint.

Sorry to hear it was cancelled as I would have thought from last year’s event and the favorable feedback I heard that it was pretty much a guaranteed repeat event, so I find it interesting that was cancelled, what changed in the ecosystem to cause this? There are times I’m not so sure the developer ecosystem is as healthy as it used to be and that concerns me.

I wonder how much Microsoft deciding to have the BUILD conference the same weekend affected things.

It would have been a repeat had the math worked. I think it’s due to many things, not just BUILD or the ecosystem or whatever else. We had a really strong lineup of speakers and had several people buy tickets that didn’t make it into BUILD.

In my humble opinion (community event planner hat on, MADExpo treasurer hat off):

There’s still quite a bit of the code camp mentality that people will sign up for an event, and if it’s a nice day, just won’t bother showing. And that’s for free events… It’s really hard to plan any event, much less a paid conference, without that level of commitment, so when you ask people to pay months, not weeks or days in advance, most people tend to wait until the last minute. The problem is all of the vendors typically have a balance due/no cancellation term at 30 days out, which really sucks for event planners who have to stroke a check if you don’t buy a ticket more than that 30 days out and then we have to hope that you buy a ticket in the last month of sales. Even with codecamps, the food orders typically need to be placed 3-4 days in advance of the event, so even if 300 people sign up, you may only get 180 through the door on the day of the event, so you end up with a bunch of wasted food (and wasted sponsorship money) that could have gone towards other things because people don’t go online and cancel their ticket or email and say “i’m not coming”.

@ stevepresley - What about 2014?

This is some very sad news. I hope it comes back next year.

Hopefully, this will have a positive effect for sales next year and those that were planning to attend but who hadn’t bought a ticket will operate differently next year. On the flip side… If you saw this coming weeks ago I wonder if there’s something that could have been done to motivate folks to buy a ticket. Perhaps a public notice that if you didn’t sell another 500 tickets before 5/22 then the event would have to be canceled? I’m not criticizing at all. I just hate it had to end this way after all the work I know you had already put into it. I’d certainly hate to see it happen again in the future.

So, with all this free time now when are we going to get to see some rovers? :wink: