Last Saturday I have attended my first conference in autumn 2012. I have registered for it on dedicated website (mobilization.pl). The website could look a bit more professional. A mix of Polish/English, fonts. Anyway, I was able to find all the important information.
I have arrived at the conference place at 8:30 AM and noticed quite a long queue at the registration desk. To my surprise, the registration process went pretty was and I was been given a conference T-Shirt. All staff members were dressed like soldiers, session rooms were called: barracks, fortress, etc. Even on my T-Shirt, there was a big tank. Nice! Then the sessions started…
There were 4 tracks. No pre-registration, so I have to be careful and get a seat before the room is fully packed. Sessions level was average. Almost all of them were conducted in Polish (even if in agenda it was announced “English”). Unfortunately, a lot of them have somehow advertised products. I hate sessions where the speaker has his point of view and is not open to see other perspectives.
Meals. In general meals were average quality. The lunch was a typical military Pea soup and I have to admit it tasted good.
The gifts drafted at the final session were really nice. Kindle, SSD Drive, Web camera, many books etc. That was really impressive! Good job soldiers!
Positives:
- free ticket
- time (saturday)
- military stuff
- gamification contest
- gifts from sponsors
Negatives:
- sponsored sessions
- way of choosing who won gifts
- website
- meals
To summarize I think it could be better, but still, it was not that bad. 3/5
The next conference I will attend is devday.pl in Krakow, Poland.