ACCU conference: attendence

Attendance was high. People came from as far away as California and Tokyo. Since the move from the Randolph to the Barcelo hotel the conference has been able to cope with 350 attendees. The last couple of years it has been sold out, this year it fell short by about 5. I believe 15 or more bookings happened in the last week.

Given that other conferences are reporting falls of 30% or 40%, and some are cancelling altogether that is remarkable. The success I believe is down to two reasons.

First the obvious: the conference had an extremely strong programme.

Second: community.

The ACCU conference is not just the best software development conference in the UK - possibly in Europe and indeed the world - but it is also the high point of the ACCU year. The ACCU has close to 1,000 members thoughout the world, it publishes 12 journals a year, runs several active mailing lists and holds numerous local events in the UK and USA.

For many members the conference is a chance to meet people face-to-face who they only meet electronically otherwise.