2015 - not a new year resolution: a message for conference producers

2015 is here. Happy New Year!

I don’t really go in for new years resolutions but if I did it would be the same one I have had for the last two years: Go to fewer conferences.

In 2014 I went to 10 conference, and spoke at 9 of them.

Which is an improvement on 2013 when I attended 12 and spoke at 11 - although I ran a workshop at the twelfth.

The first call for papers of the year is already in my mailbox - BCS SPA - and I’m going to ignore it. Not because it isn’t a good conference but because I have to start somewhere.

I already have two conferences in the diary for 2015 - NorDevCon in February and DevWeek in March. And I’ll probably speak at Agile on the Beach and attend EuroPLoP so that is four already.

(Plus some local/user group events, I count them separately.)

So, if you are a conference organiser/producer and you would like me to speak at your conference the best way of getting me is: ask me directly. Part of the reason for cutting down on conferences is to cut down on the time it takes to complete call for paper submissions.

(Organisers of local groups and user groups always ask directly and I almost always say yes. In fact I often prefer these events to conferences.)

Right: now I’ve gone public with this “not a resolution” I hope I’ll have a better chance of keeping it.