EE Roadshow Wrap-Up
I was hoping to post some updates to the site during the EE Roadshow on Friday but as is usually the case with conferences, I didn’t have the time to sit down and focus on writing that I thought I would. So, a short wrap-up post will have to do for now.
To get started, I have to say that Seattle was a great place to hold this conference. The main conference hotel was within easy walking distance to the venue and to a lot of restaurants and bars.
As warm-up to the conference, a pre-party was held at Office Nomads, a co-working facility. Featuring beer, snack foods and lots of conversation, it was the perfect way for me to catch up with people I know and meet some new faces. It was a true pleasure to have face-to-face conversations with people I had only previously talked to online, whether in the EE Help Chat, by email or IM.
The Conference
The conference day started with breakfast and an informal gathering with Paul Burdick of Solspace about EE add-on development. I wish I could have participated in that but I was involved in a couple of other interesting conversations at the time.
We moved to the main room, found our seats (I found myself sitting up front) and got started with a presentation from EllisLab’s Leslie Camacho. He briefly went over some information about ExpressionEngine, EllisLab and the community and then jumped into a game show (emceed by Rick Ellis) where they gave attendees the opportunity to win $1,024. I think they ended up giving $3,000, which I’m sure helped the lucky winners cover some of the costs involved in attending the conference.
I’m sure some people were clamoring for more information about EE 2.0, but I think it was a nice change of pace to havea bit of fun, learn some EE trivia and, maybe, go home with a little cash.
That session was followed by Jenn Lukas, Mark Huot and Brian Warren (of Happy Cog East in Philadelphia) giving us an inside look into the process Happy Cog uses to nail down requirements before the development phase even starts.
After a lunch break, we learned about Git from Jason Hudnutt and from Matt Perry on his experience launching the Grist Magazine website. This included information and graphs on his experience of launching EE on a high traffic web property. He also shared some tips on how to get the best performance out of your own EE site.
When my talk on improving your EE development concluded, Brandon Kelly, Mark Huot, Ryan Masuga and Fred Boyle on developing and marketing EE add-ons. An insider look into how the four guys develop their add-ons, decide what to create and how much time they spend creating them.
The People
As is usually the case with technology conferences, the highlight for me is meeting new people, especially those with whom I’ve communicated or did business with but had never met in person. There were also people who so kindly shared their experiences with me of learning EE using my EE Screencasts. There is nothing more gratifying than hearing about people who found something I created helpful. I always appreciate people who email me and thank me, but hearing it in person has a little bit of extra awesome to it.
A big thank you to Kevin Shoesmith and Travis Smith for organizing the conference and picking a great city and venue as the host.
I’m looking forward to traveling to the Netherlands for EECI 2009 in a few weeks to meet the international EE community and re-connect with people from the EE Roadshow.
Posted on Oct 05, 2009 by Ryan Irelan
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Joe Wolin — 18:59 on 10.05.2009
It was wonderful meeting so many EE enthusiasts at the conference, but I felt the game-show by Ellis Labs should have been before or after the main talks. A big part of coming to the convention was to hear Ellis Labs talk about the future of EE2.0. Apparently they decide not to follow through with this or someone created a misleading title for their talk. I know I’m not the only one who felt this way and I suppose you just have to roll with the punches!
Leslie — 20:06 on 10.05.2009
Joe, I spent over an hour speaking directly to you about 2.0 and its future.
I spent a lot of time talking 2.0 one-on-one with anyone who asked, just like I promised I would. Those who listened to my brief message and took me up on my offer to introduce themselves to me got to know just about anything they wanted to about 2.0, EllisLab and the future.
That was the whole point, we didn’t want to talk at people, but with people directly. I spent just about every waking moment at the conference doing just that.
I’m sorry you feel like the hour+ I spent with you wasn’t enough. I gave you more time than anyone else and answered every question you asked and you got to know more about 2.0 than just about anybody else.
Yet here you make it sound like I said nothing to you or anybody
else. *shrug*
Justin Long — 23:38 on 10.05.2009
Ryan,
Thanks for the write up and it a great recap of the weekend. It was nice to finally meet many of the people that I see in the forums and on Twitter and to be able to discuss things that we go through when we are developing sites with EE. I found many of the sessions extremely useful and have already started applying some things to my development environment (Git). A great weekend and the only thing I could complain about was that was the weekend slipped by to quickly.
I know that some people might of been disappointed that EllisLab didn’t come out and say that EE2.0 will be released on this day (they told you the date will be announced later this minth… EECI…. maybe) with the following features. But to seriously be upset with them for not is just ridiculous, especially since they encourage people to come up and talk to them about 2,0 and they would share as much as they can with you.
Call me whatever but does the exact release date and features of EE2.0 really matter that much. I don’t think so. Right now as an ExpressionEngine developer we develop online applications/sites with a kickass platform. We have a strong 3rd party development base and great tech support. Something that a lot of other CMS don’t have. So what if EE2.0 does or doesn’t have X or Y features unless you are one of the lucky few that has a beta invite you wont be able to develop an add-on for it until the hooks are released and you have a copy of 2.0. When EE2.0 comes out sure I will be excited but until then who cares what 2,0 has 1.6 still kicks ass.
Michael Hessling — 00:44 on 10.06.2009
Sounds like a wonderful conference in a wonderful city, Ryan. Thank you for taking the time to write it up.
I would love a more in-depth look at Happy Cog’s development process (between Huot and you, I’m sure there’s so much we could learn from it). Not asking for the farm, though. :D
Will there be slides posted anywhere?
Speaking of the decision of EE to talk *with* and not *at*: I’m not a pushy guy (and hard-of-hearing to boot), and there’s no way I would have shouldered my way through the adoring mobs to talk directly with Leslie. So, had I gone to Seattle, I would have appreciated even a brief presentation by EE. It sounds like the rest of the presentations were stellar, though.
Joe Wolin — 06:05 on 10.06.2009
Leslie,
Thanks for taking the time to talk with me one-on-one. Ellis Labs is a great company and I appreciate the quality of your products.
Most of the discussion we had was over third party add-ons. My goal for the conference was to get some insight into “EE2.0 and what it means for my business.”
While I left the conference with a huge understanding of how the company works, I did not have any increased knowledge of the future of EE2.0 and how it’s going to work for our business (Backwards compatibility, CodeIgnitor goals, new features, vision for the product’s future, etc).
We’ve put a lot of investment into designing our business around ExpressionEngine so our goal is to understand more about the future of EE2.0 and how we can better plan for it in the coming year.
Thanks again. You’re a very generous listener!
Leslie — 08:25 on 10.06.2009
@joe - Thanks Joe. And for the record, I understand why some people didn’t like the game show and/or would have preferred a more traditional approach.
To the “EE 2.0 and what it means for my business” I think I answered that pretty clearly to those that asked me one-on-one and for a general audience, we’ll certainly provide answers in the near future once the second beta is well under way.
My apologies to those who felt mislead or disappointed. I think we delivered what we promised but should have been more clear on what we intended to do and how. As you said, we’ll “roll with the punches” and think of something else next time.
Jim Hull — 13:56 on 10.06.2009
Wish I could have gone to this. If you have a chance it would be great to read about any of the presentations in more detail - if you took notes or anything like that.
Thanks again for the wrapup.
Joe Wolin — 14:01 on 10.06.2009
@Jim,
There was a crew there video taping the gig so I think they have plans to post it sometime soon.
Travis Smith — 23:37 on 10.08.2009
Hi folks.
Yes, we’ll be posting the videos as soon as we edit and convert them. Some session slides are online now at the EE Roadshow site: The high performance talk by Matt Perry and the HappyCog slides are.
http://www.eeroadshow.com/sessions/
Also, Ryan, it would be great if you could credit Monique Trottier of Boxcar Marketing and Degan Beley of deganbeley.com—they were key organizers as well as Kevin and I.
TTFN
Travis Smith