OK, so I'm taking in PTC's PlanetPTC virtual conference. Like Deelip likes to say, sitting at home can be a lot nicer than wrecking your body traveling long distances. I wonder if we will one day look back at business travel the way we now look at crossing America by ox cart?
Checking in at the exhibit hall, and it looks pretty empty to me. Two PTC booths and two non-PTC booths. Worse, there are no free-bees (aka "loot" or "promotional gimmicks") to slip into my shopping bag.
Click on a booth in the hall, and I get whisked to a virtual booth, complete with 2D mannequin of a rep. I can chat with him ("Hey, how's it going?" "Great, great."), click for more information, and watch a promotional video.
Let's see what seminars are being offered (the Agenda). There is "Getting to Know CoCreate" at 10:30am. Now, is that Eastern time? Or local time? Pacific time, which is where I am: "Thank you for registering for the session. Getting to Know CoCreate will start on July 28, 2010 10:30 AM PDT."
I've still got ten minutes, so I'll head over to the lounge (the Networking Lounge) and see who else is around. Looks like attendance is 74... 72... 73. This means the attendance is updated in real-time as people log in and out.
Hmm... what kind of small talk should I make?
If you're looking for me, I'm the one standing awkwardly by myself closest to the Lounge Chat window.
Mark Burhop asks, What's it like? Well, it certainly lacks the human interaction aspect. There is something about people being in close proximity, overhearing conversation, spontaneous contact through visual cues -- all that is lacking here. Also lacking are the booth personnel lunging out at passers-by. And the food is terrible!
It's 10:30 and so I'm joining 52 others to hear about "Getting to Know Co-Create." A couple of them describe themselves as Unemployed; half a dozen or so are PTC employees; and look, there's me! Waiting, waiting...
10:40. Still waiting. Maybe the speakers got delayed in heavy traffic. Do I need to press a button or something?
Looking around, I see that I can view the presentation's PowerPoint slides, so I'm downloading them. Here's one slide showing the history of CoCreate, although it misses out on the HP heritage (it was developed in-house by HP to design their laser printers and so on; HP later spun off the division to German management, who later got PTC to buy them.)
I finally pressed Refresh on my browser, and the seminar is underway. Brief intro about how CoCreate can read "any" file format, and now we're into a demo. Clever: the demo jock is blue-screened in front of the demo video.
You can follow along athttp://events.unisfair.com/rt/ptc2010~cocreate
Checking in at the exhibit hall, and it looks pretty empty to me. Two PTC booths and two non-PTC booths. Worse, there are no free-bees (aka "loot" or "promotional gimmicks") to slip into my shopping bag.
Click on a booth in the hall, and I get whisked to a virtual booth, complete with 2D mannequin of a rep. I can chat with him ("Hey, how's it going?" "Great, great."), click for more information, and watch a promotional video.
Let's see what seminars are being offered (the Agenda). There is "Getting to Know CoCreate" at 10:30am. Now, is that Eastern time? Or local time? Pacific time, which is where I am: "Thank you for registering for the session. Getting to Know CoCreate will start on July 28, 2010 10:30 AM PDT."
I've still got ten minutes, so I'll head over to the lounge (the Networking Lounge) and see who else is around. Looks like attendance is 74... 72... 73. This means the attendance is updated in real-time as people log in and out.
Hmm... what kind of small talk should I make?
If you're looking for me, I'm the one standing awkwardly by myself closest to the Lounge Chat window.
Mark Burhop asks, What's it like? Well, it certainly lacks the human interaction aspect. There is something about people being in close proximity, overhearing conversation, spontaneous contact through visual cues -- all that is lacking here. Also lacking are the booth personnel lunging out at passers-by. And the food is terrible!
It's 10:30 and so I'm joining 52 others to hear about "Getting to Know Co-Create." A couple of them describe themselves as Unemployed; half a dozen or so are PTC employees; and look, there's me! Waiting, waiting...
10:40. Still waiting. Maybe the speakers got delayed in heavy traffic. Do I need to press a button or something?
Looking around, I see that I can view the presentation's PowerPoint slides, so I'm downloading them. Here's one slide showing the history of CoCreate, although it misses out on the HP heritage (it was developed in-house by HP to design their laser printers and so on; HP later spun off the division to German management, who later got PTC to buy them.)
I finally pressed Refresh on my browser, and the seminar is underway. Brief intro about how CoCreate can read "any" file format, and now we're into a demo. Clever: the demo jock is blue-screened in front of the demo video.
You can follow along athttp://events.unisfair.com/rt/ptc2010~cocreate
Ralph,
I'd love to hear how this goes. Being face to face is nice but as you note, it is costly and time consuming.
There are some interesting technologies coming on line that target that middle ground between a webinar and a real life conference. I'm curious if they are still cutting edge or closer to becoming mainstream.
Posted by: Mark Burhop | Jul 28, 2010 at 10:13 AM
I also attended and think that the benefits of a VC are extensive, this CoCreate event seemed to run very smoothly, and i for one was saved a lengthy journey. Hopefully i get to attend more conferences like this from familiar surroundings.
Posted by: A.Fullan | Jul 28, 2010 at 03:49 PM
Ralph, glad you were able to attend the PlanetPTC Virtual CoCreate event. It's only the second one we've offered, the first being for Mathcad, and your feedback, both positive and areas to improve, is valuable.
Robin
Posted by: Robin Saitz | Jul 29, 2010 at 06:33 AM