I went to the SCALE 5x show for the third year in a row and came away impressed. I saw 4 or 5 papers which I thought were very well done; but the primary thing I wanted was to meet up with friends from the Linuxcare and other days, network a bit, eat and drink with them and live the life again. The show this year was put together well and there were more people, a bigger venue of exhibitors, and still the same great community and LUG representation.
Each year at Linux World in SF I organize a lunch for a few people because we all worked together at Linuxcare and it seems that the folks enjoyed the “coming together” once a year, eating, talking, seeing a special guest I arranged. The meal was a lot of fun to bring together and I managed to get some interesting folks to agree to a free lunch each year. Unfortunately, many of the people I would invite no longer attend the shows and I think there has been a gradual ebb of interest so this year I will most likely not arrange the luncheon. People, I think, have gone beyond it in their careers and personal lives. Perhaps they don’t want to remember what Linuxcare did or was. The last time I did one, I was an employee at Levanta (what Linuxcare grew up to be). Now I’m gone from there and I feel more apt to want to get the people together I worked with at Levanta. They were a fine crew and I miss them to this day.
SCALE 6x will come along in about a year and I’ll go again. LWE in SF will come along in some months and I’ll go there. But inbetween, I am really thinking about going to OSCON and the Ubuntu conference then. Portland would be an interesting trip this year and its not so far that its difficult or expensive.
I think tradeshows evolve and have their own ebbs and flows and they must decide their life span and how they adopt and adapt to things. I’ve watched the Linuxworld shows last few years and they’ve become something else as well. What they’ve evolved to I think some of the “old hands” are not kindly disposed to. The idea 2 years ago of placing the .orgs way far away was almost the final straw for me personally. Iin other regards the show has changed to. Its more corporate than ever. There are anchor booths with anchors. Wandering corporate elites wanting to find something cool, new or uber.
I’ll stick around with SCALE I think but I have some flexibility so the LWE’s will still be gone to because someone has to go. The days of the Lab reunion lunch are probably over and I think I will arrange a new lunch for the guys at Levanta that worked together.
