Help Design Gnomedex 5

Power strips - YES!
I like most of these other ideas.
Wi Fi is not valuable to me.
I know I'm in the extreme minority. No one seems to value the integrity of their computers. (I can't imagine why… :-( )
Please. It's not too difficult if you plan in advance. A few wired
connections for the retro-geeks like me. Hell, I'll set up a router and gang a hub to it for those like me if the connections you've provided are filled…
I like the swag idea, although I'm a bit blase about it - I've been to a lot of bicycle races and I know it's partially luck and how aggressive you are that determines how much you get - and I don't seem to be good with either…

How about Laughlin NV instead of Vegas? Much, much cheaper for attendees. If you're on hotel mailing lists, they have rooms for 8$

I like the Las Vegas Idea…. ! Since I live there….I can get Thousands of People to come!!!

While the band was great, bands are tough things in all male crowds. Maybe brink in a geek comedian for the evening entertainment?
Also, keep sessions to 60-75 minutes — would be great to get in two more quality sessions a day.

I think the BOF sessions are a good idea. More chances to exchange ideas.
Lunch and Learns are tough. Did the people who listened to the Gillmor talk have time to find food before things started up? (I hate when we have L&Ls at work.)
Power strips on the conference floor - very good idea.
Wi-Fi available a day before and after the conference - also a good idea.
Las Vegas, non-casino hotel - for my tastes, anywhere where we can get away from smoky areas. It was fun to walk through the casino after things shut down in the evening, but the constant smoky air was definitely starting to get to me.
Hands-on with hardware, software, service, site demos - also a good idea.
Presentation & Planning Committee - this would be good. I heard a few voices saying that they wished that the panels had a mix of experts and end-users. (ie, sometimes the experts forgot to consider how the end-users use the technology they were discussing).
A comedian would be fun. The band was also a nice touch. It's entertainment, so why does it matter if the crowd was mostly (not all!) male?
It would be cool if you could attract more women panelists.

POWER…there need to be so many more outlets, for those who don't
have never-ending battery life…this time i know it was a cost
problem, but that's something that you should consider in planning
next time…
SWAG…the table idea is a good one…i would also suggest that people
could send a few hundred of their business cards and have them in the
Swag Bag when people check in…
SHIRTS, FLEECE, ETC…i've always gotten a jacket or something when i
go to a conference, but i was dissapointed when i learned that none
were available at Gnomedex…
SVHR…they were ok..but it was a bit slow…if ya know what i
mean…GREAT CONCEPT though, i really love telling my geek-friends
about the CD's creation…
MOBLOG…you had one @ GD3, and i watched it like a hawk from my laboratory…

Chris, we had an awesome time this year and are looking forward to #5.
In addition to comments others have listed:

Having IT Conversations involved is really cool; as the sessions are now being posted, I'm listening to everything again to catch things I might have missed.
Consider adding a couple of more detailed “how to” or “bootcamp” type of sessions to add some educational value as well.
A published collection of feeds from those attending would be cool. During the conference, we were bobbing around looking for updated blog reports which would be a snap if it were all in one place.
How about a Wiki or similar page where attendees can collaborate on different ideas, links, etc.?

Keep up the good work.

Hello,
Have you considered holding Gnomedex 5.0 in Southern California instead of Las Vegas, NV? While it may not be as inexpensive to travel to and stay in for some Gnomies, it is still less expensive than New York City or San Francisco and there should be minimal problems with hotel rooms or hall space.
Having Gnomedex 5.0 within commute distance for you will allow you to have more control over the location, facilities and activities offered. Plus, you may be more likely to have sponsorship from California-based companies in both the Southland and the Bay Area.
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky

Chris, thanks again, I'm glad you pushed #4 forward. It was a nice event!
Here are some thoughts:
I'd like some hardware tracks, there's such an opportunity to bring in sponsorship and provide some great learning sessions. I missed these from #3. You had two of the finest hardware evaluators with Patrick and Louderback and they truly didnÂ’t have a forum. I was disappointed that we didnÂ’t have focused content around their expertise.
As you duly noted there was a greatly increased number of laptop folks, keep the rounds and add power. This is huge.
Easier way to track attending bloggers during the event is good, the blog roll worked ok, but having a way to see new postings is interesting.
Wi-Fi available a day before the meetings at least. I'm not sure about the day after, most are traveling.
Why do we have to surround our self with gambling? I don't see the connection. Why not come to Colorado? Tahoe was great, but a pain to get to. IÂ’ll help you get it done in ColoradoÂ…
With the addition of hardware, software vendors we would have the ability to get some hands on. Again, sorely missed from #3.
Presentation & Planning Committee - this is a must. I found most every mediator to be useless. They might as well been panelists and it was annoying as it was evident that most of them hadn't handled that role before. Virtually every session got off track and was frustrating, particularly when Steve Gillmor executed his damn podcasting rant during every session. It didn't have a place everywhere and became droll. I like the suggestion of having interested “users” on board to see other points of view. Too many times we forget to bring along our users with our ideas. It's about solving problems people, not ramming our ideas down their throats.
I’m concerned that we would turn into a “blogging� conference. We have such an opportunity to cover some many subjects, which I thought was well done with #3. So much of the sessions mutated back to blogging / podcasting related items and you had such an opportunity to cover great subjects with folks like Nick Bradbury and Dave Taylor around. We didn’t touch much on anything web dev related and these two folks time were wasted being stuck on panels that did them no good. I know this is not a SEO or development conference, but if these guys are going to be there, shouldn’t we produce a session or two to cover these items? There are a number of us that are in the business of web as commerce, of which blogs and podcasting don’t get us anywhere, I would appreciate other subjects.
Gnomedex swag was sorely missed.
I like the lunch and learn for folks that want to partake.
Please donÂ’t get me wrong, IÂ’m just trying to provide some constructive points as this event is worth keeping alive and on track. What do we want to be?
Thanks again Chris.

Keep the sessions on topic? I'm torn because I'm not sure that the panel discussion format was valuable, but mostly because they all strayed so far off topic. Perhaps with better/stronger moderation they would have been more valuable?

Hi Chris;
The only comment that I can come up with is “Don't forget your roots” I have attend all of the Gnomedex's over the years and find that you have gone astray as to what the conferences were all about. It isn't just making money or how cool a new tech-toy is. It's about people on the net and what they are interested in. I liked this years lineup of speakers, the Woz was great and Wil was fabulous!
The panels, well, a couple were just a forum for one person to spout their favorite shtick. A couple seemed as if two people wanted to argue the complete time of the panel. Those were not interesting and or informative. The quality of the vendor (I know that there were more than one, but not that many more) was great! I just wish that there were more. Could the DRASTIC drop in vendors be related to the fact that it was not in Iowa this year? I didn't have a problem with Iowa… Sure the place rolls up it's walkways at 6:00PM and weekends. I at least got to see more of a selection of vendors and software vendors. I had almost better quality of contacts on the bus to and from Reno. I had a talk with a couple of realy great people (Nick Bradbury from http://www.bradsoft.com, the creator of Feeddemon a realy cool RSS reader and RedheadedGeek.com a technofem who designs web).
I have looked forward to Gnomedex in the past and I am looking forward to the future. These are just small bumps in the planning of the Gnomedex's to come.
Craig Honorof

First, lots of things went right at the conference. Unless you have tried to put on an event like this yourself, don't underestimate the amount of work, money, and grief that's involved when you are dealing with hotels, food service personnel, technical support within the hotels, and unions. Creating an event where everything “just happens” takes a ton of work; my hats are off to Chris, Ponzi, and the rest of the crew.
I think the attendee list was awesome, as were the actual attendees.
Some of the sessions seemed to drag on a little bit. As other have noted, better moderation could have made a difference here. In general, I didn't get the impression that the moderators had spent a lot of time planning for the sessions. It would have been interesting to use the wireless connectivity in some novel way to let the audience participate in real time (perhaps a voting application, something cool related to pictures, and some blog aggregation).
I agree that we should keep this on a single track.
I don't agree with those who complained about a lack of swag. There was a ton of good stuff available — shirts, cups, candy, Chris Pirillo masks, and more.
Watching Wil Wheaton read from his book wasn't all that inspiring; I was expecting something a bit more personal. But he is an actor, and is perhaps most comfortable with a script.
Woz was awesome. You should try to get another superhero of the early days of the computer revolution, perhaps hypertext guru Ted Nelson.
It would be cool to have some kind of a “poster” session (often found at research-oriented conventions) where people like me could hang up a poster and talk about our projects
Can't wait for next year!

I have attended Gnomedex the past three years. The one thing about 4.0 I did not like was the expense. Many of the pror year Gnomedex attendees could afford to go to Iowa, but having it in tourist towns makes for young up and comers hard to afford. I have no problem with Vegas as long as the cost is reasonable.