Warpstock 98 attendee survey results - page 8 |
This survey was taken from a poll of the people attending the 1998 show. The results were compiled in November from the list
of 91 people responding. They are posted here with a great deal of gratitude to Esther Schindler who did all the work.
|
Question 71: Call to Action (Sunday afternoon, Lynn Maxson) - 16 responses |
A- Very satisfied 25.00% B- Satisfied 43.75% C- Dissatisfied 25.00% D- Very dissatisfied 06.25% |
Question 72: The future of OS/2 in an online commerce world (Sunday afternoon, Rick Byrnes) - 4 responses |
A- Very satisfied 25.00% B- Satisfied 00.00% C- Dissatisfied 25.00% D- Very dissatisfied 50.00% |
Question 73: NetREXX (Sunday afternoon, Chip Davis) - 11 responses |
A- Very satisfied 45.45% B- Satisfied 45.45% C- Dissatisfied 00.00% D- Very dissatisfied 09.09% |
Question 74 What three things did you like best about Warpstock 98? |
1) Meeting OS/2 users. 2) Talking to vendors. 3) Attending presentations. (the few I was able to attend) 1) That this event exists at all. 2) Even though this event and how it was run had its rough edges, I believe there is the making of first class operation that can be very helpful to OS/2 users. 3) The energy and enthusiasm of the participants. 1) The very congenial atmosphere; 2) The variety of vendors & products represented; 3) The chance to meet other Warpers 1. location- great hotel 2. Actually meeting OS/2 gurus 3. Actually seeing great OS/2 apps demonstrated; and even though you didn't ask, 4. being able to come away with the idea that maybe OS/2 might continue to survive for us SOHOs 1. Near so I could come from here (southern Wisconsin). 2. Not downtown - so access and parking are not problems. 3. Getting to know a few of the OS/2 people whose names I see online. 1. Great people 2. Good vendor setups 3. Good program A good number of booths, decent number of attendees, attendees from overseas Aurora session, SOHO networking session, OS Wars Being there and meeting the software authors in person, The raffle, The sessions, Show prices for software and books Being with OS/2 users Buying software, Putting faces to email and author names and the dinners. Chance to meet other users. I rarely meet an OS/2 user in my local area Esther's session on Dealing with the Computer Press. This was worth the approximately $500 cost of attending Warpstock. Chance to meet vendor staff. Exhibit hall, meeting people, Aurora session Exhibit prices were good; free software drawing; Tibur was great Getting to meet other OS/2 users, Putting faces with names, Reinforcement that OS/2 is alive Good mix of presentations, good mix of vendors, great attitude by everyone! Good presentations, lots o'good software, meeting people Great site, good presentations, good products at exhibit hall Having a Warpstock 98, Vendors attending, Trying to keep OS/2 alive Info & being with other OS2ers Informal discussions with other users; Better outlook on the viability of OS/2 from Brad Wardell;use of Java and REXX. Just being there with some great people, the exhibit hall & the great special pricing available, didn't attend half the sessions I planed on because the exhibit hall was so much fun Location, price Meeting fellow users, seeing product demos, being on vacation Meeting other OS/2 users and developers, idea exchange. Meeting other OS/2 users, good presentations, and having contact with OS/2 ISVs Meeting other OS/2 users, Meeting OS/2 developers, Be able to purchase software Meeting people Meeting people, exhibits, speakers Meeting people, learning new tricks, finding out little bits of obscure information Meeting people, seeing vendor support, seeing user enthusiasm Meeting the people I know online, talking with other OS/2 users, talking with the developers. Meeting the vendors, meeting other users LIVE, some excellent presentations Meeting with other users, meeting with vendors, generally good presentations Meeting others using os/2, seeing other os/2 options, kids allowed - family People, bob's crab house People, enthusiasm, upbeat tone People, Information, Products. Presentations, giveaways, networking with people in person Presentations, vendor exhibits Seeing app demos; hearing different views on the future of OS/2; buying S/2 stuff Small conference, good vendor representation and facilities, nice people in attendance Social events (meeting people), Presentations That it happened at all. The "community", The excitement, and the organization The ambiance, the hotel, the overall quality The chance to meet with other OS/2 Warp and Warp Server professionals from around the world. The exhibitors. OS/2 and OS/2 people, they are the BEST! The chance to see and discuss os/2 products and use with other users apart from any IBM influence. I am *very* appreciative of the effort contributed to make it happen after the original Chicago team bowed out. I think relying on IBM for *anything* is just plain stupid. Oh, I guess that *is* something we can rely on them for, stupidity. The exhibits, the vendor demonstrations, and the seminars The Hotel Bar, the Logo, the vendor area THE PEOPLE The people, the commoradorie, the people. The people, the presentations, the software for sale The people. The personal interaction with other OS/2 users; I gained more knowledge; it was lots of fun The presentations, the vendor displays and demos, the bargains The quality of the presentations, the quantity or presentations, and the exhibit hall The Raffle/Giveaway, The People, The Enthusiasm The trip; just the whole idea; getting to talk to other OS/2 users in person. The volunteers, IBMs participation, location Variety of topics/tracks, evening events, much better dealer's room Vendor exhibits, meeting OS/2 users, programming sessions Vendors, discussions with OS/2 users, organization Well-planned session tracks, very good speakers, low registration cost |
Question 75: What three things did you like least about Warpstock 98? |
1) Meeting serious people who are working with programming - (had kind of expected more hobbyists) 2) Meeting some OS/2 press people 1) Only 24 hours per day. 2) Only 2 days long. 3) General public should get into exhibition hall free. 1) The programming schedule was confusing 2) I think programming should've started early Friday evening to take advantage of every hour in the weekend 3) Don't have a third complaint :-) 1. I could get there only Sunday. 2. It would be nice to have more space for the vendor booths. It got a bit hectic in there at times. 3. Coming in in the middle, I found it a bit difficult to understand where everything was. A little map of the rooms would have been useful. Probably not a problem for full attendees. 1. The location, in October I like warm! 2. Nothing particularly Warpstocky item to bring home ie: pin, t-shirt, etc. Price it in to the registration. 3. I thought the facilities were over rated, though I appreciate there was need to find something 1.IBM's complete failure to even admit that OS/2 exists 2.IBM's complete failure to admit that OS/2 users are customers 3.There should have been a "sign up here to sue IBM" petition. Bars not open long enough, not enough time for everything, lack of IBM support Cancelled (at the last minute) TCP/IP Lan session - this session was a significant reason for me attending the event - I note that no "comment on session" block is in the survey for this one Sessions needed to be officially stretched to 90 minute range 0800 Session start time!! Chris Graham's presentation running into Brad Wardell's presentation time Cost of hotel, short duration of event for distance traveled, facilities at hotel weren't best suited for this type of event Cost of meals in hotel, the overlapping sessions, hardware problems of vendors Few speakers had handouts, visiting vendors precluded attending sessions, few affordable dining options For me bad time of year as I take time off end of October which made it difficult to do both, therefore I had to give up on Warpstock (I registered and did not attend), and I am a novice and when I looked at the program I was overwhelmed because it all looked way too over my head and I didn't think I'd get much out of it and lost my enthusiasm Hard to meet people, things were too spread out, the schedule Hotel is too remote, Like a place that you can walk to something out side the hotel and not rely on having a vehicle, More IBMers and technical stuff, Hotel a little to expense for what it had to offer. Hotel overbooked Hotel service, hotel service, hotel service I couldn't attend on Sunday!, the S-L-O-W line for my badge (which turned out to be the wrong name!), the drawn-out drawings. I didn't see some of the courses listed; hard to find rooms; exhibit room was too small IBM didn't participate as much as it could have; I couldn't attend the Saturday sessions; not enough sessions Insufficient time and facility for lunch -Saturday especially, schedule conflicts (an important ingredient of any successful conference) Isolation of location (hotel), I miss last year's museum, lack of lunch break Saturday It ended, It started so early in the morning, I didn't bring enough money. It was cold in the building, food service wasn't particularly good for what you paid. Lack of publicity; lack of communal meeting areas for attendees; poor information dissemination during the event Last-minute changes in presentation times, sessions were too long and ran at the same time, making it impossible to see all the good ones, and there was not enough free time between to stop at the vendors LEAKY ROOF Leaky roof, distance to downtown, lack of local amenities Lunch not included in price, hotel did not offer shuttle service to airport, lack of IBM presence Lunch schedule mix-up on Sat. (were the published afternoon times correct or not?) Missed opportunity with original local committee, IBM's virtual non-presence and ambivalence, lack of definition of OS/2's future--I had hoped for some news from Dirk Terrell Need more vendors, would like to see more technical, food options, Network Connection, to busy to see any presentations, leaky roof ;) Network facilities, raffle prizes, lack of IBM support No breaks for lunches- you had to miss something to eat.. No clock in the hotel; too short; No organized social events and presentations times were too close together (can't think of a third). No time for lunch on Saturday, Not enough Publicity, Newspaper, radio, TV , I see no reason that little cards or fliers can't be given out at Schools, Computer stores and computer shows that have thousands of people in attendance Not enough time to see all the presentations, hotel leaked and had poor A/C and they even charged for the in-room cookies!! (after charging me $100 a night for a room!!), and not enough people saw my presentation!!! Quality of some of the presentations Session interest conflicts, lack of time for lunch/exhibit hall, cancellation of raffle Session timing started out very rough, no lunch/dinner, leaky roof Small conference, no planned evening events, poor participation by the OS's vendor IBM Somehow need to provide multiple presentations that don't collide. The bickering between the first and second committees (I noticed a few Chicago area names sat this one out), No "fun" attraction like 97's "OS/2 Museum", it didn't seem as though there was connectivity in every room as there had been in '97 The conferences were did not allow enough time in between, the overruns hurt participation is the next session. The distance between the vendor arena and the conference rooms was too great. The schedule was not clear, placards at each room should have that room's conferences highlighted. The Hotel, The fact that exhibits were not in the speaker area, Cost to get from airport to hotel and back The inability to be in two sessions at the same time. The networking session that fell through The INN prices; the lack of venders; the lack of talks for Personal OS/2 users. The leaky hotel. The LATE badge pickup and the delayed start on Saturday morning. The location of the hotel, not close to anything else (walking distance to other things, restaurants, shops, etc. The leaky roof. The hotel room overbooking on Thursday night requiring relocation to other hotel property. The snafu with original group and IBM building unavailability. The organization could have been better -- as mentioned previously, the lack of Internet access in the exhibit hall. The leaking roof and the poor food service of the deli. The social snobbery of some of the attendees/sigs/organizers. We expected to be around like minded people who were rather fanatic about OS/2. Instead most people kept to their pre-arranged groups. We joined all three user groups but were excluded from all their private events. We actually ended up teaming with others that weren't part of the "inner circle" and had a great time. I won't expect as much next time. I'll simply go for the presentations and vendors and stay away from the politics. Too far from downtown Chicago, a bit silent after hours, two days is too short:make it three full days Unprofessional appearance, small size, lack of more organized meeting opportunities Went over too quickly Wyndham hotel |
Question 76: Any comments to add? |
Excellent, again. I attended Warpstock 97, and '98 - and you can bet your booties I'll be at Warpstock 99. My only real complaint: At Warpstock 97, some of the "popular" sessions were repeated at another place and time; this allowed me to juggle the schedule a bit better. Too often at Warpstock 98, I felt that I was giving up one or two sessions so that I could attend another. It would have been great to have a "second chance" to attend sessions on programming, OS/2 internals, etc. Go to a longer day for more sessions GREAT conference, especially considering that "OS/2 is dead"! How about taping the sessions, Visual or even just Audio? What if attendees brought their own camcorders to do so? What happened to the Warpstock 97 tapes? I found '98 to be a little more sterile than '97. While I did meet some very fine people, most were passing by trying to find their way to the next event. One quickly learned not to assume that all in the hall were not Warped. As noted earlier, there was not a place to sit and BS with OS/2 folks. At '97 we talk in the building, at the coffee pot, outside in the sun, to and from the hotel. I had a bunch of stuff here but decided it would be better to just post it to the Warpstock list. Thanks for inspiring me. I think it was GREAT! The fact that it was all organized by volunteers without any corporate sponsorship makes it doubly better! Congratulations and Kudos to all of those that contributed. I hope to be able to participate next year. I would be willing to spend up to $200 for entrance to WarpStock '99 if that would buy a full time group to prepare a better WarpStock '99. A better WarpStock would have reliable Internet Access. A better WarpStock would have presentation rooms setup in advance so that speakers would not have the problems which occurred for the Star Office speaker. There would be reliable telephone connections, reliable internet connections, etc. These types of details need to be verified by having one or more persons actually inspect the site before the event or even before the site is selected. Events about technical stuff such as computer operating systems really are not much of an event if you can't see the technology working. Perhaps even $200 isn't enough. As an organizer of a couple of user groups while working an insane job, I sympathize with the volunteers. But there is only so much volunteers can do and it may require (at least for the time surrounding WarpStock) full time staff. Of course, raising the price of event admission is going to cut down on the number of people who can attend -- perhaps cutting down on your revenues. But attending WarpStock to see product demos and then being unable to see demos due to technical glitches is frustrating. I am sorry I don't have any simple solutions -- perhaps having Warp Stock in the Phoenix area where WarpStock could take advantage of a large user group, POSI, is the way to go. Perhaps, IBM could help sponsor the event. Whatever you do, I hope to see you next year at a bigger and better Warp Stock. I would have liked the "tracks" more evenly distributed throughout the weekend; it seemed the technical track was overloaded on Sunday. I would like to have seen some more computer hardware manufacturers/resellers of systems and accessories as well as peripherals, sessions for the soho user, sessions on maintaining/upgrading os/2 computer systems effectively, some open QA sessions for problem solving, and examples or success stories for various items like scanner support, cable modem use, upgrading/building systems successful configurations, finding good sources of hardware like tape drives, etc. I would like to see an all inclusive social activity. And T-shirts for all -- optional add on to registration fee I'd love it if Warpstock could be on a Friday and Saturday instead of Saturday and Sunday. I understand the reasons, but I vote (if that matters) for Friday and Saturday for next year. I'm glad I came this year, and wish I had gone to '97 from the description I got from those who went, but that was really to far away. If you could get some vendors to send gurus to help with specific problems--a Warpstock help desk, that would be great, I think. It would be nice to schedule the presentations/demonstrations, so there isn't so much overlap. Late publication of session schedules - would be much better if these were known in advance, especially needed for making Sunday night travel home plans. Remote hotel issues. Hotel was quite nice, but it's location added considerably to cost of trip. A downtown location - if the hotel price could have been kept the same would have eliminated need for rental car / limo service, and would have been closer to my favorite restaurants (another reason to go to Chicago) Restaurants in hotel closed early - only Bar food available at 10PM, not good considering the remote location. If "workshop" sessions such as were at Warpstock 97 - build your own LAM - are held they should be held twice to avoid conflicts. Fewer conflicts in "key" sessions this time, but consideration should always be given My two favorite presentations of Warpstock 98 were omitted from this survey! I found both the StarOffice 5 and Oz of Prevention CMMS presentations and demos to be very informative and of the best value of all presentations attended. Why were they not listed in this survey? I am looking forward to Warpstock 99. Next stop in Pittsburgh, Pa Number of sessions is right for 2 days, but expanding it to 3 days with 4 session tracks would make trip more worthwhile. Don't forget a lunch break. Extend vendor showcase an hour after last session (let them open later). Location needs more (and more affordable) dining options. Provide Internet access so attendees can check email. I would have been satisfied with a more modest venue. Provide social activity on Saturday night for non-POSSI members. Overall I was very pleased with the even and hope to attend next year. My only regret is that I didn't get a chance to meet as many people as I had hoped to. Overall, a great event. Needed publicity though. Also, I feel that OS/2's future direction MUST be better defined outside the "IBM sphere". OS/2 is bleeding users and thus software/hardware support. If this is not accomplished soon, it might not be possible to turn things around. Someone has to work harder at making it BIG - we travelled from Toronto, cost us a lot of money when you convert our dollar to USD, and felt it could have been held in a church basement! make it worthwhile to travel there. one poor guy came from the Netherlands - I wonder what he thought ! There has to be plenty for everyone - the exhibitors that attended were fine - but many more are needed. BTW losing the registrations is bad form - on the upside, we were accommodated nicely, but it took almost an hour, and we were only to be there the one day, so we lost a lot of time we would have liked to spend at the show, instead of at registration. Taking everything into consideration, the organizers and other volunteers did a fantastic job Thanks to everyone who made it possible. The only thing (really) lacking was the Internet Connectivity. I know that Jason worked his butt off, and a lot of it wasn't his fault. But the fact remains that the Internet connection royally SUKD. I think the organizing committee for next year's event should take into consideration that an Internet connection is a MAJOR factor in this event. Also, as to the "social" activities .... personally I thought they were GREAT .... however, they were NOT arranged by either the Steering Committee or the Organizing Committee. Friday's dinner was conceived by (mostly) Judy McDermott, as an Unofficial Warpstock Function. Saturday's dinner was arranged by POSSI, and the Sunday night get-together in the Oak Bar was "thrown together" at the last minute by a bunch of IRCers. The "Official" unofficial get-together Friday night, in the Oak Bar, was a good chance to meet other Vendors, as well as the members of the organizing committee, but as an "Event", it lacked a lot of, well, everything. If I hadn't been introduced to Stan, I'd have never known he was there. Please, don't take these items I've pointed out as "destructive Criticism". I realize the pressure everyone was under to pull this event off, given the problems that cropped up with the original Chicago Team. And all in all, I think everyone did a FANTASTIC job. I just want to point out a few shortcomings that I noticed, that should be addressed for next years event. Travel expense and event cost will have primary impact as to whether I can attend next year. Warpstock was a success, no matter the long distance from Hamburg, Germany where I came from. I will surely come again! WarpStock was great! A couple of my opinions. 1) General public should get into exhibition hall free or a very reduced rate. Vendors want to show their wares to as many people as possible. We probably lost a few locals because of their inability (or unwillingness) to pay the day rate for a trip around the tables. 2) Possibly set aside a couple of separate times per day when just the exhibition hall is active for all to peruse. 3) Maybe have a 3 day event. Day 1 - Exhibition Hall only (cheap for locals, Welcome address and social that evening) Days 2 & 3 can be as normal. The "exhibition only" day could actually be any of the three days. A social could be part of that day if it is day 1 or 2. 4) Definite need for an evening social event to gather all attendees on at least one evening. 5) declare the days to be at least 8 hours longer. 32 hour days would allow a lot more time to gather information and mingle. :) Well just as long as Warpstock chooses a motel closer to food places and one that dose not have a leaky roof What's up with a Warp 5 client after Aurora ships? Where can I buy Warpstock 99 tickets???? Where is the statement about confidentiality regarding responses to this survey? You asked about the opening session but not the Sat afternoon/raffle session or the closing session. You state that "the survey lists EVERY presentation," but it doesn't - you didn't ask about the vendor presentations. WS98 was a tremendous success because it showed that the OS/2 user community can do something on their own, even recovering from a near-disaster (mutiny?). Imagine what we can do when we *really* get our act together. We simply must get some advance notice, some advance press and follow-ups reporting on what happened, and make this as well-known and well-respected (if not as much as Comdex...) at least as much as LotusSphere or the annual Java get-together. |
|