Adam graciously allowed me to guest blog on his greatly informative site. I am what you would call a switcher. My name is James Guske. I am an Electrical Engineer who is a government contractor for the Air Force Research Lab at Panama City, Florida. I primary decided getting an iMac to use its great video and podcast content creating ability. This year is definitely the year of online video and other new media.
I have been heavily in Linux and I recently decided to stop trying to be a tweaker and concentrate on ease of use. So I got an iMac, just a few days before the SF Macworld Expo (MWSF) early registration ended. MWSF seemed to me to be a great experience because I felt that I was not just buying a product but joining a enthusiastic, passionate community. This is related to my interest in blogging as a way of developing communities. I had recently attended the first Blog World Expo and had a great time connecting and learning from other bloggers. So I registered for MWSF, got the plane tickets, and hotel even before my iMac was delivered.
I have a series of MWSF topics to talk about, so for today lets talk about the topic of registration.
Initially the presentation of (what I know now) as paid sessions is (to me) confusingly presented. If things were on a time grid with clear exclusive or type choices everything would be immediately clear. My goal was to initially register and, as I find out more info, maybe go back and make changes as I figure things out later. This is what I usually do at conferences I am new at.
So that’s what I did. I registered for the Platinum pass and I just clicked around and when I got a conflict popup dialog box unchecked sessions until it when away. I remember signing up for Introduction to Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Studio hands on, Quicktime MPEG4 and Flash video. The whole idea was to reserve sessions that interested me before they close out. Almost everything seemed to be open at the time I registered. Then when I finished registration I expected a schedule, but all I got was just a list of sessions that I selected.
Of course now after listening to podcasts and finding out about the great iCal links on Pixelography.com I understand everything much better. And I guess I will log in to registration again to change things around in the next couple of days.
So what do you think. Your comments or discussion on your own experiences on MWSF registration are welcome.
