The BD Event: 1, SNW:0

Anyone who attended SNW this year knows that it isn’t the show it used to be.  At the same hotel as usual, there were plenty of seats available at the bar, plenty at the Starbucks, and some very conspicous companies were absent from the entire ordeal.  The BD Event, however, was very different.  Cick Read More to see more.

I just finished up a jillion meetings at the first occurence of The BD Event in Boston.  (OK, this entry’s a week late, but I got busy.) ;)  I thought my time there was time well spent and I can’t wait until there is another one.  I’ve already gone on record saying that I didn’t like the draconian techniques used by Computer World at SNW.  I also heard that they even went further in a later SNW, where you couldn’t even RENT a suite if you didn’t have a sponsored suite contract.  So I’m glad that there’s finally another venue to do BD work, which is the primary reason I went to SNW in the first place.  And, of course, the cost is ridiculously less.

But it wasn’t until I just finished three more meetings in the Boston area (after The BD Event) that another light bulb came on.  Why DOES SNW do their shows in Orlando, Dallas, and Phoenix?  Why not in Boston, San Jose, or Denver?  Some have suggested it’s because they do it in vacation destination type places.  That could be one reason.

I can also think of another reason — it discourages what happened this week.  In addition to going to The BD Event, I met with representatives from EMC, ExaGrid, and SEPATON who weren’t at the event (although they should have).  How did I do this?  I just drove over and saw them!  If SNW were to host in storage hub cities, some people from those vendors might just drive up and have dinner/lunch with people who are the show — pulling those people away from the show and allowing the local people to not register at all.  By hosting it in non-hub cities, they force everyone to fly in, stay at the hotel and pay several thousand dollars for registration.  Hosting it in storage hub cities would interfere with their revenue model!

In contrast, this year’s BD Event was held in Boston, and the next event is to be held somewhere in the bay area.  If someone can’t attend the show, you can meet with a whole bunch of companies by just driving over — just like I just did.  Not bad.

I’ll see you there.

Written by W. Curtis Preston (@wcpreston), four-time O'Reilly author, and host of The Backup Wrap-up podcast. I am now the Technology Evangelist at Sullivan Strickler, which helps companies manage their legacy data