Two of us - myself and my primary tech support person - attended ModernBill's hosting conference in Louisville, Kentucky in March 2006. Both of us are very glad we went.
INITIAL THOUGHTS
About seven months ago I had decided to switch from my current billing software to ModernBill, but put off the switch when I saw that they were going to release version 5 within the year. Nearly three months ago I saw the blurb about the hosting conference, and promptly signed up. The price was attractive, the program looked good for getting information about ModernBill, and I'd get a chance to network with other hosters. Southwest serves Louisville KY, which is where the conference was held; so the airfare was not a huge expense. I went into the conference thinking that it would be more of a three day of advertisment for ModernBill and its affiliated programs rather than a full-fledged general-industry event. What we got was a bit better, a bit more valuable, and definitely more enjoyable.
THE CONFERENCE
There were people from all over North America, as well as two from the Netherlands and at least one from the UK. The company size varied as well: smaller companies of 75-200,
Both of us from The Living Media were interested in most of the programs scheduled - in fact, having two of us attend the conference would let us split up and cover those instances where two interesting panels were scheduled simultaneously. The first day I arrived, they had the usual promo-schwag bags to distribute, plus extra copies of the event schedule. The developers and staff were all present before the start of the conference, and were available for questions. The venue was smallish but very pleasant, the hotel staff was very helpful, and breakfast was provided. Real breakfast, not just "continental": eggs, sausage, biscuits, fruit, danish, and of course caffeine in many and varied forms. The conference rooms had plenty of tables set up, with power strips for all the laptops. (We actually forced the hotel to reboot their server at least once, there were so many wireless connections. The hotel is new, and wasn't *quite* prepared for the sheer magnitude of geekage.) The MB folks also recorded all the presentations, to let folks get the information from those panels they couldn't attend.
Since neither of us had used MB previously, we spent most of our time in the Track 1 sessions: installation, configuration, automation, operations training, and so forth. There were also panels on:
IMPRESSIONS
The presenters obviously knew their subject matter, and were comfortable talking about it. It was also neat to see three of the developers fielding questions and comments, and letting us all in on some of their in-jokes. (For those who regularly visit iseedevpeople.com, Kris dyed his hair between the first and second days. It is now electric indigo.) We attended only one of the keynote addresses, about web internationalization; but we never felt "targeted" by a marketing spiel, no matter whom the speaker nor their affiliations. (Then again, neither of us attended any of the vendor sessions - we were too busy soaking up basic MB information.)
The first night was supposed to be the official launch party. However, since the application has only just gone RC, and is still not utterly complete (you cannot add one-off invoices for something like site development, for example [but don't worry, that feature is only lacking its UI]); so rather than toast the software and jinx it six ways from Sunday, we toasted the staff and dev team with champagne. We had our own room at a local sports bar, we were supplied with nibblies and drink tickets (only for use on domestic liquor, though), and we had a chance to relax and network. The networking party the second evening was also a welcome time to relax, loosen up, and make a few more industry connections.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Both of us are very glad we attended. We came away with pages and pages of notes and ideas. Then again, we have not ever used the product, and are going to be using it within the next month or two; so the timing was absolutely perfect for us. We effectively got to attend a three-day support seminar. If we're able to attend next year (timing and budget), we will have a new raft of MB questions to ask, and will be able to attend the more advanced panels - and we look forward to seeing if they will have the same mix of general-interest panels for the industry.
All of the speakers did a good job presenting their topics, encouraging questions, and showing off the new toy. If anyone has looked at HostingCon and been daunted by the pricetag, and especially if you have ever been curious about whether or not ModernBill would work for your business, look into ModernBill's hosting conference next year.
INITIAL THOUGHTS
About seven months ago I had decided to switch from my current billing software to ModernBill, but put off the switch when I saw that they were going to release version 5 within the year. Nearly three months ago I saw the blurb about the hosting conference, and promptly signed up. The price was attractive, the program looked good for getting information about ModernBill, and I'd get a chance to network with other hosters. Southwest serves Louisville KY, which is where the conference was held; so the airfare was not a huge expense. I went into the conference thinking that it would be more of a three day of advertisment for ModernBill and its affiliated programs rather than a full-fledged general-industry event. What we got was a bit better, a bit more valuable, and definitely more enjoyable.
THE CONFERENCE
There were people from all over North America, as well as two from the Netherlands and at least one from the UK. The company size varied as well: smaller companies of 75-200,
Both of us from The Living Media were interested in most of the programs scheduled - in fact, having two of us attend the conference would let us split up and cover those instances where two interesting panels were scheduled simultaneously. The first day I arrived, they had the usual promo-schwag bags to distribute, plus extra copies of the event schedule. The developers and staff were all present before the start of the conference, and were available for questions. The venue was smallish but very pleasant, the hotel staff was very helpful, and breakfast was provided. Real breakfast, not just "continental": eggs, sausage, biscuits, fruit, danish, and of course caffeine in many and varied forms. The conference rooms had plenty of tables set up, with power strips for all the laptops. (We actually forced the hotel to reboot their server at least once, there were so many wireless connections. The hotel is new, and wasn't *quite* prepared for the sheer magnitude of geekage.) The MB folks also recorded all the presentations, to let folks get the information from those panels they couldn't attend.
Since neither of us had used MB previously, we spent most of our time in the Track 1 sessions: installation, configuration, automation, operations training, and so forth. There were also panels on:
- general marketing
- value adds in hosting
- security and encryption (MB best practices, but also general info)
- legal issues in the hosting industry
- hosting-specific business and accounting issues
IMPRESSIONS
The presenters obviously knew their subject matter, and were comfortable talking about it. It was also neat to see three of the developers fielding questions and comments, and letting us all in on some of their in-jokes. (For those who regularly visit iseedevpeople.com, Kris dyed his hair between the first and second days. It is now electric indigo.) We attended only one of the keynote addresses, about web internationalization; but we never felt "targeted" by a marketing spiel, no matter whom the speaker nor their affiliations. (Then again, neither of us attended any of the vendor sessions - we were too busy soaking up basic MB information.)
The first night was supposed to be the official launch party. However, since the application has only just gone RC, and is still not utterly complete (you cannot add one-off invoices for something like site development, for example [but don't worry, that feature is only lacking its UI]); so rather than toast the software and jinx it six ways from Sunday, we toasted the staff and dev team with champagne. We had our own room at a local sports bar, we were supplied with nibblies and drink tickets (only for use on domestic liquor, though), and we had a chance to relax and network. The networking party the second evening was also a welcome time to relax, loosen up, and make a few more industry connections.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Both of us are very glad we attended. We came away with pages and pages of notes and ideas. Then again, we have not ever used the product, and are going to be using it within the next month or two; so the timing was absolutely perfect for us. We effectively got to attend a three-day support seminar. If we're able to attend next year (timing and budget), we will have a new raft of MB questions to ask, and will be able to attend the more advanced panels - and we look forward to seeing if they will have the same mix of general-interest panels for the industry.
All of the speakers did a good job presenting their topics, encouraging questions, and showing off the new toy. If anyone has looked at HostingCon and been daunted by the pricetag, and especially if you have ever been curious about whether or not ModernBill would work for your business, look into ModernBill's hosting conference next year.
