Here’s a quick update on Business of Software 2008. In case you weren’t aware, Joel Spolsky and I are running this conference in Boston, September 3rd – 4th. We’ve got some great speakers lined up including Seth Godin, Eric Sink, Jason Fried and Joel himself. You can find out more at www.businessofsoftware.org.
Since I last blogged about the conference, I’ve signed up one more speaker. Tom Jennings is a Managing Director at Summit Partners. It’s odd how we’ve all got a lazy stereotype of the venture capitalist as the sharp-suited, good-haired, smooth-talking, count-your-fingers-after-shaking-hands, wheeler-dealer vulture out to shaft the entrepreneur and make a quick buck, yet I’ve never actually met any who fit that description (although, without fail, they do have great hair). All the venture capitalists I’ve met have been urbane, smart, articulate, thoughtful people doing their best to help entrepreneurs build successful businesses. It’s not a route I agree with, but I understand why people take it. That’s why I’ve asked Tom to speak on "Why everything you’ve ever heard about venture capital is wrong". It’ll be a good talk.
In case you’ve missed it, we’re running a Pecha Kucha competition. If you want the chance to present 20 slides in 6 minutes 40 seconds, a rigorous and hopefully vigorous 20 seconds per slide, or even just find out what Pecha Kucha is then visit www.businessofsoftware.org/pechakucha.asp
Registrations are going well. The early signs are that we’re going to fill the 392 seat auditorium that we’ve got available to us, so if you want to book then don’t hang about. So far, we’ve got people from some 20 US states, from Alaska to Florida, and eight countries (Australia, Poland, Ireland, USA, Canada, Belgium, Sweden and the UK). It’ll be a good, international mix of people with plenty in common but enough to set them apart for things to be interesting. Judging by people’s job titles the attendees include software developers, CTOs, founders, CEOs, consultants, VPs and product managers so that’s good too.
I’ve got a couple more speakers I’d like to invite, so if you want to keep up to date then use the link below to subscribe to the RSS feed.
See you in Boston!