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What Sun won't tell you about JavaOne

Rants, observations, and 10 ways to improve next year's JavaOne experience

By Mariva H. Aviram, JavaWorld.com, 08/20/99

Page 2 of 4

Don't get me wrong: JavaOne is a big deal. Even Mayor Willie Brown knows it, and has accordingly proclaimed the week of the convention "JavaOne week" in San Francisco. I'm just acknowledging that the conference organizers know how to appeal to their audience -- all 20,000 of us. They've got it down.

The changing perimeter

Have you noticed something strange about the JavaOne exhibitors' pavilion? Did you happen to walk around the perimeter? I bring this up because, usually, the perimeter of a tradeshow exhibitors' pavilion is reserved for what I usually call "desperation booths," which are the booths vendors can rent for the lowest fee -- or are relegated to if they got a late start signing up for booth space.

But this year's JavaOne Pavilion had no lower cost outer perimeters, no desperation booths waiting for the opportunity to suck away your time. Along all the walls of the pavilion were official Sun Microsystems booths, each booth representing a different aspect of Java or a Java-related product. In an era of fierce animosity toward Microsoft's overzealous market power grab, I find it ironic that Sun seems to be demonstrating that it has the Java industry surrounded.

Advice for the wary JavaOne attendee

JavaOne is a lot of things, but one thing it's not is a waste of time -- at least not if you do it right. After attending the biggest developer conference in the world for three years in a row, I've come up with a list of 10 time-tested pieces of advice for new and returning JavaOne attendees. Here's how to get the most out of JavaOne:

1. Avoid the press

If you have strict orders from your boss not to talk to members of the press, you can easily avoid us with just a little press-avoidance technique. You need to know that you can't always tell who we are just by looking at our badgeholders. The more savvy among us rip the identifying ribbons off our badges in order to get quotes from people who wouldn't normally talk to us. (We stick the ribbons in our pockets so that we can later use them to get front-row seats at crowded tech sessions. It's small compensation for our paltry paychecks.) What you need to be looking for are dead giveaways like tweed coats, out-of-style eyeglasses, and old, worn suits. Think about it: Developers wear jeans and T-shirts and marketing types wear stylish new suits and slick titanium-framed spectacles; only members of the press feel an obligation to dress up but don't have the bucks (or the ego) to do it in style. Also, steer clear of anyone carrying a portable tape recorder, camera, or reporter's notebook.

2. Wield your cellphone

While waiting in the various Disney-Landesque, labyrinthian lines (Attendee Registration, Speaker Registration, Exhibitor Registration, Media Registration, Palm V Purchase Only, Materials Pickup Only, Materials Pickup with Palm V Purchase Only), whip out your cellphone and pretend to make a call, or call someone who doesn't really need to hear from you right now. You're bored waiting in this long line, too shy to talk to the nerd in front of you, and besides, cellphones make you look cool. Still. (Well, not really, but it's nice to have something to do while waiting in all those long lines.)

3. Socialize

I know, I know -- it's scary to find a place to sit in that huge lunch cafeteria with all those people. But no matter how reserved you are, force yourself to sit at a table that's already occupied by at least one other person. You can learn a lot from your fellow lunch-eaters, and you might even make new friends or valuable contacts.

The JavaOne attendee populace is pretty impressive in its internationality. At just one lunch table, I met a Chinese consultant living in Mineapolis, an African marketer living in France, a Russian programmer living in Israel, and a Norwegian mobile-phone developer living in Sweden. I felt as if I were in the middle of a Cisco or IBM TV commercial advertising the "global Internet community." If you're busy pretending to read your JavaOne program guide, you'll miss such opportunities.

 

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