I just spent three days at the Santa Clara Hyatt Conference Center. This isn't a technical write-up, but rather some observations on the conference mechanics themselves.

Rich Tehrani and the TMCNet gang know how to put on a conference and that was visibile at every turn. On my personal blog I recent posted some notes about how to make a conference successful. Here's how Rich and the VoIP Developer Conference stacked up.

Great venue. Accessible. In a nice area. And it has everything a conference attendee needs from broadband in the rooms to WiFi (TMobile) all around. It's a grea facility for a conference and the staff did a great job of supporting things.

Where's the XXX? Maps, directions and staffing. Thi wasn't a huge conference, but resources were impeccable. There was always someone to point people in the right direction. Plenty of guidance to find the sessions.

Diversity. This is always a challenge. A devloper conference is only as diverse as the devloper community. While the VoIP community is quite diverse, I noted vry low participation bny women. That's changing but not quickly enough. It isn't anything more than an observation of our environment, and certainly isn't a reflection on the organizers in any way.

Was it packed? For the expect size, I think it was. We're talking a defined se of audience interest. Sessions were well attended. Some were SRO.

Education is job #1. Since I'm not a developer, I can't speak for everyone. I heard some comments from people wishing for more technical depth, but I heard some raves too. I felt the securiy sessions I attended could have been stronger, but they seemed well tailored to much of the room. I learned a lot myself.

Did the speakers kick butt. Many did. Not all, but many. The keynotes were quite good and even presented good balancing viewpoints. On the last morning Michael Standofr from Intel presented why existing commercial solutions can be a very good resource. He was followed by Kevin Fleming from Digium who countered with why open source is a solid approach. I only attended one session I felt went poorly because the speaker just had too much material to cover, We never relly got to the point of that session,=.

Audience engagement. This is engaged crowd. Hallway chatter and lobby talkwas tremendous. If you were here, you saw new ideas being spawned and new relationships forming just in the free time conversation.

The sessions were good. The conversation was better. To me that's the real foundation for a successful conference. I met soime fascinating people, made new friends, and discovered some resources I'll be working with for what I hope will be a long time into the future.

I also learned that logistically, blogging notes from a session underway is achievable. I'll wait for reader feedback to determine how useful it was. I also taped many sessions and haven't yet checked to see how good the WAV files are. I learned I really have to have a spare battery for my Treo, but as a device, it did amazingly well. I also appreciated bringing my Nikon and not just taking Treo pictures. The quality makes a huge difference, but it also makes a laptop a necessity for doing anything on the road. Still, it's quite workable.

I encourage all of you too plan ahead for the TMCNet VoIP 2.0 conference being held in San Diego this October, It will be huge in comparison to this one, with several thousand people. Not only is it a premier learning event, it's one of the best places in the world to make connections and build relationships. I know I'll be there. I think I'm failitating a panel. And I may be sampling some newer technology there ranging from remote podcing to remote vidcasting.

This conference isn't over. It's lunch time amd I'm writing this in the hotel lobby. I saved it and took a brek to spend some time with good friends Alec Saunders and Howard Thaw from iotum (yes, Howard of Redberry fame). They're off working on some cool strategy things now and I'm slowly getting things wrapped up to begin the trek home.

If there's any downside, it's the recent events that tightened security may pose some headaches flying hime, but that's just the way life is these days.

Kudos to Rich and the TMCNet team for a vey well done event.