Today I Attended #F5Expo

For anyone who I’ve spoken to in the past 20 hours, I apologize.  I wasn’t happy that my work kept me from attending the F5 Expo in Vancouver today.  At the request of Geoff Devereux, I was asked to keep this blog profanity-free so there are no quotes of some of the things I might have said.

As it turned out though, I might have won out.  Chain firmly around my ankle and tied to my office desk on the other side, I was able to follow a fair bit of the action on Twitter.  For those who don’t know what Twitter is, please get my friend, Shane’s, book called Sociable!.  For those who don’t know how to monitor a search, I prefer using Hootsuite which can easily be set-up with your Twitter account.  You can set up a column that constantly feeds you all of the latest information with a particular keyword.  Lucky for me, most people today were using “#F5Expo” whenever they talked about the conference (Twitter searches aren’t case sensitive, by the way).

Without looking up the definition, it was my impression that F5 Expo was about technology, social media, metrics for internet usage, how-to’s and some storytelling opened by Tod Maffin and then closed out by none other than Malcolm Gladwell.  Check these guys out – they’re both awesome.

Lots of people will be writing about their insights at F5 today: the workshops they attended; the stuff they learned; the people they met.  My scope of experience through Twitter today was limited, but my breadth was huge.  I saw everything that some attendees were missing and gained more simultaneous insights than I would have in any other way.

I’ll start off with what I learned before I started to watch the theatre of the F5 event unfold.  Most of what I ‘learned’ on the day came from Tod Maffin’s morning keynote.  The things I learned are things everyone should write down:

1. When you are doing focused work and receive a 20 second introduction, it’ll take you about 20 minutes to retain the level of productivity you have prior to the interruption.
   I looked told one of the owners of the company I work for about this and then asked why he thinks I prefer working at a café with my headphone on.
2. Constant multi-tasking causes brain damage.
   This sounded a little far-fetched to me, but Google it.  Seems pretty reasonable to me at a glance.  Try telling that to your employer, hey?  (Also, Quoting this may be more appropriate in some situations over others – this is not an argument to use when a significant other asks for some attention and you’re busy watching television and you can’t turn down either one.)
3. Business Rewards People for Being Busy (aka, Presenteeism).
   This is generally pretty accurate.  If you’ve had an employer that you think paid you to do nothing, you’re probably right.  Bosses feel good with their employees around – they’re empowered.  Makes me think – everyone’s had that job where there’s someone who seems to do nothing?  Turns out it’s probably accurate.  At least they show up (often enough).  If you’ve ever had that thought, the company is probably pretty lucky because it means you care a little bit about something.

This is all second-hand via Twitter, but it’s a lot to get me thinking.

Once the workshops started, I began to get a feel for F5.  There were some bumps along the way today including long lines, packed rooms and they ran out of registration kits.

This is where my post gets introspective.  I found it really interesting that there were so many different perspectives.  I thought about why people go.  Some people seemed to go just for the experience of going to the conference – checking out the event, seeing whats going on.

For the post below, I really had no idea how the folks with the cheaper pass were supposed to be treated, but it really caught my eye.

For those not in the know, an all access pass was about $300.  The F5 Expo took its first run today and as someone who attended the first (and still only) Pemberton Festival, I understand how things get pretty screwy.  Camping out on a tarmac unexpectedly with a thousand other folks will teach a lot and instills patience for first-timers performing massive undertakings.  It’s hard to do and sometimes doesn’t go 100% to plan.

Outside of the event, itself, is the content.  I wouldn’t have known what to expect from the content, myself.  I would have gone to hear Malcolm Gladwell speak for the most part.  These next two tweets caught my attention:

It didn’t seem like the conference contained a lot of content people could immediately latch onto.  The impression I got was that it was either very basic (ie, the attendees won’t be disocvering what Twitter is by reading Sociable!).

Vancouver is generally pretty advanced when it comes to Social Media.  Last year during the hockey playoffs, “#Canucks” was a trending term on Twitter.  One of the ten most talked about things on Twitter was our local NHL team.

So I’m not surprised that some people were finding little nuggets than learning about new concepts right from scratch – we’ve already got them figured out.  Natalie has it – she knows more than she thought.  I understand that some of the sessions got pretty technical, or taught a lot about social media analytics which isn’t an area most novices go (they should, lest they waste their time!)

The final trend I saw at the event is really summed up in one message that I saw repeated a dozen times.  It reminded me of the amazing time I had at TEDxVancouver (a local, independent TED conference).  There’s something to be said for being surrounded by smart, accomplished people who are anxious to learn.

Without even getting to the reason I would have attended the F5 Expo, that is, seeing Malcolm Gladwell, I think I found F5′s raison d’être: to meet people.  I’m incredibly sorry to have missed that, but I was pleased to meet many though Twitter and will meet them in person later, I’m sure.  For those who attended, I hope you saw through the technical gaffes and were able to pick up on some of what really matters at an event like this.

Tagged as: #F5Expo, F5, F5 Expo, malcolm gladwell, sociable!, social media, vancouver