What you did, mattered
Brandon Satrom
To the HTML5.tx Planning Committee and friends,
This weekend, over 240 people came together to learn from one another. You created a place for them to do that.
Over 40 people joined us for the kickoff on Friday. 75 stayed late on Saturday. You all made them feel welcome, helped start and continue the many conversations this unique conference enabled.
Close to 50 sessions were proposed for 14 slots. The final speaker slate represented some of the best web developers and designers, not just in Austin, but across Texas, and all the way to San Francisco and New York. You ignored the unproven state of our conference and pushed for the best content and speakers we could find.
More than half of the attendees participated in at least one open space session. Fourteen sessions were proposed, meaning that 50% of the content at the conference was created by attendees. You insisted that we provide an open space, brought in one of the best facilitators around, and encouraged us to make open space an important part of the conference by making it the focus of the keynote.
Countless people this weekend, from speakers to attendees alike, noted that this was one of the most well-organized, valuable conferences they had been to, local or otherwise. You made that happen by always thinking about our attendees first, and making sure no detail was overlooked. Though I’m sure each of us has a mental list of things we can improve upon next time, don’t miss this chance to feel good about everything you did right.
Thank you, Derick Bailey, Jake Smith, Nola Stowe, John Teague and Mike Wilcox for speaking up on this list and providing your input as we planned in public.
Thank you, Alan Stevens for brining open space to a new audience, and for truly being a part of this conference, instead of just “the talent.”
Thank you, Clark Sell, for being my partner in crime and co-organizer of this conference. Always a pleasure, my friend. Next up, HTML5.wi. Beer, brats and JavaScript.
Thank you, Gavin Brahman, Jeff Carouth, Keith Casey, Sharon Cichelli, Sam Hooker, Martin Hooper, Robert Stackhouse, Tim Thomas, Jake Wong for being part of the planning committee and for making so much happen. Each of you made a much larger impact on this event than you likely realize. Thank you for putting up with my quirks, for your encouragement throughout, and for pushing this to be the best conference it could be.
Thank you, Keith Casey, Kyle Simpson and the growing HubAustin community, for allowing us to close at your facility. Consider HTML5.tx your biggest fan and promoter!
In spite of what the 10:01 entry on the battle plan might have read. I will be doing this again, and I sincerely hope to have you alongside me.
HTML5.tx. 100% Pure. Indeed, it was, because of each of you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Brandon Satrom
Unretired Conference Wrangler
Dickerson, Monty
Well done. And thank you, Brandon.
For the resources, this conference was astonishingly good.
Everyone I sought feedback from expressed a real synergy and positivity about community around HTML5 as we move forward to actually build the open web.
Thank you, everyone who helped. Texas is becoming a better & better hub for emerging mobile & web technologies, in large part due to the goodwill of volunteers and sponsors like we have here.
Heartfelt thanks.
Monty