Web 2.0: Over crowded. Over hyped?


I have not had time to read what others are writing about on this, but I have talked with several attendees who have told me the rooms are so overcrowded that there is not even standing room available. Very strange thing to be oversold like that… definitely should have picked a larger venue. That said, the Google party last night was rocking when we got there from the Web1.0 Summitt. Scott from Laughing Squid has a great post with some funny photos and so does the kind and gracious MissRogue. Met some darn nice, smart, fun, cool people who we hope to speak more with sometime soon. But the people at Web2.1 are cooler.

Their crowding problem makes me think about how we are handling the crowd size for Web 2.1 tomorrow. At the moment we are expecting about 50 people. That is probably the perfect sized crowd, so while it is difficult to do, I am feeling as if we may need to close registrations at some point. Rather than just announce it like that though, I want to think about it and get your feedback. I know it seems rather anti-open principle, but I am not sure what else to do as switching venues is nearly impossible at the moment and I would rather not. If you have some other ideas on this please let me know. Perhaps it wont be a problem, but if the word spreads too much farther I would rather we did not have to deal with it by turning people away at the door.

Part of the problem is that many people I know have not registered and just have planned on showing up, and several people are just iffy regarding whether or not they will make it. So here is what I think I would like to do:

Unless you have registered via PayPal or we have spoken personally and I have your name down as an attendee on the Web2point1.org wiki by midnight tonight, I am sorry to say we wont be able to accomodate you. Totally sucks, but we are running out of space on the hard drive, and nothing else will fit… It is also kind of a security thing that I had not thought about with regards to the studio and all these people coming in. I really want to be respectful to the people at KRON4 since they have really gone out of their way, not only donating the space and the facilities management, but they also came up with $500 to support our after party.

If you are not going to be able to make it, but I have your name on the Web2point1.org wiki, please take it off or email me at the joinus account to let me know. It will let me sleep a little tonight perhaps if I dont have the added stress of this being too successfull. Can you imagine the terribleness of such troubles? Thank god no major news source picked up on it yet as that would have actually sucked. I like grassroots stuff… a lot

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