John D. Mitchell's Blog

Sitting With The Audience

Danese Cooper wrote about the pros and cons of sitting in the front row as a Sun employee. Let me be so bold as to recommend to Sun, Key3Media, and all of the other folks who put on developer conferences to try two experiments...

First, just get up and wander around a bit and then sit down somewhere much farther back in the audience. Be Brazilian (as John Gage would say) and actively chat with (i.e., listen first and then respond to) the folks around you. If you're really daring, take along a big stack of your business cards and give them to the folks you actually chat with so that they can continue to chat with you in the future.

Next, try the same thing but without wearing your corporate logo-wear and big-wig badge.

Sure, it would be difficult for Scooter and his huge posse' of handlers, assistants, and bodyguards, but I think that a lot more of the rest of the Sun crew would have interesting and useful experiences than their trepidation would indicate.

Finally, let me note how important it is to do these by yourself! I am continually amazed at how clique-ish folks are and how insidiously that excludes most of the people that have something important to say.

Comments

• Claustrophobe
  Personally I like to sit at the end of a row and near the back, party because I totally agree with you and party because I hate to feel trapped. At JavaOne I also like to go haunt the Alumni Lounge, which is curiously off-limits to Sun staff (getting the Alumni badge is always a fun activity).

  Posted by: webmink on June 24, 2003 at 09:14 AM

• Claustrophobe
  Yeah, the peanut gallery at the back of the room is usually a great place to pick up on some very pointed opinions. :-)

  Sshhh! Don't tell everyone about the Alumni lounge or it will get overrun!
  

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