Top 5 Reasons We Still Have a User Conference

Last year, we published a serious top-ten list for reasons to attend NetQoS Symposium 2008; we also published a top 10 reasons on this blog, which highlighted reasons such as my abiding love for the “Dungeons And Dragons”-based artform, and made references to Aztec mythology.

But it seems really frivolous to be making jokes about things this year for NetQoS Symposium 2009.  As we all know, the economy collapsed under the weight of what the Greeks called “Hubris.”

“Hubris,” of course, being the term that Plato coined for over-leveraged options based on overvalued assets and an unregulated derivatives market that allowed for insurance companies to over-insure products far beyond their actual value, leading to no products actually being insured – of course, you know what they say about history repeating.

So why are we still hosting our user conference, NetQoS Symposium, while other companies are cutting back on theirs?

There are five reasons.

1. NetQoS products have great functional depth and are continuously becoming more integrated, which introduces new workflows, analytics and reporting. We find that our customers walk away from Symposium with greater understanding and a new trick or four about how to use our products to monitor and manage their network performance.  Basic operation is pretty straightforward, but it’s the little subtle interactions and best practice processes that you don’t often think about or that make sense only after you take yourself out of the daily grind and see them in practice.For example, if you had been to Symposium last year, you would have learned that Reporter Analyzer can be made to display graphic data in delicious cookie form.  This, however, does require a cookie printer.
2. It’s a great way to pick the brains of not only NetQoS staff but also peers who may be working on the same problem as you are.  It’s not uncommon for two people to face the same problem, and for each to have independently come up with half of the solution.For example, once my college buddy Dave and I were in a small bunker after the nuclear apocalypse, waiting for the fallout to clear, and all I had was a can of beans, and all he had was a small can opener.  We were rescued by Santa Claus.  Come to think of it, I may have technically dreamed that during my long sickness absence, so never mind.
3. You ever find yourself with a “brilliant” idea in your head, only when you try explaining it out loud to your friends, family, or co-workers, that you realize it’s not really all that bright an idea?  Internal preparation for Symposium involves creating and critiquing numerous subjects over dozens of presentations. This helps us prepare for the client questions that we’ll be asked during individual customer and prospect meetings.  It helps us organize our thoughts into coherent, fluid sessions.A side note: Those of us with permanently disorganized thoughts, like me, are rarely invited to speak at Symposium, or anywhere else out of our cage without a chaperone.
4. Symposium goes far beyond talking about our products; it’s also a way for our customers to learn new skills related to all aspects of network management – not just the vendor-specific stuff.  In addition to the NetAnalyst training that’s available, attendees learn about subjects like WAN optimization, unified communications, packet-level forensics, and how to min-max a 4^th edition D&D Warlock.
5. The weather is just too good this time of year in Austin to not invite people down for a visit.