Slack Frontiers: San Francisco

The View π
The Slack Frontiers conference was held at Pier 48 on September 5-6 in San Francisco. As a heavy user of Slack and as a previous resident of San Francisco, I was super excited to attend the conference.
Slack Frontiers 2018: Pier 48, San Francisco
Flying out of Missoula International Airport (MSO) is great – 12 minutes from Uber pickup to the airport and another 5 minutes to get through security. Less than 20 minutes. Nice.

βοΈ MSO β SEA β SFO π¦
We lived in the Bay Area when the San Jose Sharks were introduced as an NHL expansion team. I still have one of the stones used to build the arena. Irbe was a favorite, and so was Owen Nolan.

Owen Nolan π
I landed at SFO on Wednesday before noon, waited for my bag, hopped on BART and was in San Francisco at 12:30. The conference opened at two – I dropped off my bags, grabbed the drone and walked (the long route) from Market and 7th to Pier 48. After registering, I poked around the conference floor.

Slack Frontiers Floor π
Two things Iβve learned over the past year in attending conferences:
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Full sheet conference collateral no longer exists
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Conference attendees donβt like taking collateral
Things I might try if I was putting on a conference:
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Request all electronic collateral from vendors before the conference
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As the event organizer, send all collateral to all attendees and registrants after the conference
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Send attendee information to all vendors after the conference
There were only a handful of vendors which seemed to be a good amount.

Slack Collateral π
Entering the Main Hall early to get a good seat for the opening keynote, I took my spot in the back-middle row. I figured I was safe from any speech-related exercises.
I was wrong.

Opening Keynote Prep π£
βEveryone in the back-middle row, please stand up. The first one to correctly answer this quiz receives my book. Oh – Everyone else, please turn around in your seats and stare at them until they answer correctly.β

Primed To Perform π (I Won)
After the opening Keynote, I picked up my t-shirt and with the sun still up, flew the drone over the bay. We left San Francisco in 2007 – much of the city is the same. Those big buildings are new.

San Francisco Giants, Marina, Bay Bridge, Downtown π’
Starting early the next morning, I headed out in darkness hoping to catch the sun rise over the Bay and to take the long route (along the Embarcadero) to Pier 48.

My Schedule π

Hotel Room View π΄

Missing Obama π‘

My SF Office π¦

Hi Dive (πΈ), Redβs Java House (βοΈ)

Innovation π½
Back at the conference, I picked up Channels – Slackβs printed magazine (good!), walked around the conference floor then took my seat for the Thursdayβs opening Keynote.

Slack Channels π

Atlassian π

You Are Here π

Thursday Keynote π¬
After taking wads of notes, meeting with our friends from Okta and Atlassian, I stepped out of the closing Keynote then headed out to do some reminiscing.

Cha Cha Chas π

Mad Dog β½οΈ

Neighborhood View π
The flight home took me through PDX, which meant I stopped by ΒΏPor QuΓ© No?.

Yum π
To date this year, Iβve attended two conferences: Slack Frontiers and CIMC (in Squamish). Both have been terrific – in size, presenters and location.