I want to start this post it what might come across as defensive mode. To a certain degree it is, but it's worth explaining some of the build up, the decisions we made and why we made them. So first off is scheduling and rooms. We know that some of you were disappointed in not being able to get into Scott Guthrie's talks and for that we can only apologize; here's the reasoning on why we did what we did.
We wanted to make the best use of what we had, which is the three rooms in building 3. Adding a fourth room involves additional costs and management, as the fourth room is in another building, behind secured areas. This means attendees and speakers need escorting to this room by event staff; even the organisers can't access this area without being escorted. So we decided upon just the 3 rooms, meaning 3 tracks. Initially we weren't considering Scott as a speaker; this is a small, community event and it seemed unlikely he'd come over for it. Phil and I were in Redmond in November and were chatting to Scott about the event and he said "If I come over, how many sessions could I do?". Suddenly we got thinking; there was the idea of a big keynote, but it's just not practical for to just come over for one talk; we then had the "Scott Guthrie Track", which is what he almost did anyway, but we didn't want this to be Scott Fest. We already had some great talks lined up and didn't want Scott to dominate, even though this is exactly what happened. We know Scott is a big draw - he doesn't generally do events like this, certainly not in the UK - and I think we underestimated the demand a little. OUr bad, but heck, this is a free event
As to rooms, we did consider giving Scott Chicago 1 & 2, as they can be joined together into a single room. This would have accomodated all of the people who wanted to see him, but would have left us with only 2 tracks, using Memphis for the second room. We felt that more talks was a better option, giving attendees more choice; this may have been wrong, but I stand by the decision - some of the other talks have more immediate use that Orcas and WPF/e, which while cool and sexy are future technologies.
One reason why we don't feel bad about our decision is that all of Scott's talks were filmed. I know people want to see the rockstar live, rather than on video, but sometimes you have to take what life dishes out. Several people whom I know were very keen to see Scott speak, took the sensible and adult decision to attend other talks, knowing that they'd be able to see Scott's ones later (and we'll keep you posted on that - the process is already underway).
We're definitely going to do another of these events and we'll take all of the problems into account. We'll read the feedback, think about different room arrangements and try and make it better. I've got some cool ideas for competitions we'll run before the event as well as some speakers I'd like to get. Keep your eyes peeled.