By Dave McBreen, Name.com’s Director of Core Development
Before attending HostingCon, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I assumed take-aways would primarily come out of the presentations. I didn’t expect networking to be very much fun, let alone informative. And I saw little chance of ending up on a dance floor.
I mostly attended the technical talks. Although these weren’t quite as technical as I would have liked, I got something out of each one. Sometimes I would just catch something mentioned in passing or listed on a random slide that would spark an idea or point to a resource that I didn’t know existed.
Computer science majors aren’t generally the most social bunch. But I was surprised how much I took away from talks with our vendors and partners. Conversation topics ranged from backups and CDNs to DDoS mitigation and malware detection. I also spoke with a Director of Development from another company and it was fascinating hearing about the challenges faced by a team ten times our size.
Then there were the post conference activities. One after-party included an open bar, stand up comedy, an 80s cover band, and dueling DJs. It ended with the entire crew from name.com dancing like it was the final hour at a wedding.
The trip was more fun, educational, and informative than I expected. It’s an exciting and changing industry. And its great to be a part of it.
