Webhosting Day 2008 - Disguising the Sales Pitch, a Presenter's Paradox

I'm sure I have commented in the past (and most people would probably agree intuitively) that there's something disappointing about attending a hosting conference session that turns out to be a thinly veiled sales pitch. Maybe it just seems a little dishonest, even a bit condescending.

But sitting through my fifth not-quite-a-sales-pitch of the day, (this one delivered by AXIGEN, and preceded by similar performances from VisionApp, Q-Layer, Microsoft and Parallels), I came to a bit of a realization.

It's really a difficult position a presenter is in. On the one hand their expertise, and presumably their best material, has to do with their product. But they're prevented by whatever rules of decorum from pursuing that angle outright.

Let's take for granted that people go into a session called "virtualized hosted solutions for business messaging - the AXIGEN alternative" accepting that they're going to be hit with a sales pitch. The fact that they're there at all (and in this case there are probably something like 150 people in the room) is pretty convincing evidence that they're interested in the product they're going to be pitched (in this case, AXIGEN, a Linux mail server).

The sort of "brief history of SaaS services" approach many of these presenters take to putting their products in context, and the "brief company history" approach to introducing those products seem to me to be a missed opportunity. Or at least, a rather gentle treatment of an opportunity. I can't help but think that 20 minutes ago I left the exhibit hall, where right now, I could probably walk up to the AXIGEN booth and have a hands-on experience with the product right there. Why not bring that into the presentation? Here, I'm left wondering about simple things like what the user interface looks like.

I'm sitting next to Steve Higashi through this session. He works with Web hosting provider Vistapages, and he's watching the presentation with interest, but frustrated interest. "A case study would go a long way toward making this work," he says. In this case, pretending it's not a pitch is actually hurting the presentation. There are obvious questions here that aren't being addressed. How does it compare to exchange, or one of the other Linux mail servers.

He ends the presentation with the suggestion that we start "playing" with AXIGEN, and provides a link to a live online demo of the product. I don't think this weakens my point. In fact, I think it's a nod to the need for a better understanding of the product than can be communicated in the not-a-sales-pitch mode of presenting.

I'm not indignant, mind you. I can accept that event sponsors, when given a soapbox, are going to use that opportunity to pitch their product. It's all-but-inevitable, and I'd say just about everybody expects it from this sort of event. And I can accept that this sort of presentation is going to fall short on the "issues and trends" kind of information.

The problem, as I see it, is whatever sense of integrity or propriety that keeps these presenters from making an honest sales pitch, using whatever tools they have. I think in trying to give a presentation that won't sound like a sales pitch, presenters tend to ruin the sales pitch. Which tends to ruin the presentation, since the pitch is what everyone is waiting for.

Is it a problem that can't be solved? Of course I understand that Webhosting Day would be a tough sell at $385 Euros a head to listen to marketing material for two days. But if conference organizers can't or won't develop session content themselves, then let's loosen the reins on the sales pitch. The same old thing tends to get dull after a while.

By the way, this isn't a shot at AXIGEN. The presentation was not necessarily better or worse than any other. It was just a good example of a pretty pervasive problem at the perfect time.

Webhosting Day 2008 - What's New This Year?

I've personally attended each of the three Webhosting Day events, now. And things have changed mightily since the original in 2006. What hasn't changed, of course, is the event's oddball setting.

I'm trying, I assure you, to keep from writing too much this year about how "weird" my surroundings are. It's a given at this point that Webhosting Day is held at an amusement park. That it is an always odd, occasionally bizarre setting for a Web hosting conference should just be part of the scenery.

In defense of my own over-attentiveness, I really would challenge anyone to put themselves in these circumstances - sit down to cover the event and expect the incongruous images (a Windows Server 2008 banner hanging next to a stack of pirate treasure chests, for example), and the general weirdness, to just drop from their mind.

But I digress.

Right now I'm sitting six feet away from a human-sized birdcage with a disco-ball bottom, all of which is hidden behind a sparkling gold curtain with a fringe. Things like this are just all over this place.

Okay, now I'll stop. Really.

What's most notable about this Webhosting Day is the event's ongoing progression in the direction of credibility. That's not to say that it hasn't arrived at credibility, but that it's a growing concern. For an event that really seems to be learning as it grows, Webhosting Day is showing a lot of progress.

Some of that is apparent just in the layout of the thing. Last year's (perfectly sufficient) registration area is now a (perfectly sufficient) coat check. This year, registration took place at the amusement park's own entrance. That is, things are happening on a bigger scale here now.

According to the opening address, the event is dealing with close to 1,000 attendees, several hundred more than organizers were expecting even a week or two ago. That was apparent at registration, and beyond. There was a bit of a bottleneck signing in, as organizers handled the extra people, and the sessions saw the same roughly 30-minute delay as registration.

The attendance has led to Internet connection problems, too. Webhosting Day has had connection problems in the past. At last year's event, a connection was hard to come by - particularly because the venue doesn't have much an Internet connection to speak of. This year, Intergenia brought in a satellite link (it did last year, but that link caused some serious problems), and is working to provide a working, if over-taxed link.

(Keeping that link alive means blocking out certain bandwidth-intensive sites, such as YouTube and, unfortunately, Flickr, which has put a hold on me posting event pictures online. I will have use of an unfettered connection at some point, so keep checking back.)

The other big change is in the exhibit hall. Like the registration area, it has moved on to bigger and better things, located now in the "Wuze Town" area. While the exhibit hall at last year's event seemed more like an afterthought, this year's area is the real thing, dominated by elaborate displays from primary sponsors Microsoft and Parallels.

Finally, the sessions have been divided up differently. This year there are no "main" sessions overlapping with the workshops, forcing attendees to choose between workshops and main sessions. This year the main schedule takes place in the morning, with workshops in the afternoon. Attendees still have to choose between overlapping workshops (four are scheduled for any given time slot), but it's certainly more possible to feel like you've attended the whole event.