BTW: if you talk about past conference
I went to WWDC (San Jose, USA), back in 1992, but I had a good job at the time (I was working at Apple France).
Ich leibe München und Paulaners!
For me it was timing and distance. We spend mid August through October on Maui each year, so It would have meant traveling from Hawai’i to Munich in the middle of my family’s vacation.
This is my case as well. Anything mid-week is off the table for me, as my job wouldn’t pay for it. I’d have to take vacation time, but with family in three countries, four cities and two continents I’m always short on vacation days.
I’d love to attend (as I would all XDCs and I don’t), but to be honest I’d have a hard time attending a multi-day event in Madrid, and it’s the city I live in 
(I love Munich, by the way, so that would never be it 
)
a glaringly obvious reason for me is that i do not use any MBS code in any projects i have ever undertaken.
but if i wanted a geeky holiday away from the hard life i have here in Spain i think it might be a great thing to attend and in a beautiful city.
Well apart from one session there was not much mention of MBS products.
! ok so why is it an MBS conference? not that it matters really, rhetorical question, if it was not about the MBS products and i did go i might be a little bewildered what was going on. i am going off topic with that so ignore please.
MBS organised the conference, hence the use of the name, and there was one session on updates to plugins. The biggest benefit in attending the conferences is the networking and knowledge sharing that goes on outside the sessions in addition to the actual content.
My English is limited so I am not sure whether we have a misunderstanding here: I was talking about the seminar fee (its price), not about those prizes (raffle profit) we received at the end…
Personally, what I expect from such conferences, are how to guides, tutorials, some solid information on how to do things, where to find tools or information, etc. - from people with practical experience, people who share what they found out. I also like to get sample projects which give me a jump start.
That is why I tried to do such a thing myself. But now I think that maybe people prefer something else?
For the planning of future events it might be helpful to give attendees the opportunity to rate sessions and answer some multiple choice questions, like:
- Has the content met your expectations?
- Has the form met your expectations?
- would you like to hear more from this presenter?
- would you like to hear more on this subject?
Etc.
Plus give written feedback about a session.
Find some incentive for the presenters to put more work into the preparation. For instance I know from Bob Keeney that not only he made great efforts to be a Xojo-Master, but he also trained himself in giving speeches, he learned how to do presentations.
I try to follow his example and I hope others will do this as well.
@Oliver Osswald
I would like to emphasize that your session was one of the highlights on this conference.
@Oliver Oswald
Has the content met your expectations?
I had no expectations because the topic is not my field of work
Has the form met your expectations?
Absolutely!
would you like to hear more from this presenter?
Sure do!
would you like to hear more on this subject?
? your session made me curious but again, it’s not my field of work
We have to put MBS or European or other prefix in the name to distinguish it from the official Xojo conference.
While I used to make up to 4 sessions myself to fill the schedule, for this conference I was happy to only do two and one was my usual commercial.
Interesting. Indeed, we should see if Christian could be allowed to use a name like “Xojo European Conference”.
After all, big companies allow it too. The last iterations of the Apple Expo in Paris were not organized by Apple, but by an independent organization.
As for me, too overloaded, and the language barrier (not speaking English or German).
I attended the last two MBS Xojo conferences, and I have to say that they worth the money! Mainly is not just about the sessions themselves they are good and enlightening in general but about the opportunity to talk other Xojo developers coming around the globe, interchange experiences, points of view, make connections and also for fun! (and we had lot of all this!)
Tip: buying the conference tickets in their “early” stage is not that expensive I think. I opted for that both times. (This also applies for XDC tickets too).
First time I went to the Hotel of the Event (probably the “expensive” option for most pockets) and this time I went to the “cheaper” option Hotel, at a distance of just a few meters in the same street. I paid for 3 nights in the Dolomit what I should have paid for 1 night at Maritim: good enough bed, excelente Internet connection, zero noise and clean. Of course, the room space and/or comfort are not the same but this is something everyone has to choose.
I admit that I work for my own so I don’t have the “time” constraints (besides meeting deadlines and so), and that I can deduce part of my expenses but I don’t make much money during those days either.
The final line is that I prefer to make the effort because it pays: this is one of the best developers communities I’m aware of. The people is really kind and gentle to share their experiences, and in the mid-long term an excelent opportunity to keep the contact with all these friends.
Same applies for XDC, absolutely! And If you are in doubt about this you should attend!! I went this year for first time and it was simply so great!!
Christian, thank you again for yoiur conference! Prost!
Javier
P.S: The conference gift made it through customs! 
[quote=404788:@Oliver Osswald]My English is limited so I am not sure whether we have a misunderstanding here: I was talking about the seminar fee (its price), not about those prizes (raffle profit) we received at the end…
[/quote]
An oversight on my part, please accept my apologies. And believe me, your English is just fine.
Oh I think you set the bar hight for everyone else. It was clear that you had put a lot of effort into it. Thanks.
[quote=404825:@olivier vidal]Interesting. Indeed, we should see if Christian could be allowed to use a name like “Xojo European Conference”.
After all, big companies allow it too. The last iterations of the Apple Expo in Paris were not organized by Apple, but by an independent organization.
As for me, too overloaded, and the language barrier (not speaking English or German).[/quote]
Well I don’t think this paragraph came from Google translate… the main thing is that you can follow the presentation. And I think there were a few around that could speak French as well.
For my part, I had not planned to attend this conference because I was already in Denver. Counting the trip and the extra days for both conferences, it’s been almost two weeks more I’m not in the office (plus associated costs).
But finally I was able to free up some time and I decided to go. Fortunately, it allowed me to had great time talking with other passionate developers. My English is far from perfect but there is always a way to understand each other (around a beer:-)
It’s always interesting to see other solutions and ways to solve problems, but the most incredible is that everyone can talk directly with the Xojo Team (this year Geoff and Paul).
I think that for all European who are passionate in development with Xojo, the place to be is this conference!
Thank you Christian for organizing this event.
Awful time of the year for us. September is our busiest month of the year for a variety of reasons. A month earlier or later and it’s much easier to attend.
Well, you did miss the Airport brewery in the Munich airport.
https://www.munich-airport.de/de/micro/airbraeu/airbraeu-brauerei/index.jsp
Bad timing for us. Business picks up after the summer holidays (our target audience, construction companies, have their holiday end of July, beginning of August). This means we try to get an update to our software released after the summer. So really bad timing for us.
I’ve been to both Berlin (May 2017, gave presentation) and London MBS (November 2017) conferences but decided not to go this year.
I see a potential risk here offending fellow-presenters which I don’t intend and I hope we can have a mature discussion and still respect each other at the end of the discussion thread. To Christian I’d like to say I appreciate all the hard work you do for the Xojo community and your plug-ins make Xojo a viable development platform.
My reasons for not going:
1st reason: time. September is too busy, back after summer and projects are ramping up.
2nd reason: benefits. While the presentations are generally interesting and good, they are mainly showcasing. I know - I’ve been doing it myself in both xDev and (lately in Berlin). Showcasing projects made in Xojo is inspiring and interesting, but I lack the deep-dive sessions from other conferences I attend (AWS Summit, SenchaCon, SolidWorks World). There the technical break-out session will blow you brains out. The MBS Xojo events I’ve been to are (for me) mainly networking events.
3rd reason: no options schedule. I fully understand the limits of the Xojo community when it comes to numbers. But having a single agenda makes it all-or-nothing. I simply didn’t see enough interesting sessions for this MBS Conference this time.
4th reason: costs. Travel, conference pass (although possible to negotiate or simply sign up early) and accommodation. I don’t want to come across as cheap or short-handed here, but for a small company money is an issue.