Why couldn’t you do the best of both worlds? Have the central, big XDC every other year and on the off years a travelling, region-to-region schedule of locally run and hosted events, but “Xojo approved” or something with different Xojo faces showing up to various ones?
Not too sure the user base is sufficient for anything. As far as I can see, no more than a couple people from each country seem interested in this topic. That is far from enough to create any local event.
Well you can try & convince Dana to organize several events a year but I’ll just say I wish you luck 
A user organized conference might demonstrate that there IS enough demand to warrant anything more involved from Xojo Inc
Right now I’d say there is healthy skepticism that a European conference would break even because of the costs involved
You don’t need maths. You need to understand PR. And the golden rule of PR is: “What it doesn’t say is often more important than what it does say.”
The next step for Xojo would be to try to find out why people don’t go to the meetings.
So… to ask at the forum and the participants is wrong!
Ask the people that don’t attend meetings and find out why don’t they attend!
I think Xojo will benefit much more to listen to the silent masses than the few voices caring to type on a forum like this! 
If they are interested in expanding the user base, that is!
But at the other hand, I think they want to grow the way they grow. Because, if not, it would be different!
Money is not the issue. Instead, nothing happens by an accident…!
It’s easy to post thoughts in a forum like this.
Xojo is still a rebellion, killer software! Not the mainstream developers tool. That shall not be forgotten!
[quote=203965:@Jakob Krabbe]Ask the people that don’t attend meetings and find out why don’t they attend!
I think Xojo will benefit much more to listen to the silent masses than the few voices caring to type on a forum like this! :-)[/quote]
It is just like asking people who abstain what they think about the electoral process.
Fact is, by nature, this forums, XDC and user groups are meant for people who feel the need to communicate and congregate. Loners and individuals who do not like to talk about programming will not change their lifestyle because Xojo dances on its head. They will simply continue walking the dog, growing plants or do macrame as they always did. We must admit the truth which is that the 80,000 Xojo users are just a drop in the 2.4 millions surfers in the US alone http://www.surfline.com/community/whoknows/whoknows.cfm?id=1012 and I picked surf. I bet the favorite screen remains the TV, immediately followed by Facebook…
This forum is a small part of these 80,000 people, with only 12,159 today. And of these 12,159, probably one in a hundred ever posts anything.
We are but the tip of an already small needle… I doubt extremely much any of the silent readers of this forum has even an opinion about XDC or local related events. They probably long ago decided they were simply not interested…
in Paris (as in London, Rome, or Berlin I guess), many engineers and computer schools are struggling to receive free of such events (only sessions, not the lodging of course).
Mozilla also has a superb conference room, in the heart of Paris, where they often host free this type of conferences (that said, these are often conferences for half a day, I do not know if they would accept several days).
But as Michael said, there remains the language barrier. I think Christian (and here) comes to attracting twenty people in his conference (I am not sure). If it is a most important conference with Xojo engineers, etc., there will be perhaps 30-40 European. + Other nationalities (American …).
To double or triple the number of Europeans will require simultaneous translation in one or two other languages, such as 4D does now in France.
Hey, cosy…
my biggest conference had 50 people 
What I’m gathering from posts on the thread is that the sentiment is “Xojo should organize this”
But that wasnt Bob’s original question
I’d extend that
- do you want the event to happen only if Xojo organizes it ? what if a user group organizes it in conjunction with Xojo ?
- who, if anyone , from Xojo would you like to see in attendance ?
- price point ? same as XDC ?
- and what would you you do to convince xojo to hold a conference inEurope (put some money down in advance? think “kickstarter” for a european conference) I know XDC is expensive enough and just breaks even with the attendance it currently has (around 100)
Yes and No - There could be an indirect revenue source tied to the connections you may cultivate at XDC. I know a few of the connections I made at XDC 2014 turned out to be paid contractors with us.
[quote=203965:@Jakob Krabbe]Ask the people that don’t attend meetings and find out why don’t they attend!
[/quote]
For me it’s first and foremost cost .
If I was a full-time Xojo developer I would seriously consider it. If it was held near enough to my home so I had no lodging or transportation cost i would CONSIDER it. That is not going to happen however.
In general Xojo has a lot of users (the majority?) that fall closer to the hobbyist end of the spectrum than the full-time professional developer that use Xojo as their primary tool end.
The ones at at the professional developer end are the ones most likely to attend, and the other end the least likely. The forum has the whole spectrum.
- Karen
Oh, never say never. When I put on the ARBP conferences that was one of the considerations of location. We did Boulder, CO and Atlanta, GA and if we had held another one it would have been at or near Seattle, WA.
Personally, I think if there were regional events there would be more local people would show up. It’s close so they don’t have to spend as much for travel or hotel (if they don’t want) and smaller venues and smaller conferences cost less.
The drawback is that there were far fewer Xojo employee’s at them, and the topics were constrained by the presenters. XDC has a wide variety of sessions (36, I think?) and I think the most we had at any of the ARBP conferences was 12 over the course of two days.
There is definitely a scale issue. But it was cheaper and more accessible.
On the other hand, a smaller conference can tackle topics that are a bit more near and dear to beginners. Lot’s of people have questions on basic OO programming and beginning database topics, and reports, and charts, and so on.
I wonder if approaching it like a day or two of training wouldn’t make more sense on the regional events. You might get some people that are just curious about Xojo and want to see what it’s like.
Those people aren’t likely to pay to attend an event. That would probably be some sort of free pre-sales presentation, rather than a day or two long conference.
Perhaps true for most but my first Xojo / Real Studio / Realbasic conference back in 2007 served as a means of evaluating the company and community behind the product. Needless to say, my evaluation was positive enough to adopt a new software development tool for our clients and products.
My vote goes to a large annual conference organized by Xojo and held in a destination location that is both entertaining and functional. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Austin but Orlando and Las Vegas were even better.
As for the small regional conferences, they certainly serve a purpose. I attended the one in Boulder and was scheduled to attend the one in Atlanta but business kept me from it. The Boulder conference was a success professionally and personally.
Inexpensive direct flights and inexpensive but nice hotels are important. Orlando and Las Vegas have both. I hope that future conferences will be held in Orlando, Las Vegas and even Austin occasionally.
See you all next year . . . wherever XDC 2016 is held.
Hi All,
My Thoughts:
Why not have a google+ hangout sponsored by Xojo for a small regional get together? Each week (or bi-weekly, or monthly), Xojo (the sponsor) could provide a guest appearance and presentation from an engineer employed by Xojo for users in the targeted area. This avoids the cost for conference space, airfare, lodging and we still get the face time & networking opportunities with our local Xojo users and Xojo, Inc.
I can already see an announcement on the Xojo twitter feed:
Google+, I think, provides a 10-15 person video conference plus an additional 100 or so with the ability to watch the proceedings for free. Google can also record these for play back later and would be useful content for the xojo.com domain.
Anyway, just thinking out loud here. Let me know what you think.
Regards,
Jim
[quote=204005:@Jim Cramer]Hi All,
My Thoughts:
Why not have a google+ hangout sponsored by Xojo for a small regional get together? Each week (or bi-weekly, or monthly), Xojo (the sponsor) could provide a guest appearance and presentation from an engineer employed by Xojo for users in the targeted area. This avoids the cost for conference space, airfare, lodging and we still get the face time & networking opportunities with our local Xojo users and Xojo, Inc.
I can already see an announcement on the Xojo twitter feed:
Google+, I think, provides a 10-15 person video conference plus an additional 100 or so with the ability to watch the proceedings for free. Google can also record these for play back later and would be useful content for the xojo.com domain.
Anyway, just thinking out loud here. Let me know what you think.
Regards,
Jim[/quote]
We do offer weekly webinars with lots of guests and even a regular Xojo Podcast with Xojo engineers and enthusiasts alike.
[quote=203988:@Mike Cotrone]@Joost Rongen @Patrick Delaney - you forget at least 5 days of being out of office / not billable.
Yes and No - There could be an indirect revenue source tied to the connections you may cultivate at XDC. I know a few of the connections I made at XDC 2014 turned out to be paid contractors with us.[/quote]
You know, your reaction is exactly the kind of cultural difference I keep observing between Americans and Europeans. Networking is taken very seriously in the US and Canada, where mindset is a lot more relational and cooperative. Leave two businessmen together in a hotel lounge, and they will find some deal to be had, as small as it may be.
In Europe, I keep seeing corporate types so busy being important and secretive, they completely forget doing business. As if their business cards where so scarce, they could not share any. And that is the case whatever the size of the company. I have seen startup operators neglect major potential deals, as they were so busy being kings of the court. I call that the Digital Research syndrome, epitomized by Gary Kildall being so dismissive, he ended up passing the huge IBM-PC DOS contract that made Microsoft fortune.
Mentality is not the same on each side of the Atlantic. In the old continent, the pioneer spirit died when the Mayflowers left.