I'm writing this as I wait on a flight back to Orlando after spending yesterday with John Magnabosco and team at the IndyTechFest. I did a presentation on replication to earn my keep, but really I was there to watch the event in action and see if I could add a few ideas for my upcoming SQLSaturday in Orlando. In no particular order:

• Pre-event messaging was first class and honestly better than my own for SQLSaturday. I've saved some to revisit. It was a combination of message, layout, and personalization, but was just well done.

• Check in was handled very smoothly. Four lines, speakers were expedited, all attendees received a nice embroidered bag (small backpack) and a really nice printed event guide with a full color stiff paper cover (maybe a little over the top, but nice). Also lanyard and a plastic name badge.

• Nice set up for sponsors, good traffic (and they let sponsors set up the night before, nice thing to do if you can get access to the space then and secure it)

• Food was handled by the facility and definitely simplified logistics. Breakfast was muffins & etc, coffee, juice, granola bars. Lunch was lasagna and garlic bread, food looked very good but the line was a mess. They only had two lines going, and the traffic was exactly backwards. Bad call from the facility, but everyone took it in stride and everyone got fed.

• They had lunch time sessions scheduled along with a little extra time, but no guidance on if they should start late and no plan to feed the speakers.

• Very nice placards for each room with all sessions like you would see at a conference.

• Speakers received polos, volunteers received a nice t-shirt

• The morning keynote started slow with various admin notes, but they had a speaker (apologies for having a name/link available) that did a bit of stand up comedy that got everyone laughing and excited.

• I met one network admin/DBA/etc that drove 4 hours for the event, speaks volumes about him (in a good way) and the event

• They also did a very nice speaker dinner post event and we had some more great conversations there.

• They did a great job taking care of speakers, making sure we had what we needed and in general showing they appreciated our efforts towards the event.

Attendance was over 450! Just incredible to bring that many in, and will move them to a larger venue next year. I attribute their success to a couple different items:

• The Indy .Net Association averages 120 attendees at meetings

• That in turn has allowed them to develop much better than average sponsor relationships that make them very well funded. I don't know the exact cost of the event and while I can guess to a degree, let's just say it was considerably more than the $4k or so I budget for Orlando. Having money definitely changes the game, but not all communities are big enough/successful enough/whatever enough to get to this point. But extra kudos for doing so and building those partnerships!

• They have four very committed and active guiding members on the event committee. Makes me think about what I could accomplish in Orlando if we could add one more really committed person!

Nice airport, area seems nice, weather was nice. Definitely thinking about returning next year and spending an extra day to play tourist. I'm hoping I can get John to post some more stuff about the inner workings that have led them to their success.