BG Conference on Comtemplative Technology

Vince has announced a new BG conference, for April in San Francisco, called the "Buddhist Geeks Conference on Contemplative Technology". He is doing this as another Kickstarter (visit to see the intro video):

www.kickstarter.com/projects/vincenthorn...ontemplative-technol

So, the big question is: if you went in previous years, would you go to this one? And if you have never gone, would you go? This conference, unlike others, is more focused and is not a general "Buddhist Geeks" conference. The focus is on technology as it relates to contemplative practice, and contemplative practice as it relates to technology. Interesting, for sure (at least to me) but the risk, of course, is that by focusing a conference that had somewhere shy of 300 attendees, will that be too focused to fly?

Personally, I am on the fence. I have always had far more value from the out-of-conference conference than the specific sessions themselves, and worry that it won't draw enough people to get my fix. Cost (financial and temporal) is always an issue, otherwise it would be a no-brainer. But the venue is a whole lot easier to get to for me, and the flight would be cheaper. It doesn't help that the lineup is still very nebulous, and I can think of at least one speaker that makes me shake my head and go "huh?".

I would love to hear other opinions.

I won't go to the SF version in April but will go if there is a general BG conference again next year. If Vince kills the general conference I think it is a mistake, but maybe he knows something I don't. I think I'll e-mail him and ask about the grand plan.

Just heard from Vincent Horn after sending him an e-mail about the continuation of the more general BG conferences. The idea is not to drop these "all hands" meetings. It is, in fact, their plan to do one next October in Boulder.

I'm re-thinking my participation in this April event. One, it's in San Francisco, my favorite city in the US. Two, it's easy for me to get there by making up a work related reason to go to SF. Three, it's shaping up to have better agenda than I thought it would. Four, I want to support Vince and Buddhist Geeks, and five, it's in San Francisco, my favorite city in the US.

I just helped fund the event by donating to it on Kickstarter. If you plan to go please do that. BG needs the money.

Russell wrote: Got me rethinking too. I want to go to both, but $$$!!! If we go, does anyone want to go have a sit in the Muir woods one day. I swear that is the most magical places I have ever been.

If we go, I also propose a road trip to visit our honourable member of Petaluma!