Gnomedex[1] was a single-track technology conference hosted by Chris Pirillo, the owner of Lockergnome, LLC[2] and was produced by Chris Pirillo and his staff at Lockergnome. Pirillo was the co-host of the show Call For Help on the former cable television channel TechTV. Gnomedex started as an outgrowth of Pirillo's technology newsletters, IRC channel and web site. The conference name is a satirical portmanteau of Pirillo's Lockergnome and the now-defunct Comdex technology trade show, which was a massive and influential annual event at the time of the first Gnomedex conference.
Gnomedex has grown into a conference exploring new and emerging technologies with influencers, entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts as the primary audience. It bills itself as the crossroads between producers and observers, between users and developers. The conference format is meant to serve the needs of the attendees, many of whom are prolific bloggers and podcasters.
The first Gnomedex took place in October 2001 in Des Moines, Iowa, while the tenth Gnomedex took place in August 2010 in Seattle, Washington. Gnomedex organizer Chris Pirillo announced that due to the difficulties in operating such events, that the tenth was likely to be the last Gnomedex unless additional backing and resources were brought forward to help spread the administrative and organizational overhead.[3][4] A Gnomedex stage was included in the first Seattle Interactive Conference in November 2011 after Jake Ludington reportedly convinced Chris Pirillo to continue the event.[5] In March 2015, Chris Pirillo announced that Gnomedex would be making a return sometime in 2015,[6] but this did not materialize.[citation needed]
History
2001
The first Gnomedex was held Friday, October 12, 2001 through Sunday, October 14, 2001 in Des Moines, Iowa.[7] Originally scheduled for the weekend[8] after 9/11, it was postponed for a month to allow people to adjust their travel plans. Despite the uncertainty, nearly 200 people attended from all over the United States, Canada and Europe. The keynote was delivered by Steve Gibson, president of Gibson Research Corp. Presentations included:
Gnomedex 2.0 occurred on Friday, August 23 through Saturday, August 24, 2002 in Des Moines, Iowa at the Downtown Marriott. The keynote was delivered by Leo Laporte, formerly with TechTV. The speaker list included:
Gnomedex 4.0 (a.k.a. "Geeks Gone Wild") was held from Thursday, September 30 to Monday, October 4, 2004 at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Originally, Gnomedex 4.0 was going to be sponsored by Comedy Central and have an open bar. The theme (and sponsor) changed several times after it was announced. The keynote was by Steve Wozniak.[12] Notable speakers and events included Nick Bradbury, Henry Copeland, Dan Gillmor, Ross Rader, Robert Scoble, Jason Shellen,[13]Wil Wheaton[14] and a live broadcast of the Gillmor Gang syndicated technology radio show. Sponsors included Microsoft, PayPal, Google, AMD, Yahoo! Search, DecisionCast, and ZDNet.
IT Conversations produced podcasts of the sessions, which are still available online.[15] The podcast of Steve Wozniak's keynote address is one of the all-time most popular audio programs in IT Conversations history.
The published schedule was as follows:
The Future of Security (panel): Chris DiBona (moderator), Neil Wyler, Fred Felman, CJ Holthaus, Nico Sell, Dan Appleman
Maximizing Your Blogging Strategies: Adam Kalsey (moderator), Robert Scoble, Nick Bradbury, Ross Rader, Jason Shellen, Dave Taylor
Keynote Speaker: Steve Wozniak
Maximizing Your Digital Lifestyle: Eric Rice (moderator), Jim Louderback, Patrick Norton, Ken Layne, Anil Dash, Paul Kent, Tim Handley
The Future of Online Content: Scott Johnson, Greg Reinacker, Steve Gillmor, Dan Gillmor, Peter Kaminski, Jason Calacanis
Wil Wheaton
The Future of Online Advertising: Dave McClure (moderator), Jeff Barr, Henry Copeland, Bill Flitter, Gokul Rajaram
2005
Chris Pirillo at Gnomedex 2005
Gnomedex 5.0 was the first of the series to be held in Seattle, Washington at the Bell Harbor Convention Center. The conference took place from June 23–25, 2005. Notable presentations and activities included:
Microsoft announced that RSS feeds would be supported in the next version of Microsoft Windows. They also gave the first public demonstration of Internet Explorer 7, focusing on its RSS features. Attendees received a track jacket from Microsoft with "Browse, Search, Subscribe" and "(Longhorn icon) (heart icon) RSS" patches.
Adam Curry delivered the closing keynote, while simultaneously recording an episode of his podcast, Daily Source Code.
Kathy Gill from University of Washington presented on blogging in the classroom[16]
Julie Leung gave a presentation on personal and public media
Phillip Torrone of Make Magazine presented on the craft of making
David Winer sang The Beatles' Yellow Submarine.
John Furrier of PodTech.net recorded his Infotalk podcast in a closet which included guests Adam Curry, Dean Hachamovitch from Microsoft, Steve Rubel, Matt Mullenweg, Scott Rafer, Mark Fletcher, and other early influencers in blogging and podcasting.
An episode of the Gillmor Gang podcast was recorded live.
Steve Gillmor, Dave Sifry, Scott Gatz on Tomorrow's Syndication
Kathy Gill, Paul Vogelzang on the Tomorrow's Education
David Geller, John Battelle, Dan Gillmor on Today's Citizen Media
Matt Westervelt, Asa Dotzler, Scott Collins, Matt Mullenweg on Tomorrow's Open Source
Hobie Swan on MindManager
Julie Leung on Blogging as Social Tool
Mark Fletcher, Scott Rafer, Bob Wyman on Tomorrow's RSS
JD Lasica, Terry Heaton, Cory Bergman on Tomorrow's Media
Steve Rubel, Chris Sloop on Tomorrow's Public Relations
Denise Howell, Buzz Bruggeman, Jason Calacanis on Today's Digital Legalities
Adam Curry
A sold-out crowd of over 400 people attended.
2006
A Gillmor Gang photo from Gnomedex 6.0
Gnomedex 6.0 was held in Seattle, Washington at the Bell Harbor Convention Center from Thursday June 29 - Saturday, July 1, 2006. Notable presentations were:
Also, a selection of Ignite Seattle! participants gave a series of 5-minute Pecha Kucha-style presentations.
A sold-out crowd of over 400 people attended.
2008
Gnomedex 8.0 was held in Seattle, Washington at the Bell Harbor Convention Center on August 21–23, 2008. The theme for this year's Gnomedex was "Human Circuitry." Listed below are the speakers, along with videos of their presentation (hosted on YouTube):
Tara Hunt[44] (presented with Larry Halff from Magnolia)
The main hall was filled to capacity with almost 350 attendees.
Interesting or notable events included: Dancing with Matt Harding.
Sponsors included Blue Sky Factor, Chevrolet, CNN.com, Design Reactor, General Motors, HP, Mighty Leaf Tea, Pathable, SolarWinds, SnapStream, Sony, TechSmith, Ustream, Viewzi, WeatherBug, and Wetpaint.
Pirillo also announced he was interested in doing three to four smaller one-day events across the United States in 2009, but did not give further details.
2009
Gnomedex 9.0 was held from Friday, August 21, 2009 to Saturday, August 22, 2009. Commercial sponsors included Amazon.com, BlogWorld, C-K Graphics, Comcast, CNN.COM, Digital River, ESET, Griffin, Hawaiian Airlines, Hewlett-Packard, ICanHasCheezBurger, Ipswitch Software, Jinx, Leatherback Printing, Mashable, Microsoft, nPost, PC Pitstop, PCC Natural Markets, PhotoJoJo, Picnik, Ping.fm, ReadWriteWeb, RealNetworks, Seesmic, Shozu, Starbucks, ThrowBoy, Ustream.TV and WeatherBug. Organizational sponsors included BBJ, BrighterPlanet, the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, Heifer International, Puget Sound Blood Center and Social Media Club Seattle.
Kris Krüg, who closed the conference the Gnomedex 9 Photo Awards[58]
2010
Violet Blue speaks at Gnomedex 10
Gnomedex 10 was held Thursday, August 19 through Saturday, August 21, 2010, in Seattle, Washington at the Bell Harbor Conference Center and shared registration with pii2010 as a part of the larger Seattle Geek Week event.
The tenth Gnomedex conference had a similar schedule to previous Gnomedexes held at the Bell Harbor Conference Center, starting with registration and then a social mixer for attendees to meet.
Speakers:
Brian Solis presenting the opening keynote on community[59]
Trish Millines Dziko from the Technology Access Foundation on providing computer literacy skills to minorities
Charles Brennick of InterConnection on reusing and recycling computers
Joe Pirillo and Judy Pirillo on 10 Years of Gnomedex
Organizers indicate that the 2010 Gnomedex will likely be the last.[66]
2011
Gnomedex 2011 was held on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 in Seattle, Washington at the Washington State Convention Center and held in conjunction with Seattle Interactive Conference 2011.[67]
Speakers:
Marcus Barnes-Cannon from the University of Washington discussed the PROTECT IP Act.
Libby Tucker discussed how technology could be used to reduce the size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (a/k/a "Plastic Island")
Shawn Ahmed of the Uncultured Project discussed global poverty and shared his own experiences providing aid in Bangladesh in the aftermath of Hurricane Sidr.
Michael Haley, Ph.D spoke on designing systems to function as desired.
Chris Burgess of Atigeo discussed cyberbullying in a talk title Unintended Consequences [68]
Pascal Schuback of CrisisCommons discussed how technology and open data could be used in crisis management and humanitarian aid to provide realtime data.
Kent Nichols of AskANinja explained how to find an audience for online video series
Microsoft's Robotics division gave a demo of Roborazzi, a camera-toting robot for taking pictures at social events.
Chris Pirillo said he was thinking about holding another Gnomedex in 2012 as a standalone event.
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