He’s been around the block; helped found companies, worked for Apple, and most recently starting an international movement called Appsterdam. He’s spoken at more events than I can count, thankfully that includes my events. Of all the speakers I’ve worked with, Mike raises the bar. He preps like no one’s business, and puts his heart and soul into the presentation. And he doesn’t repeat and recycle his talks. Each is a unique work that he puts a lot of energy into.

But this isn’t about Mike as a presenter. It’s about Mike as a super smart guy. A while back Mike did a thing where he announced he was charging $1,000/hour for consulting. That’s a steep price tag, but when you consider that it’s not just an hour of slinging code, though it could be if you wanted. It’s an hour of Mike’s time. Having been the recipient of an hour or two of Mike’s time I can tell you, it’s worth $1,000 easy. Thankfully he hasn’t sent me the bill yet :)

Mike doesn’t hold back or sugar coat things, or tell you what you want to hear. He tells you the truth, but it’s couched in an honest desire to help you. I’m making changes to the way I do conferences because of Mike’s input. Spoken honestly and intended to make my events better. It’s eye opening when you hear stuff that makes you realize you’re doing it wrong or going down a bad path.

On the smart people thing, Tom has started something new. Tom and Mike are really similar in that they want to help others. It’s not ego, it’s giving back, and helping people. Tom and I have talked a lot about this and I’m, glad he’s giving this a try. One of our shelved business ideas was antiMBA. A business consulting service aimed at offering real world practical advice.. you know counter to what most MBAs dish out. We’d seen businesses we worked for and businesses we liked do truly stupid things, that had they asked someone who had some common sense and real world experience they wouldn’t have done.

Tom excels at solving problems. We’ve written code together and he’s a great coder, but his strength is solving problems. Lots of people can code, few can solve problems. Tom decided that maybe his business should be just that, solving problems. I think it’s a good move.

Whether you’re starting a business, or just trying to solve a problem in your existing business, Mike and Tom are two people you should talk to. The money you spend getting their feedback will be money well spent, and likely to save you far more money in the short and long term. During 360|MacDev I got to watch Mike be Mike and it reminded me (I didn’t need to be reminded, but still) how awesome he is. The night before the conference a bunch of folks gathered in the hotel bar. I had only met one or two of them at 360|iDev or MacDev in the past, most were new to the conference. Mike came and hung out and while having my own conversations I watched Mike. He engaged folks, met new people and really made them feel a part of the community and the conference. He wasn’t holed up in his room or out with the A-List crowd or anything like that. He was talking to attendees and sharing a good time. Tom is much the same. When we started 360|Conferences and started holding evening receptions, he made it his job to work the room, find the person in the corner and go talk to them. He’d learn about that person, and then walk them over to a group he knew they’d click with based on that short conversation. Then he’d bow out and do it again, and again. Introducing people to each other, ensuring that no attendee ever felt that like they were alone at the conferences. I try to follow his example still, and it’s not always easy, but the feeling you get is incredible.

Mike and Tom are two people I count on tremendously. I’m not normally a decision by committee person, but when I don’t feel able to make a decision myself I’m glad I have awesome, crazy smart and insightful people to ask. Oh and Mike and Tom aren’t the only smart people in my arsenal of brains, but they’re the two who have things that you can pay them for.

Oh and some companies that I think might benefit from spending some money on Mike and Tom;

• O’Reilly (love ‘em but they’re way too into themselves to see what they’re doing wrong)
• DC Comics (see above)
• Marvel Comics (see DC)
• CBS (the CEO is on record as saying ‘cutting the cable’ is a fad, and people will come back. We’re actually tormenting your content you dork)
• Hulu (i pay $8 and see just as many ads, BUT have access to the Buffy and Angel back Catalog, AND shows still expire like 30 rock. WTF)
• Netflix (Quickster….)
• HBO (I’d pay good money for Game of Thrones, but HBO Go is tied to a cable subscription…. To The Torrents!)

Those are just the ones I can think of right now that Have either seriously blundered lately or have fallen to new lows of lameness because they no longer see past their previous success/fame and need new perspectives. They’re also all companies that I as a consumer, would gladly give money if they weren’t being lame about it.

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I replied that i was mainly reading series and Trade Paper Backs because those are what are easiest to get, because I torrent them. Yup I said it. I torrent comic books. I’d pay for them, I absolutely would. But neither Marvel or DC can wrap their collective brains around digital comics. Sure they have the PC?Mac desktop reader, and an annual subscription to that isn’t really too expensive. All you can read for $50 or so. (Tom tried to get it for me as a gift one year) Problem is it’s desktop only. No tablet reading. When i’m in the mood to sit and read a comic, it’s not when I’m at my desk, and it’s not when I’m at my machine. When I’m on my laptop I’m reading email, checking twitter, etc.

I’ve tried the various the comic apps that each company has released, they’re ok, but a digital comic, much like an eBook shouldn’t be the same price as it’s paper version. Unless of course I can do what I want with the file afterward. If I’m leasing a file, I want to pay a lease price. Marvel, and DC, just look at car companies. Lease payments aren’t the same as car payments.

So the my point is simple and I come across it in events and coworking too. If someone wants to give you money, figure out how to take it. Don’t tell them they’re wrong, and need to give you money only in the way you expect it. Only in the way you took money 20 years ago. If you can offer what they want, and make money in the doing, take their money. It’s Win win. They get what they want, they get to pay for it (which almost all of us want to do as consumers) and you make money, and your product is seen.

HBO, CBS, Marvel, DC, etc. All companies who feel you should be the consumer they want, not the consumer they have. Wake up CEOs and Boards. It’s 2012 and you’re still operating like it’s the mid 90′s

Oh and how this all ties back to my business. I get emails all the time from people who don’t want to pay the regular price of the conferences for whatever reason. Rather than send them away, I figure out how we can both win. I want their money, I want them at the conference, and they want to be there. There’s a win in there if you look for it.

My .02 as a business owner and a consumer

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Not only do we mail them after each conference to speakers and sponsors, but we use them through out the year. Right now I’m writing thank you’s for 360|MacDev speakers for a nice surprise I have for them. I’m also writing “I’m Sorry” cards for some mistakes in billing from 360|iDev to certain speakers. I’ve also sent them out when special thanks is required and an email just isn’t the right mode. I’m not some “paper is dying, we have to save it!” luddite, but there is something meaningful in the process of writing someone a note on paper and mailing it.

The value of a hand written thank you is beyond measure. Yeah it’s time consuming, and your hand cramps up like a lobster claw, but the feeling you get afterward is worth it ten-fold. People are constantly amazed and appreciative of the gesture of the card, and each time someone says, “thank you for the card”, it validates the reason we bought and send the cards. We do a lot to try and thank those who help us, but I think the most meaningful thing we do is the cards.

If your business isn’t thanking your supporters in a meaningful and truly heartfelt way, you’re doing it wrong. Spend the money and the time to show your appreciation. Don’t make hollow simple gestures like “thanks to all our sponsors” tweets, sit down, write a note, sign your name, lick an envelope. All those things mean a lot to people.

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It’s been a roller coaster for sure, in both good and bad ways.

I had to cancel (sort of) my first event. 360|MacDev 2011 had to be pushed out until this year (in fact it’s next month, you should check it out and spread the word) because another event scheduled themselves right on top of me, and while their event isn’t known to be very good or in the same realm as mine, they had way more marketing money, so I didn’t want to compete. In the end it was probably a good thing, since I could focus on 360|Flex 2011, which for the second time ever, sold out.

For 2011 we decided to move from our 2x a year schedule to a annual event model. I loved doing two events a year for the various communities, but as more me-too confs started popping up it got harder and harder, plus the community it turns out doesn’t have 2 events a year in them for the most part. Many treated the 2/year model as 1, just picking one to attend and skipping the other. Plus as Flex matured there wasn’t much new stuff happening every 6 months. Adobe released major versions closer to yearly, so the odd event wasn’t a news event. It definitely helps to have big announcements at events.

360|Flex has only sold out one other time that I recall, the very first one in 2007 at Ebay. Since then we’ve gotten very close, but never hit it. This past year we sold out, and over sold by 22. It’s typical in conferences to have a no-show rate close to 15%. the last 2 360|Flex’s had rates closer to 3% which is incredible.

Towards the end of 2011 Adobe thru some serious monkey wrenches my way. They made some very big business decisions, that coupled with their truly terrible PR efforts made it seem like the world was ending for the Flash/Flex community. In the end after a whole lot of damage control, it’s clear the future is still bright, if not a little less shiny for Flex. At first my heart sank, coming out of a hugely successful 360|Flex 2011 and lots of excitement for 2012, to “OH no, Flex is dead” was a huge bummer. After talking to Adobe, and making sure I was on the same page tho, I’m very excited for 360|Flex 2012 and what the future holds.

360|iDev 2011 also sold out. It went to an annual model and sold out more than 50 over what we planned. That of course was a problem given our venue’s size, but the event was still a huge success. 360|iDev has never sold out before that, so that was a huge milestone for us! The iOS community is incredible! I can’t wait for 360|iDev 2012 and some other stuff that is still in the planning phases.

2011 taught me that too many businesses are out for theirs, fuck you. They’ll act nice, they’ll smile, but in the end they want their money and to hell with you. That’s counter to how I run my business so it pains me to have to act like that, but 2011 showed me that in the end, no one is interested in my business succeeding but me. That sucks. Business (to me) should help each other when they can. It’s not a zero sum game despite what they think. Screw you pay me, is a terrible business motto that leads to bad things, and everyone loses.

Ignite Denver had an interesting year. We ended 2011 with a GABF themed event. Much like communism and other -ism’s GABF/Free beer seemed like a great idea on paper. By intermission much of the beer was gone, and the crowd was very drunk. That kinda sucked and the second half presenters really had to work to be heard and i hate seeing that. Overall everyone had a blast, but from an organizational standpoint it was a night mare. Ignite Denver in 2012 is up in the air.

Never one to bitch about being too busy, i just keep finding new things to do. Along with my friends Jake and Rich, I opened a coworking space. Denver has no shortage of coworking spaces, but few are aimed at actual community and none were aimed at creatives alone. We don’t want realtors, lawyers, telemarketers, or acupuncturists at Uncubed. We want developers, designers, startup’ers, etc. Our goal is to make Uncubed the Tech hub of Denver. Sadly until now there really wasn’t one. Tech meet ups had to suffer at Forest Room 5 and their shitty meeting space, or at other bars that were happy to have them and their money but provided little else, least of all internet! Denver needs and deserves a space that the tech community can rely on and hang out at, that’s Uncubed. Whether a member of coworking or not, techies are welcome. Meetups are welcome. let’s Hack!

It’s been a long time since I had an office to go to, and it’s been nice having a place to show up each morning and hang out with other people doing awesome things. Conversations on coding, business practice, etc break out, and it’s awesome. We’ve even entered an autonomous vehicle competition with some of our members, so Team Uncubed will be rocking a robot soon.

Travel wise 2011 was a slow year. Since we home based the conferences in Denver and went to an annual model we didn’t have excuses to travel. So long status with Frontier. I definitely miss traveling, I love Denver but love seeing new places too. 2012 is shaping up to be a heavy travel year, which is cool, and stressful, LOL.

My sort of personal motto is don’t talk about how busy you are, be busy.

Personally 2011 was a good year, it marked one more year with my awesome wife Nicole. It marked the first full year with our new puppies Paco and Winston and it showed me that while things are tough, there’s good to be seen and had everywhere. It also more than any other year saw me thinking more about mortality. Steve Jobs passing was a huge hit for me. Not because he was an idol of mine, all evidence seems to point to his being a complete dick head. BUT he was a visionary and we need those, we have too few, and they’re getting fewer. I thought about my legacy should I die sooner than I plan, and the legacy of those around me in technology and business. Not a cheery thing to think about but needed.

2011 was shitty for more folks than it should have been and that’s never good. Especially since in most cases it wasn’t their faults. I’m glad to see the economy is starting to turn around, even if only a little.

Lastly I guess 2011 was great in that I spent as much time as i could with friends and family. Whether out camping or just enjoying Denver’s warmer months on rooftop decks and bars enjoying good beer. I’m sure there’s a lot of things that happened this year that I’ve overlooked, but hopefully I caught the important ones.

Thanks to all my friends and family for 2011 and here’s to making 2012 kick ass like Chuck Norris.

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You know an industry is bloated and corrupt when they’re first and only motivation is profit, even and especially at the expense of return business. That’s the Hospitality industry. They don’t care if your event sucks, another is dying to book the space next year.

It’s a lot like banks being too big to fail, hotels are too needed to fail, at least in the conference organizer world. It’s hard to do a conference without a hotel, even if you host the event elsewhere, you need hotels for your attendees, whether you make any special plans or not. It’s way worse when your event is at a hotel, then they have you.

Don’t sell enough tickets and fill guest rooms? They can charge you for possible losses whether losses actually happened or not. Kind of an insult to injury scenario since not selling enough tickets is a huge hit on it’s own.

They deliver a crappy experience? so what, you still owe them nearly 30% service charge for bad service.

This is super generalized, and I’m not naming names, but my current situation, is a direct reflection on this corrupt industry. Hotels are not conference organizers’ friends. Some are awesome and nice and I enjoy working with them, and they earn their 30% service charge (I still think that’s a ludicrous amount, and is highway robbery, but they at least work for it) busting their ass, not for me, for my attendees. When attendees compliment me, i pass it on to the hotel staff who deserve it. Great meal, i didn’t cook it. Great staff who helped solve problems, not me. Others simply suck, say they’re sorry, smile and hold their hand out for their check. It works the same here.

All things flow to the organizer, whether it’s a good or bad experience, whether it’s his fault or doing or not. Hotels love to hear the compliments, they smile, they nod, they give each other awards for it, etc. But telling them where they dropped the ball, well that’s helpful, but please pay your bill as you leave.

As a small and struggling businessman it pisses me off. When things go right, the model of conferences that don’t cost and arm and a leg works really well, but it’s a fine line for sure. I knew that going in. I still do conferences like this because I know it can work. Not because I’m an idealist and haven’t made any money, but because I have made money. Sometimes it’s enough to make sure I can eat and pay the mortgage, sometimes it’s enough to look back and smile at a job well done and know the next event has a bit of a buffer in the bank.

example:

When someone emailed me to complain about the video quality of a session recording (he bought the bundle, $85 worth) i refunded him the entire order. Told him to keep and hopefully enjoy the rest of the videos, and that i was sorry and session videos are something we’re trying to do better at.

What I didn’t do, was say, you bought hundreds of hours of video, for $85, and you’re complaining about 70 minutes? On their own the videos are only $3.50 because they’re not super great. they’re good, some are great, some aren’t, but at $3.50 you’re not out a lot of money, and you most definitely get AT LEAST $3.50 worth of value from them. Most often you get way more than that. I didn’t say anything about that. I didn’t say other events charge way more. I didn’t point out that video sales help cover hosting costs, and buy coffee. I didn’t point out that he probably pays more for Angry Birds levels, and that one video is less than a grande latte. I certainly DID NOT apologize and thank him for his money.

I apologized, and refunded the money. I have no idea if he thought the other videos were bad or not. Frankly i don’t care. He had a problem with one, and to me making sure he remembers that my event is run buy a stand up guy is more important. Will he attend next year? Probably. Hopefully. Sure $85 and what the hotels want isn’t the same, BUT it’s less about the money and more about that customer service, and frankly not being a money grubbing suckwad. And yeah it’s a little about the money too. I’ve refunded conference passes in the same fashion before.

A recent conference I organized had basically 50% crappiness level. Thru no fault of my own, no balls I dropped. No loose ends I neglected to tie up. The first two days had useless internet, tons of balls dropped, things not set up like I asked sponsor tables not where they should be, my reg table not set up right, etc. etc. Worst of all the A/V was useless pretty much 80% of the conference. The guy was never where he was needed, feedback was everywhere, etc. It was terrible. One general session was effectively ruined, as was the session recording) by feedback that made your head hurt. Things got ok the last two days (AV not withstanding), not stellar, not OMG you’ve raised the bar, just good.

As a businessman this is where i get annoyed. I’m the guy who’s gonna write  a check for 100k and you can’t get my reg table right? or my sponsor tables? Sure if I had the space for free, you were doing me a favor etc, I couldn’t and wouldn’t complain, but I am paying. I’m paying A LOT. and things like power strips aren’t put where I asked?? Really?

Did the hotel offer anything for those fuckups? no. Well to be fair I got lots of ‘sorry’ and ‘our bad’ and ‘we fixed that eventually’ and of course ‘next time you don’t need to use that AV company’. When I complained, nicely because I’m a nice guy, and I try to compose myself in business as partnering with vendors and customers, I got song and dance about discounting the service charge on Food/Beverage would make that team think they sucked. I finally got a tiny (relative to the bill) discount on NEXT YEAR. So it’s back to, “we’re sorry we did a bad job, please pay your bill in full as you leave” never mind that in this case, i’ve yet to get a bill that’s correct. Every bill has had errors in my favor and theirs. You can’t adequately bill someone? Hell I’ve tossed invoices when I messed up and just given the sponsor a free ride to show I wanted their future business. THis hotel is busting my ass about a bill i’ve yet to agree is correct.

This has happened 2x, well kinda 3x. Each one was a hotel that didn’t see me as a valued partner, but as the guy who no matter what happened the next four days, would be writing a check for more than 100k. When you think like that you don’t do your best job because you don’t have to. Every year I bust my ass to make sure my sponsors know I want them to succeed, because at the end of the conference, they will either come back or not, based on how I did. That is 100% NOT an issue for hotels. Because of how I think business should be run, I did exactly what they expected. I wrote checks for bad or non existent service. MY sponsors wouldn’t, not for a second, they’d say thank you, we won’t be back. Sadly some have, and I’ve regretted each time, and tried to make sure I learned from those mistakes. Attendees who were treated by me, like I am hotels, wouldn’t come back, and might ask for a refund. Heck I refund people 3 weeks from the conference. Hotels fuck you 6 months out if you need to cancel. Too bad so sad!

It’s a very one-sided relationship. Sadly the conference industry doesn’t help. Most organizers are marketing departments or internal event organizers, etc. While they have a budget target, etc, at the end of the day they don’t care. They still get paid, they can still eat. So what if there’s a 30% raping on top of $4 cans of soda, and $6 cupcakes. It’s not their money. I know they don’t care, because that’s how business works. If hotels didn’t have people lining up to pay $4/can for soda, they wouldn’t charge that.

So this is also kind of an open letter to my fellow organizers. We can do better. We should do better. I’m going to start doing better. To the hotels, well fuck you guys, you don’t care about me, and I’ve hardened my heart to you, so now we’re enemies and fighting each step of the way. That’s not how business should be, and really not how I want business to be done, but it seems in the short term, there’s no choice.

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Take a minute and click the bar over my top banner or this link. It’s definitely important.

I don’t think anyone (well maybe the 1%) would argue that it’s a pretty fucked up time in America right now. Record unemployment and foreclosures. The Middle class is vanishing faster than Bengal tigers, and the wealthiest 1% is quickly rising to essentially a ruling class. Didn’t we have a revolution about that notion? Before anyone jumps in. I don’t care if the rich are rich, nor do I think they should just give away money to balance the scales. That’s not the same as expecting a bit more equal playing field to compete and earn money.

We’ve got banks making terrible decisions, doing shady ass deals to get richer, and then being bailed out by the government because we let them get so big, failing would further damage our fragile economy.

We’ve got small businesses struggling (mine included) to stay afloat while big businesses get loans and buy outs. You know, I’d love it if the American public owned a portion of my business, can I get a small bail out loan?

And while all this is going down the government is trying to install a kill switch on the internet. You know like what Egypt and the rest of the middle east, and of course China, like to use when their citizens get uppity wanting peace and freedom from oppression.

I’m against anything that puts the internet in the control of anyone, especially a government or corporation. I think it’s a US responsibility that the internet be free, open and as makes sense unrestricted. I remember watching the news feeds, and of course tweets about shit going down in Egypt and elsewhere. People rising up against their corrupt and sure I’ll say it, evil, governments. The first thing almost every government does in that situation is kill the internet. I remember thinking how strong and brave those folks were not having twitter, Facebook, etc to use to rally. Having to rely basically on old school approaches, and risky in person exchanges before rallies to spread the word. I thought how impressive for one thing, and how sad. And mostly how lucky I felt that such bullshit didn’t happen here. Heck we’ve got popular revolts in many major cities right now, enabled, supported, and enboldened by the internet.

How many occupy(city name) websites do you think there’d be if the US government could simply turn off the net. Block sites they don’t like or that disagree with their world view?

It bums me out when people we elected to office do things that are so far from what the general population wants, let alone cares about. I mean really, do our law makers think the guy who’s struggling to make his mortgage cares about whether the internet has a kill switch?

Think he’s concerned right now as he decides which bill to pay and which to put off until the second notice, that the government is enabling big business to come in and shut down sites that they think might be poaching their shit. Sites where someone made a disparaging comment on a blog post, etc.

He doesn’t care, he can’t. Oh wait, i guess that’s probably their plan… silly me.

Go click the link up above, it really is important.

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Who’s going to step up and be Apple? Heck, where are our Hewlett and Packard? Our Michael Dell?  Bill Gates?

I work in a space with a fair amount of startups, and being so close to Boulder I hear about a lot more of them, and of course I’m in the Silicon Valley for events a fair bit too, and of course I follow my friend Eric Norlin. So I’m not uninformed when it comes to startups.

I know there’s awesome startups out there doing cool things (like Bloom). I work in the same building as one. But in looking at them and at most other startups, I wonder, who’s solving tomorrow’s problems? Who’s working on making the next big thing? NOT the next thing for AOL or Google to acquire. It seems that most startups are starting to be bought by someone, existing more than 5 years isn’t in the plans. That certainly is the exit that makes the most financial sense for their backers, and the founders even. I wonder sometimes if our VC and Angel worlds are so wrapped up in ‘quick bucks’ and early exits, that they’re encouraging young founders to not focus on building companies that can or will be around 20 or 30 years. Let alone build companies that are focused on tomorrow’s problems. Sure messy contacts, old school comic readers, and lack of robot balls are problems worth solving, that’s not my point. My point is there should be a balance, and I don’t see it.

Looking at Techstars and Ycombinator I see awesome companies making cool things like gMail plugins and robot balls with LEDs in them, and new takes on training sites, sites about treating musicians like stock, and such. But I wonder will any of them exist in 5-10 years? I suspect not. They’ll either have folded up and moved on, or been absorbed into some other larger thing. And that’s ok in it’s own right, but where does that leave us? The Country of Dell and HP and Apple and Microsoft? I feel like it leaves us with a sad lack of innovative long term tech companies. VCs are bitching about immigration policy not letting tech founders into the country in high enough numbers. I’d argue the gov’t should be looking at these VCs and asking where the companies that will lead innovation are and why they aren’t helping build them? I’d be thrilled to let the next Bill Gates in on a Startup Visa, but not if he plans to simply build something he can sell to Microsoft for a quick buck.

I know in startup circles and no doubt in VC circles getting acquired is a win. In my book it isn’t. I remember sitting around beers with some friends talking about a company in Boulder that was bought before it even left private beta. To me that was a fail. Sure they made out like bandits, everyone got paid. But they were barely a business, they had maybe a few customers, maybe a few hundred, but they were beta testers not paying customers. I suspect that’s why I’m drawn towards brick and mortar style businesses. Conferences, coworking, etc. Because those businesses are immune or less politely often excluded from the hub bub of tech investing. Therefore for the most part they require bootstrapping which it seems so many startups can’t or won’t do. I’ve seen ideas live and die based on acceptance to Techstars. While I have no doubt Brad Feld and co. know a winner or at least a good horse when they see it, I’m sure they’d agree they can’t see all the winners (or losers) all the time.

That kinda brings this all back around for me. I’ve never asked for money or (at least yet) taken out a bank loan for 360|Conferences or Uncubed. I live and die by what I can do on my own (or with partners as the case may be). In both cases i think to myself often, are these businesses that will be around in 10 years? Can they be a legacy, can I actually do something good with them? I think both can. I don’t know if either will, but I think both can, and I’m happy to try and find out. I think both started for the right reasons. Trying to change systems that exist, for the better of the communities they exist in,  which to me is the right reason to start a business. Will I get rich? be acquired by someone? Probably not on both counts, but that’s ok because that wasn’t and isn’t my motivator. I like money don’t get me wrong :) I want to live a comfortable life, but that’s the extent of it. I don’t need to make something someone else wants to buy so I can pay back investors and retire at 35.

I wonder if startup founders go to bed at night thinking about the future. Not the future where they get bought, where tech crunch writes them up and they secure yet another round of funding. A future where they employ thousands. A future where they and their product/service are shaping lives. A future where they make a difference for more than a year. Sure payroll next month is important, press is important I’m not discounting that, but if they’re not thinking about 10 years from now, I’d say they’re doing it at least a little wrong.

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I’m voting no, he’s voting yes.

The right answer, there isn’t one, at least not in the current initiative.

Here’s my understanding of 300. It forces small businesses to provide paid sick time for employees. This is great, and it bums me out we need a law for what should be a no brainer. Employees shouldn’t have to choose health vs. income. If you’re sick don’t go to work (obviously that can be gamed to no end, and happens all the time).

However many small businesses (Mine included) exist on the knife’s edge. Thankfully we don’t have any employees beyond Nicole and myself right now, because if we did, something like 300 would likely force us to lay off those employees and/or close our doors. No one wins in that scenario.

I’m an altruist. I admit it, and am not ashamed of it. My conferences are cheap because I think thats the right thing to do. I could probably charge more now, and make a lot more money. But that’s not what I believe is the right course of action. In my perfect world businesses do the right thing for all concerned NOT just shareholders. When they can they offer benefits, 401k, etc to their employees, they do it. When they can’t, they don’t. The obvious goal being to provide for your employees because they’re hugely valuable.

Things like 300 make the assumption that small business owners are slime bags, who choose to work their people to the bone and treat them like disposable resources. Some do, some don’t. 300 doesn’t care which you fall into. 300 forces a single course of action no matter what.

My solution? It just now occurred to me while thinking “I wish I had a better answer”. Now I do. I’m very anti laws to enforce behavior. They never work out like expected, and tend to do more bad than good. So how’s about this.

Instead of forcing small businesses to provide something they may not be able to provide therefore forcing them to close their doors (hello, bad for the economy). Give a tax credit to those who can/do provide paid time off? Those small businesses that can’t do it lest they go under, don’t suffer and can try to become a business that can provide for it’s people. Those businesses that can provide paid time off, get a break. Maybe it’s 50% of the total paid time off they offered over the year, i don’t know.

I don’t like adding laws, but if we have to add them, let’s make them rewards for doing the right thing, not barriers and limiters. Heck, you could even make the reward something that comes out of quarterly taxes, so that employers see a more immediate return on their trying to provide a good work environment?

What do you think? I’m still voting no on 300 because it’s a bad idea as it stands. I’d vet yes in a heartbeat for something like what I’ve proposed.

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Here’s what I think Joe misses from the consumer perspective. I have 2 points

Yes the idea of special discounts is enticing, but we all know that won’t be what we get all the time. Sure to start there will be lots of $10 gets you $20 amazon gift cards, etc. But what about when it’s simply $5 off pampers, or “Check out this new thing, special low price” or worse “Your ad here, advertise to thousands”.

That’s point 1. The ads won’t always be awesome special deals that you’d get no matter what. They’ll become ads. i know this because if nothing else, the wording says so. “…Sponsored screensavers…” that says nothing about special deals, or discounts, or coupon codes. Sure they’ll be there, some will be good (Joe’s fooling himself if he thinks these awesome deals will ONLY be on this platform, the great deals will be available elsewhere), most I’d argue will be “New Ford F150 go buy one!” No discount, nothing, just an ad. Mostly an ad for things we don’t want or care about. Their ads, how many  commercials do you watch these days?

Point 2 is. In exchange for being marketed to every time I put my kindle to sleep (so it’s really every time I pick it up and put it down) I save $25 dollars on a kindle? My attention is worth far more than that. For such a trivial amount of money I’m selling my attention, and short of buying a new kindle, there’s no way I can change my mind. Let’s face it, if you’re buying a kindle, $25 is nothing. If you’re so cheap $25 is a make or break the deal point, you won’t be buying a kindle in the first place. Why not sell the ad supported kindle for $50, that’s enticing. That’s a low barrier. Kindle buyers aren’t looking to save small bits of money. Publishers have ensured we’re usually paying more for eBook, than for dead tree now.

I won’t go into ad fulfillment, but how many times can you see an ad for the new F150 before you hate Ford?

By the way, Joe and I have met, he’s an awesome guy, and we mostly agree on ebook stuff, lest someone think this is a snarky attack. It’s not.

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360|Conferences is a weird startup. Well not really, but in the circles I travel it is. People I know and interact with are starting the next foursquare, the next yelp, etc. I’m running a services business, organizing conferences. Something that very few do outside publishing companies… I am in a venture with two friends, that while not in stealth because that’s lame, there’s just not much to talk about yet except to say go here

I’ve wanted to quit several times. Back when my business partner was Tom, and even more recently when it was just Nicole and I. Whether it was the fickle nature of speakers and attendees or sponsors who I give my all to, to support them, and who in turn also sponsor events that treat them like just one more logo on the site.

I stole this from Jason’s post (which if you haven’t already, go read in it’s entirety!)

This graphic really sums up the experience for me, so far.

It’s a roller coaster and I wouldn’t trade, but like all things theres lots of lows, to slog thru if you want to succeed.

The post is a good read and I’ve had similar experiences where the value of my product (the conference, my email list, the attendees) has been under valued, and bargained for, and where I’ve had to choose the high road or the low. I’ll be honest I’ve chosen both, but am now more comfortable taking the high, and living the the nagging feeling i chose wrong (even when I know I didn’t)

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