Hi Folks,
It was great seeing you all in PHX. I'm just getting back to reality (aka the Cold!) now on the East Coast and wanted to reach out to discuss thoughts on the DO. I have set up a Survey for Feedback that has been mailed out to the people who bought via BrownPaper Tickets. There were a LOT of swaps in the last week or two so for those people if you would like to complete the survey please email me Matt@saverocity.com or pm me here and I'll get you the link.
I'll reserve my own specific thoughts on the event until later so as to not skew the answers, but generally I had a mixed feeling about this one. Some things I liked a lot, and some things I think we could tweak. This is a different feeling than from CLT where I thought we just nailed it. Please feel free to discuss thoughts beyond the Survey here, and I'll start posting up the results of that once we get to about 20 replies or so.
Cheers,
Matt
Survey Results (partial)
Q4 Liked about the event:
The lunch! The presentations from Tashir and Marathon Man. The snacks in the evening were awesome too!
11/11/2014 11:45 PM View respondent's answers
I like the community feel and the openness to share!
11/11/2014 11:41 PM View respondent's answers
Location, lunch, networking, social hour.
11/11/2014 8:06 PM View respondent's answers
Great food, nice choice for the hotel, great town to hold it in, the social aspects, fantastic crowd.
11/11/2014 7:32 PM View respondent's answers
I liked most everything about the event since it was my first time attending. I felt a little like everyone already knew each other so I was playing catchup.
11/11/2014 6:35 PM View respondent's answers
All the speakers, the focus on MS, and being able to meet others from this hobby
11/11/2014 5:29 PM View respondent's answers
I liked the open format, very focused on socializing with like-minded people.
11/11/2014 4:23 PM View respondent's answers
Afterpary (es). As a way to communicate to good practitioners. Also love Tashir and MM.
11/11/2014 12:44 PM View respondent's answers
The best part was the ability to network and socialize with others. Also, the weather was beautiful and the location was quite nice. The food was excellent.
11/11/2014 12:16 PM View respondent's answers
Meeting people with a shared interest was great. Hearing their stories of success, failure was helpful.
11/11/2014 11:03 AM View respondent's answers
I met more people with the same interest as me.
11/11/2014 10:57 AM View respondent's answers
Good pace, good group of people, the venue was well set up to handle the main event as well as the smaller gatherings
11/11/2014 10:29 AM View respondent's answers
Great social gathering
11/11/2014 10:20 AM View respondent's answers
The people
11/11/2014 10:13 AM View respondent's answers
free time to connect with others
11/11/2014 9:18 AM View respondent's answers
Face to face networking and meeting people.
11/11/2014 9:14 AM View respondent's answers
The speakers were well done. The lunch was terrific and the open bar was a nice touch.
11/11/2014 8:31 AM View respondent's answers
The social events/opportunities. The panel was the best part of the set of presentations
11/11/2014 7:58 AM View respondent's answers
Lot of social time and LUNCH.
11/11/2014 12:47 AM View respondent's answers
Well paced with plenty of time to meet other attendees. Although the speakers felt a little pushed, I think it forced them to develop better presentations focusing on the most useful points.
11/11/2014 12:43 AM View respondent's answers
Meeting people who spoke the same language.
11/11/2014 12:29 AM View respondent's answers
The people. The place. The program although a little more content along with all the jokes would have slightly improved the event overall.
11/11/2014 12:24 AM View respondent's answers
Venue, catering, social/networking opportunities.
11/11/2014 12:04 AM View respondent's answers
The socializing aspect, meeting others who had similar interests, stories, and experiences. The number of people was about right (maybe 20 too many). As mentioned, the venue and food were great.
11/11/2014 12:00 AM View respondent's answers
Socializing. The presentation part was kept short. Great location and timing. Excellent for socializing outdoors.
11/11/2014 12:00 AM View respondent's answers
The meeting and socializing facilities, and the people there.
11/10/2014 11:57 PM View respondent's answers
Great location, excellent lunch, and the 2 happy hours were awesome.
11/10/2014 11:57 PM View respondent's answers
Q5 Disliked about the event
t was really loud at the evening social hour. My voice doesn't carry well so i couldn't really be heard. The food was great though.
11/11/2014 11:45 PM View respondent's answers
I think we could add even more content.
11/11/2014 11:41 PM View respondent's answers
A little disorganized in small ways. No posted lists of speakers and topics (I know it was online). Maybe just a little hard to feel a part of things at first. A kick off social hour before the speakers with a chance to meet the speakers and attendees would be nice.
11/11/2014 7:32 PM View respondent's answers
We arrived late and left early due to award flights. I wish I had more time to mingle. There were no introductions done for people other than the main speakers. It was tough trying to track down people by just their name tags.
11/11/2014 6:35 PM View respondent's answers
nothing really.
11/11/2014 5:29 PM View respondent's answers
I would have liked maybe a quick morning session on Sunday.
11/11/2014 4:23 PM View respondent's answers
FM could be better ;-)
11/11/2014 12:44 PM View respondent's answers
Much of what was discussed is already available online. I would have preferred to learn some more specific strategies that are not as well known.
11/11/2014 12:16 PM View respondent's answers
I feel like I learned very little.
11/11/2014 11:03 AM View respondent's answers
Too large. And with many participants(the particular table I unfortunately sat at) were very 'clicky' and secretive. I felt excluded.
11/11/2014 10:57 AM View respondent's answers
Would have preferred it to be longer, the day seemed to go too quickly especially with the Q&A for the panel
11/11/2014 10:29 AM View respondent's answers
I know something you don't know attitude.
11/11/2014 10:20 AM View respondent's answers
same speakers except BMG and MM
11/11/2014 10:13 AM View respondent's answers
N/A
11/11/2014 9:18 AM View respondent's answers
Wish the structured parts were longer. Possibly have speakers lead smaller and more focused groups. And MS is not focused - down to the level of: Efficient MS /w focus on cashback, rewards earnings focused on your favorite hotel/airline combo, reselling for a profit, etc...
11/11/2014 9:14 AM View respondent's answers
The presentations were really pretty basic. If you read the blogs you knew 99% of what was presented.
11/11/2014 7:58 AM View respondent's answers
Phoenix is NOT the West Coast............
11/11/2014 1:33 AM View respondent's answers
FM, MM and BOSman's presentation had no content. Even though FM and MM were funny, there was no meat at all.
11/11/2014 12:47 AM View respondent's answers
Wish the event started a little bit earlier than 10 am so that there would be a bit more time for Q&A for each speaker. The evening reception was a bit too crowded for my tastes.
11/11/2014 12:43 AM View respondent's answers
Not meeting enough people. Would have liked shorter presentations and smaller group discussions. Most of my new info came from one-on-one. Plenty in the audience were more knowledgeable than some of the speakers.
11/11/2014 12:29 AM View respondent's answers
It wasn't long enough! Maybe some time to self organize into 30-minute self selected topics that we could organize and share stuff with each other.
11/11/2014 12:24 AM View respondent's answers
Lack of focus of presenters.
11/11/2014 12:04 AM View respondent's answers
People were generally friendly and open. However, there was still an element of caginess and one-upmanship in some of the discussions. However, the number of people made it possible to find people you clicked with.
11/11/2014 12:00 AM View respondent's answers
The price of the really very basic rooms.
11/10/2014 11:57 PM View respondent's answers
Having the event one day from 10am-5pm seemed too short for me, maybe have something Friday evening or Sunday morning/afternoon.
11/10/2014 11:57 PM View respondent's answers
Q6 What would you like to see more (or less) of in the future:
I think breakout sessions to allow people to interact more and to focus more on their areas on interest would have been nice. I could have done without that presentation from big habitat on buying and selling--i'm not interested in that at all and for me it was a boring waste of time. I wish there had been some Sunday meetups.
11/11/2014 11:45 PM View respondent's answers
I think we could work in more speakers and content
11/11/2014 11:41 PM View respondent's answers
More organized social events. I learned the most during the 'off' times just talking with people. I'd have been happier with less formal time and more organized or semiorganized social time. Maybe an all inclusive resort or short cruise...
11/11/2014 7:32 PM View respondent's answers
More social times in a quieter environment. It was pretty loud at times and tough to carry on a conversation. Maybe smaller breakout sessions on a particular topic???
11/11/2014 6:35 PM View respondent's answers
I would like to possibly see a few more speakers
11/11/2014 5:29 PM View respondent's answers
More great speakers like Marathon Man & Tahsir! And more events for socializing
11/11/2014 4:23 PM View respondent's answers
Next location should be MS-important. Like RedBird-enabled area, or area with concentration of right credit unions.
11/11/2014 12:44 PM View respondent's answers
More specific strategies
11/11/2014 12:16 PM View respondent's answers
If I'm not going to hear about new techniques then I would like to hear stories about how old ones were discovered. I think this could help develop the mindset to go and find new deals on our own.
11/11/2014 11:03 AM View respondent's answers
More information on how to use the miles and points we have been collecting. I know one of the presenters said he could answer booking questions - but that seemed like it might be too specific to the individual asking and that is why I didn't take that opportunity to ask.
11/11/2014 10:57 AM View respondent's answers
Being it was my first event I have nothing to compare the format to, in general I was quite happy with how it went. Maybe an extra half day or so with some structure would allow more of us to schedule time to get together. I'd like to see a regional component for future events, maybe an hour or so for people from each different region to get together, meet one another and discuss their methods for getting around regional roadblocks.
11/11/2014 10:29 AM View respondent's answers
Make a decision...either make venue smaller and share ideas or limit to a no beginner meeting.
11/11/2014 10:20 AM View respondent's answers
same amount of people. Don't make it any bigger because it will lose the close-knit feeling.
11/11/2014 9:18 AM View respondent's answers
n/a
11/11/2014 9:14 AM View respondent's answers
More social time and more advanced discussions.
11/11/2014 7:58 AM View respondent's answers
Make it a two day event. Or at least have something on Sunday morning. It could be just a two hour open breakfast session. Give people another opportunity to interact.
11/11/2014 12:47 AM View respondent's answers
Better availability of rooms for everyone that wanted it. Maybe an optional field trip for "beginners".
11/11/2014 12:43 AM View respondent's answers
More time to discuss topics rather than sitting thru presentations. Maybe offer people ability to speak in smaller groups to a few knowledgeable MSers. Found the Q&A the most enlightening portion.
11/11/2014 12:29 AM View respondent's answers
More time to talk with other participants through self selected facilitated conversations around different topic. Maybe also a session where everyone shares their 2-3 biggest failures/mistakes but only if someone else hasn't already shared something similar so we can learn from others mistakes and not repeat them ourselves.
11/11/2014 12:24 AM View respondent's answers
More social opportunities for networking. More niche and specialty subjects covered, or opportunities to interact in small groups to share individual specialties and information.
11/11/2014 12:04 AM View respondent's answers
Perhaps breakout tables where people could congregate based on a common interest (e.g., liquidating GCs, reselling, online options). Or maybe have 1-2 moderators/experts at each table and have people rotate around a few tables.
11/11/2014 12:00 AM View respondent's answers
Less presentations. More focus on opportunities for meeting and chatting with others.
11/11/2014 12:00 AM View respondent's answers
I would like to see it be scheduled as a 2-day event. Some people will come early or leave late, but it will give more time for travel and award presentations, and time to give presenters flexible speaking schedules.
11/10/2014 11:57 PM View respondent's answers
More diversity of topics. MS was covered 99% of the time.
11/10/2014 11:57 PM View respondent's answers
It was great seeing you all in PHX. I'm just getting back to reality (aka the Cold!) now on the East Coast and wanted to reach out to discuss thoughts on the DO. I have set up a Survey for Feedback that has been mailed out to the people who bought via BrownPaper Tickets. There were a LOT of swaps in the last week or two so for those people if you would like to complete the survey please email me Matt@saverocity.com or pm me here and I'll get you the link.
I'll reserve my own specific thoughts on the event until later so as to not skew the answers, but generally I had a mixed feeling about this one. Some things I liked a lot, and some things I think we could tweak. This is a different feeling than from CLT where I thought we just nailed it. Please feel free to discuss thoughts beyond the Survey here, and I'll start posting up the results of that once we get to about 20 replies or so.
Cheers,
Matt
Survey Results (partial)
Q4 Liked about the event:
The lunch! The presentations from Tashir and Marathon Man. The snacks in the evening were awesome too!
11/11/2014 11:45 PM View respondent's answers
I like the community feel and the openness to share!
11/11/2014 11:41 PM View respondent's answers
Location, lunch, networking, social hour.
11/11/2014 8:06 PM View respondent's answers
Great food, nice choice for the hotel, great town to hold it in, the social aspects, fantastic crowd.
11/11/2014 7:32 PM View respondent's answers
I liked most everything about the event since it was my first time attending. I felt a little like everyone already knew each other so I was playing catchup.
11/11/2014 6:35 PM View respondent's answers
All the speakers, the focus on MS, and being able to meet others from this hobby
11/11/2014 5:29 PM View respondent's answers
I liked the open format, very focused on socializing with like-minded people.
11/11/2014 4:23 PM View respondent's answers
Afterpary (es). As a way to communicate to good practitioners. Also love Tashir and MM.
11/11/2014 12:44 PM View respondent's answers
The best part was the ability to network and socialize with others. Also, the weather was beautiful and the location was quite nice. The food was excellent.
11/11/2014 12:16 PM View respondent's answers
Meeting people with a shared interest was great. Hearing their stories of success, failure was helpful.
11/11/2014 11:03 AM View respondent's answers
I met more people with the same interest as me.
11/11/2014 10:57 AM View respondent's answers
Good pace, good group of people, the venue was well set up to handle the main event as well as the smaller gatherings
11/11/2014 10:29 AM View respondent's answers
Great social gathering
11/11/2014 10:20 AM View respondent's answers
The people
11/11/2014 10:13 AM View respondent's answers
free time to connect with others
11/11/2014 9:18 AM View respondent's answers
Face to face networking and meeting people.
11/11/2014 9:14 AM View respondent's answers
The speakers were well done. The lunch was terrific and the open bar was a nice touch.
11/11/2014 8:31 AM View respondent's answers
The social events/opportunities. The panel was the best part of the set of presentations
11/11/2014 7:58 AM View respondent's answers
Lot of social time and LUNCH.
11/11/2014 12:47 AM View respondent's answers
Well paced with plenty of time to meet other attendees. Although the speakers felt a little pushed, I think it forced them to develop better presentations focusing on the most useful points.
11/11/2014 12:43 AM View respondent's answers
Meeting people who spoke the same language.
11/11/2014 12:29 AM View respondent's answers
The people. The place. The program although a little more content along with all the jokes would have slightly improved the event overall.
11/11/2014 12:24 AM View respondent's answers
Venue, catering, social/networking opportunities.
11/11/2014 12:04 AM View respondent's answers
The socializing aspect, meeting others who had similar interests, stories, and experiences. The number of people was about right (maybe 20 too many). As mentioned, the venue and food were great.
11/11/2014 12:00 AM View respondent's answers
Socializing. The presentation part was kept short. Great location and timing. Excellent for socializing outdoors.
11/11/2014 12:00 AM View respondent's answers
The meeting and socializing facilities, and the people there.
11/10/2014 11:57 PM View respondent's answers
Great location, excellent lunch, and the 2 happy hours were awesome.
11/10/2014 11:57 PM View respondent's answers
Q5 Disliked about the event
t was really loud at the evening social hour. My voice doesn't carry well so i couldn't really be heard. The food was great though.
11/11/2014 11:45 PM View respondent's answers
I think we could add even more content.
11/11/2014 11:41 PM View respondent's answers
A little disorganized in small ways. No posted lists of speakers and topics (I know it was online). Maybe just a little hard to feel a part of things at first. A kick off social hour before the speakers with a chance to meet the speakers and attendees would be nice.
11/11/2014 7:32 PM View respondent's answers
We arrived late and left early due to award flights. I wish I had more time to mingle. There were no introductions done for people other than the main speakers. It was tough trying to track down people by just their name tags.
11/11/2014 6:35 PM View respondent's answers
nothing really.
11/11/2014 5:29 PM View respondent's answers
I would have liked maybe a quick morning session on Sunday.
11/11/2014 4:23 PM View respondent's answers
FM could be better ;-)
11/11/2014 12:44 PM View respondent's answers
Much of what was discussed is already available online. I would have preferred to learn some more specific strategies that are not as well known.
11/11/2014 12:16 PM View respondent's answers
I feel like I learned very little.
11/11/2014 11:03 AM View respondent's answers
Too large. And with many participants(the particular table I unfortunately sat at) were very 'clicky' and secretive. I felt excluded.
11/11/2014 10:57 AM View respondent's answers
Would have preferred it to be longer, the day seemed to go too quickly especially with the Q&A for the panel
11/11/2014 10:29 AM View respondent's answers
I know something you don't know attitude.
11/11/2014 10:20 AM View respondent's answers
same speakers except BMG and MM
11/11/2014 10:13 AM View respondent's answers
N/A
11/11/2014 9:18 AM View respondent's answers
Wish the structured parts were longer. Possibly have speakers lead smaller and more focused groups. And MS is not focused - down to the level of: Efficient MS /w focus on cashback, rewards earnings focused on your favorite hotel/airline combo, reselling for a profit, etc...
11/11/2014 9:14 AM View respondent's answers
The presentations were really pretty basic. If you read the blogs you knew 99% of what was presented.
11/11/2014 7:58 AM View respondent's answers
Phoenix is NOT the West Coast............
11/11/2014 1:33 AM View respondent's answers
FM, MM and BOSman's presentation had no content. Even though FM and MM were funny, there was no meat at all.
11/11/2014 12:47 AM View respondent's answers
Wish the event started a little bit earlier than 10 am so that there would be a bit more time for Q&A for each speaker. The evening reception was a bit too crowded for my tastes.
11/11/2014 12:43 AM View respondent's answers
Not meeting enough people. Would have liked shorter presentations and smaller group discussions. Most of my new info came from one-on-one. Plenty in the audience were more knowledgeable than some of the speakers.
11/11/2014 12:29 AM View respondent's answers
It wasn't long enough! Maybe some time to self organize into 30-minute self selected topics that we could organize and share stuff with each other.
11/11/2014 12:24 AM View respondent's answers
Lack of focus of presenters.
11/11/2014 12:04 AM View respondent's answers
People were generally friendly and open. However, there was still an element of caginess and one-upmanship in some of the discussions. However, the number of people made it possible to find people you clicked with.
11/11/2014 12:00 AM View respondent's answers
The price of the really very basic rooms.
11/10/2014 11:57 PM View respondent's answers
Having the event one day from 10am-5pm seemed too short for me, maybe have something Friday evening or Sunday morning/afternoon.
11/10/2014 11:57 PM View respondent's answers
Q6 What would you like to see more (or less) of in the future:
I think breakout sessions to allow people to interact more and to focus more on their areas on interest would have been nice. I could have done without that presentation from big habitat on buying and selling--i'm not interested in that at all and for me it was a boring waste of time. I wish there had been some Sunday meetups.
11/11/2014 11:45 PM View respondent's answers
I think we could work in more speakers and content
11/11/2014 11:41 PM View respondent's answers
More organized social events. I learned the most during the 'off' times just talking with people. I'd have been happier with less formal time and more organized or semiorganized social time. Maybe an all inclusive resort or short cruise...
11/11/2014 7:32 PM View respondent's answers
More social times in a quieter environment. It was pretty loud at times and tough to carry on a conversation. Maybe smaller breakout sessions on a particular topic???
11/11/2014 6:35 PM View respondent's answers
I would like to possibly see a few more speakers
11/11/2014 5:29 PM View respondent's answers
More great speakers like Marathon Man & Tahsir! And more events for socializing
11/11/2014 4:23 PM View respondent's answers
Next location should be MS-important. Like RedBird-enabled area, or area with concentration of right credit unions.
11/11/2014 12:44 PM View respondent's answers
More specific strategies
11/11/2014 12:16 PM View respondent's answers
If I'm not going to hear about new techniques then I would like to hear stories about how old ones were discovered. I think this could help develop the mindset to go and find new deals on our own.
11/11/2014 11:03 AM View respondent's answers
More information on how to use the miles and points we have been collecting. I know one of the presenters said he could answer booking questions - but that seemed like it might be too specific to the individual asking and that is why I didn't take that opportunity to ask.
11/11/2014 10:57 AM View respondent's answers
Being it was my first event I have nothing to compare the format to, in general I was quite happy with how it went. Maybe an extra half day or so with some structure would allow more of us to schedule time to get together. I'd like to see a regional component for future events, maybe an hour or so for people from each different region to get together, meet one another and discuss their methods for getting around regional roadblocks.
11/11/2014 10:29 AM View respondent's answers
Make a decision...either make venue smaller and share ideas or limit to a no beginner meeting.
11/11/2014 10:20 AM View respondent's answers
same amount of people. Don't make it any bigger because it will lose the close-knit feeling.
11/11/2014 9:18 AM View respondent's answers
n/a
11/11/2014 9:14 AM View respondent's answers
More social time and more advanced discussions.
11/11/2014 7:58 AM View respondent's answers
Make it a two day event. Or at least have something on Sunday morning. It could be just a two hour open breakfast session. Give people another opportunity to interact.
11/11/2014 12:47 AM View respondent's answers
Better availability of rooms for everyone that wanted it. Maybe an optional field trip for "beginners".
11/11/2014 12:43 AM View respondent's answers
More time to discuss topics rather than sitting thru presentations. Maybe offer people ability to speak in smaller groups to a few knowledgeable MSers. Found the Q&A the most enlightening portion.
11/11/2014 12:29 AM View respondent's answers
More time to talk with other participants through self selected facilitated conversations around different topic. Maybe also a session where everyone shares their 2-3 biggest failures/mistakes but only if someone else hasn't already shared something similar so we can learn from others mistakes and not repeat them ourselves.
11/11/2014 12:24 AM View respondent's answers
More social opportunities for networking. More niche and specialty subjects covered, or opportunities to interact in small groups to share individual specialties and information.
11/11/2014 12:04 AM View respondent's answers
Perhaps breakout tables where people could congregate based on a common interest (e.g., liquidating GCs, reselling, online options). Or maybe have 1-2 moderators/experts at each table and have people rotate around a few tables.
11/11/2014 12:00 AM View respondent's answers
Less presentations. More focus on opportunities for meeting and chatting with others.
11/11/2014 12:00 AM View respondent's answers
I would like to see it be scheduled as a 2-day event. Some people will come early or leave late, but it will give more time for travel and award presentations, and time to give presenters flexible speaking schedules.
11/10/2014 11:57 PM View respondent's answers
More diversity of topics. MS was covered 99% of the time.
11/10/2014 11:57 PM View respondent's answers
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