The other Web 2.0 gathering (for $3,000 less)

I was speaking with Ben Wan last week at the Stirr mixer briefly when he asked if I was going to the Web Guild’s 2006 Conference, focused on the ‘New Web’ aka Web 2.0. Given that we have eight events in the next couple of weeks, I really did not think I could get away for another conference despite the fact that I watched the Web Guild grow with much interest from Miami back in the early days. That was before I read the bio of Ram Shriram and realized that Marissa Mayer of Google was the other keynote. And that is just the morning lineup. After that Om Malik, Jared Spool, Kelly Goto and a few of the smartest folks in the business were also speaking. So despite my dislike of panels (or pain’ls as I occasionally reference them), I am heading down the Peninsula to get my fill of some gooey-good Web 2.0 Insights.

Brian Sollis sent me info on a discount code (every bit helps) that will give you admittance for the member price of $198 instead of $239 - use the code WGDY6. According to the organizers, “The conference is identical to O’Reilly Web 2.0 with most of the same speakers except the price is $239 instead of $3200.”

Its not as inexpensive as Web 2point2 at $32.95, but pretty darn good considering the prices some conferences are demanding these days. Maybe we can coax a few of the traditional conference goers to come along and experience an unconference for themselves…