Preparing for the Defrag Experience

by Kin Lane on 11/08/2012

I was trying to explain the experience of being at the Defrag Conference, to a friend the other day. We are both gearing up for the event, next week (November 14th & 15th), in Broomfield Colorado, and he had never been to one so I wanted to share a little about what the experience is like.

The Defrag event is organized by Eric Norlin, who also organizes Gluecon and Blur conferences, all at the Omni Interlocken resort in Broomfield. Each of Eric’s events have evolved each year, but currently reflect the following focus:

Gluecon - Cloud, Mobile, APIs, Big Data for developers
Defrag - What's coming next in technology
Blur - Human Computer Interaction (HCI)

Eric has a unique way of bringing together the leaders from the space to discuss relevant technologies in a very intimate space. The Omni Interlocken resort is a very key element to the events, which makes it unlike other events I attend.

The first of Eric’s events I attended was a Gluecon, several years back. We drove out to the location, and I remember thinking, “oh man we are going to be stuck way out here for 4 days”. But as I learned, that is the point.

You are stuck in a very intimate location where you will eat killer grub, including beef sliders and drink some kick-ass craft beers while rubbing elbows and having deep technical and philosophical conversations with the deepest thinkers and leaders in our space.

Defrag and Glue are part of a small group of events I recommend you never miss in the space. I’m pretty burnt out on large technology conferences, but the value you walk away with from Defrag can’t be found anywhere else--putting Defrag in entireley different category for me.

I hope to see you at Defrag next week. If your there, I’ll buy you an IPA, while we talk APIs.