I got a similiar impression from watching a few Carsonified vids, off course one has to be careful with judging too fast. I wonder why Joel wrote the articel that way? He s basically saying in public: Ryan screwed it up but I could wing it because I memorised my speech.

I hope I didn't create that impression. Carsonified was an equal partner in the event. It was the first time for both of us. We learned a lot. They learned a lot. I made plenty of mistakes, too (at one point I actually forgot my own passport and had to fly across country to pick it up so I could go to Toronto). We're all newbies in this conference business.

Carsonified had never done conferences before?

Not a series of ten conferences in ten cities, running every other day. Most of the cities on the DevDays tour were new to them.

So you basically took a UK company, used to organize large events that span several days a few times a year (and only in UK and a few handpicked US cities), with a lot of preparation time, and let it organize a fast-paced series of events every other day in a number of different US cities they've never been to? Sorry, Joel -- I really respect Ryan and his team (although I can't grieve over Mel Kirk's leaving), but here's your fifth why right there, if you ask me.