Tags

First off the biggest change you will notice is of course the “I am Michael” tag you get when you arrive, which like the sheep I am, I parade around with.

If we look we will quickly see the NWC (Nagios World Conference) is bigger. So the following question is bigger better, being from the US Ethan obviously thinks so, but I am not American so I am not so sure. The big benefit to the bigger one is name could be bigger making it simpler for people to read but here NWC has botched it using most of the available real-estate for a big white border. But on the other hand Netways has botched by using only caps and a rather narrow font making the name difficult to read at a casual glance.

Reversing the tag we find on the NWC one a lot of information where as OSMC reversed is the same (which incidentally is more difficult then you might think to achieve) The drawback to the NWC information page which seems like a better option is the layout which feels both Spartan and rather badly layouted (notice the  inconsistent white spaces).

Winner this round: OSMC

Mainly for the more professional tag and the ingenious idea of adding stars (one for each year) to the tag

Folders

Seems a lot of conference nowadays hands out some form of folder to put your papers in. Nagios here went all out giving us a fancy waterproof zip-locked plastic thing.So one might be tempted to just blindly hand it to NWC theirs was waay cooler. But unfortunately the coolness comes at a price. From the end user perspective (me) It is much more difficult to get papers in and out. it is also not very durable (meaning papers fold easily) which I guess is the main point (to keep my papers nice, organized and unfolded).

Winner this round: NWC

Mainly for the rather dashing all out plastic waterproof thingy.

Lanyards

Another one of these modern conferences thing is handing out lanyards left and right. Both conference mainly used the lanyard for attaching the tag to the neck (so no pin attachment option was available at either conference). In all fairness neither of the lanyards was particularly fancy (Oracle really has that lead). But Nagios went the cheaper route and went with the most basic version (not even a proper non flex cord). Netways on the other hand at least out a bit more effort into it having a detachable part as well as the rather normal non-flex cord.

Winner this round: OSMC

Non of them were really spectacular and should perhaps say the looser was Nagios for going with the cheaper then normal option.

T-shirts

Or rather lack of. Nagios had a pretty basic standard thing going with a blue t-shirt with a black Nagios logo on the front and a rather fashionable cog design thing on the back (in gray-white-black). They opted for an American Apparel t-shirt with is ok, but after washing it a few times it is showing signs of deformation.

On the other hand Netways really missed this golden opportunity to score points as they provided no t-shirt at all.

Winner this round: NWC

Kind of hard to loose against no t-shirt at all I guess.

Internet

OSMC provide free internet access (WiFi) throughout the conference and hotel rooms which is really neat and gives you ample time to slack off and browse for pr0n and me ample time to prepare my presentation and fix bugs (read slack off and browser for pr0n). And on the flip side NWC presumably provided (in the conference rooms) free WiFi but no one I met managed to actually connect to any of the access points. What was even worth was the fact they provided no internet at all in the rooms which was an extra $10 per 24h (well, technically it was $9.95 but who counts).

Winner this round: OSMC

Again kind of hard to loose against paying $20 for Internet access in my room and not having a working WiFi in the conference area.

Loot

I have been several years to OSMC and Netways tend to provide very little in the way of loot. What you get is essentially a “certificate“ (read letter saying Michael was there) and for speaking and some adverts and what not. In addition to this you pretty much get nothing else for speaking. I guess you could call the “lunchbox” loot but that’s mainly a sandwich and some Juice and a fruit so not really my thing I guess. Where as Nagios went all the way here giving out candy, a book and one of them fancy mugs.

Winner this round: NWC

Mainly for actually providing loot…

Conclusion

So I guess the conclusion is a tie right?

And rightly so, both conference were really good and well worth a visit. For me as a speaker and long time visitor of OSMC it was pretty nice to get to see somewhere else for a change but both conference have excellent speaker and nice presentations (hay, I spoke at both of them ).

Tags
Folders
Lanyards
T-shirts
Internet
Loot
Conclusion

Final words!

Again, so, so so sorry Ethan, Mary, Bernd and Pamela for spoofing/bastardising your wonderful work! It was very nice conferences, very nice work and I enjoyed myself immensely! So to me you are all winners for putting in all this effort…

A big thank you to everyone involved in arranging these conferences!