I went to the IgniteBoston event O’Reilly put on at Tommy Doyle’s in Cambridge, MA tonight, and I have to say that I was a little disappointed. I love the concept, but the execution wasn’t quite to my liking. For one, the venue wasn’t a great choice: it was too small for the number of people there, and it was excruciatingly hot. On top of that, it was very noisy - so much so, that people had to strain to hear the presenters over the background chatter. 

There were plenty of giveaways, which seemed nice, though most of the stuff didn’t interest me (a “brain tonic” with a medicine-y taste? no thanks). O’Reilly was hawking their books all over the place, but I can’t complain too much (after all, everyone got a free beer for showing up).

I didn’t stay for the entire thing - I left towards the end (there was a break between presentations where I took off) when I just couldn’t take the heat anymore. The presentations weren’t particularly exciting, though I thought the keynote about the iPhone was okay (nothing particularly new, as I’ve been involved in iPhone development as well). A couple of the presentations got a bit tedious, though probably due to the presenters not being used to the rapid-fire style of the event.

I was particularly disappointed as I didn’t get a chance to do much socializing before hand, which was the main reason for the whole thing, as I couldn’t get there in time. I’d probably still attend the next one, though I’ll try to leave plenty of extra time for the meet & greet.