There comes a time—hopefully—in every software company’s life when they develop enough of a fervent following that they feel compelled to have a user group. I’m happy to announce that Portland-based Jive Software has reached that point.
That’s right. The good news is that Jive will be holding its first ever user group—affectionately titled JiveWorld09—October 27-29, 2009. The bad news? They’ll be holding JiveWorld in San Francisco
The road to business transformation can be a solitary journey. The good news is, you’re no longer traveling alone. In fact, you belong to a community that’s leading a social business transformation. And it’s time for this community to come together for the first time at JiveWorld09.
Yes, yes. I realize I may be a bit to Silicon Forest centric. I know full well that Jive’s customers can likely score a flight to SFO, OAK, or SJC far more easily than PDX.
But still. It stings a little, doesn’t it?
We can’t imagine a better place to bring our customers together for the first time than at W San Francisco. Besides being a premium property conveniently located in the heart of one of the country’s top destination cities, W San Francisco is also offering JiveWorld09 attendees an amazing discount rate of only $195 per night — which is 50% off their published rack rate. So make your dollars go a bit farther — secure your rate by booking your room today.
Ouch.
And honestly, maybe the blame shouldn’t even be on Jive. Maybe the blame should be on the city of Portland? Maybe we could have worked a little harder to have the inaugural JiveWorld where Jive is actually headquartered? I mean, call me crazy.
Being part of a crew who just busted our asses to bring an inaugural event to life in Portland and having been involved in organizing more user groups in Portland than I care to remember, I’m pretty familiar with the costs associated with this sort of effort. But still, I’m willing to give Jive the benefit of the doubt. You don’t leave your hometown for a user group without good reason.
Whatever the case, I’m both happy and sad.
I’m happy that Jive has reached a point to be able to pull together a user group. I always remember that being a definitive watermark at the software companies for whom I used to work.
And yet, I’m saddened that Jive won’t be able to show off their hometown to all of these users. Because SFO proved to be a better destination for the event.
For more information or to book your arrangements in San Francisco, visit Jive Software JiveWorld.
[HTML1]
Comments are closed.
@Matt Thanks for taking the time to swing by and comment. It’s very much appreciated!
It’s understandable that you’ve got to go where the customers are—especially with today’s economy. Still disappointing, but understandable.
Once you’ve proven how valuable JiveWorld is, here’s hoping it winds up in Portland sometime soon. 😉
The main reasons we chose San Francisco for the event are very pragmatic:
* A huge concentration of our customers is in SF/Bay Area. Making it easy for as many of them as possible to attend the event was a high priority.
* Travel budgets at companies are very tight. The biggest way we can overcome that hurdle is by putting together a super valuable program. Choosing a city where there are several major airports and where many customers won’t have to travel at all also helps a lot.
Jive loves Portland and that won’t change. 🙂 I hope the context above helps explain the decision.
-Matt
Jive Software
I guess they must have found that many of their users were located in the Bay Area…?
Still… I have to agree that there is no way this is cheaper in SF than here. 195 bucks a night? Wouldn’t that get you some sort of honeymoon suite in most decent hotels here? Maybe I’m exaggerating, but still. Those kind of rates are why I don’t go to events in SF. At least in Las Vegas you can get cheap lodgings, the flights to LV are cheap, and you can eat pretty cheaply too. So I can understand events being held there.
But SF over PDX? Bummer, dude.
If PDX-based businesses are opting to go elsewhere instead of showing off their city with pride, how will non-PDX business be attracted here to spend their money and give a boost to others in this sector?
Granted, I’m not trying to paint Jive into a corner of blame for choosing to go elsewhere, but this seems to continue with the message to other convention prospects, particularly those in the tech/Web world, that Portland isn’t ready for prime-time. (See also: Portland being one of the finalists to host BlogHer ’09, but losing out because of the lack of a all-in-one convention space/hotel.)
From a logistical standpoint, I have to believe it would have been cheaper to host the event here assuming the a lot of folks from Jive will be traveling down to SFO rather than staying in their own homes during the event.
I am certainly not privy to the decisions by Jive to host a meeting in San Francisco. But, it stings more than a little that they say “. . .a better place.” No dig on San Francisco, but it’s hardly a better place. A wonderful place, yes, but better than what? Oakland or San Jose? At $195/night, it’s not an amazing hotel rate, except by the standards of exorbitant hotel prices in the city by the bay.
It is true that SFO will be a more convenient airport for folks who prefer non-stop flights. And, perhaps most of their customers are headquartered in California, making the trip that much easier. But, how about a little hometown pride? There must be a reason that Jive is headquartered here, so why not share that with users?
Enough. Time to get back to my Office of Portland Boosterism.