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Spark’s Chris Boothe: 3 things the Code Conference got right

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Boothe-PREFERREDRe/code kicked off its inaugural Code Conference last week, with organizers Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher hosting an all-star group of speakers and attendees in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. Spark CEO Chris Boothe was there for the excitement; below, he offers up his thoughts on three things the conference got right.

1) Walt & Kara were working for the people in the audience, not the people on the stage. They relentlessly grilled, interrogated and challenged their guests on stage, asking the tough questions in a respectful yet direct manner and making those in the audience feel as if they were well represented and attending a unique event. That tone seemed to give audience members a sense of license to ask their own tough questions during the Q&A that followed each interview. As a result, every session had more than a few tweet-worthy, “I was there when…” moments, from when Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said “we don’t go to work with the goal of being hated each day” to when someone in the audience gave advice to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, telling him not to be a jerk to his customers (actually, the audience member used more colorful language than that).

2) The size was right. The event was “sold out” but not packed. By refusing to sell a ticket to every last person on the planet who wanted to be there and capping the attendance, Walt, Kara and Code created an event that felt big enough to be important but intimate enough to be useful. I really valued the opportunities to have real conversations with other attendees, which is in stark contrast to many of the other events I attend over the course of the year. Code is a “big” event because it’s not too big.

3) The “swag bag” was as much an immersion as a premium. By making sure attendees leave the event with the latest tech, the conference organizers ensure that the value and purpose of the event is underscored, and its specialness is reinforced.

For more on the conference, check out our recap.

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