This morning I happened to find a small tin of promotional mints I got in a "goody bag" at a Sun Developer Days conference a few months ago. Not overly significant on its own, but it reminded me of some thoughts I had at the event.

The conference was arranged in a familiar format - a few "threads" of presentations (interrupted by coffee and food breaks) and an accompanying vendor hall filled with shiny-suited sales folks. In general, I enjoyed the conference, but one or two things about the presentations, in particular, struck me as a bit dumb.

In the "goody bag" provided to every delegate, we were given a whole bunch of stuff, including: a bizarre liquid-filled mouse with a floating "Duke" (still can't get this to work with my laptop); a notepad; and a fancy silvery pen which flashes and shines some bright electroluminescent strips if you push a button on the side. As you entered the vendor hall, there was a table piled high with small tins of mints, so most everyone got at least one of these too. So far so good. However, when we went into the conference halls for the presentations, the first thing they did was to lower the house lights, making it a bit tricky to take notes. After a while, our eyes adjusted, but that just made it especially iritating as every few minutes someone nearby would accidentally bump the light-and-flash button on a free pen. Then the mints. They come in a special tin with a flexible lid. To open it, squeeze the sides. To close it, press the top. Both operations generate a quite loud "popping" sound.

Admittedly, a room full of geeks, hunched and squinting over small notepads and surrounded by random flashes and pops is hardly Saving Private Ryan, but it really doesn't seem a good way to aid concentration, reflection and understanding at a conference.

Over at Incorporated Subversion, James Farmer mentions another post and a local webcam. To add to the list, we also have two webcams at Suffolk College, where I teach.

I wonder how many of these we can gather together? Anyone want to host a list?