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Gnomedex is a single-track technology conference hosted by Chris Pirillo, the owner of Lockergnome, LLC and is produced by Chris Pirillo and his staff at Lockergnome. Pirillo was the co-host of the show Call For Help on the former cable television channel TechTV. Gnomedex started as an outgrowth of Pirillo's technology newsletters, IRC channel and web site. The conference name is a satirical portmanteau of Pirillo's Lockergnome and the now-defunct Comdex technology trade show, which was a massive and influential annual event at the time of the first Gnomedex conference.
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Gnomedex has grown into a conference exploring new and emerging technologies with influencers, entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts as the primary audience. It bills itself as the crossroads between producers and observers, between users and developers. The conference format is meant to serve the needs of the attendees, many of whom are prolific bloggers and podcasters.
The first Gnomedex took place in October 2001 in Des Moines, Iowa, while the tenth Gnomedex took place in August 2010 in Seattle, Washington. Gnomedex organizer Chris Pirillo announced that due to the difficulites in operating such events, that the tenth was likely to be the last Gnomedex unless additional backing and resources were brought forward to help spread the administrative and organizational overhead. A Gnomedex stage was included in the first Seattle Interactive Conference in November 2011 after Jake Ludington reportedly convinced Chris Pirillo to continue the event. In March 2015, Chris Pirillo announced that Gnomedex will be making a return sometime in 2015.
2001
The first Gnomedex was held Friday, October 12, 2001 through Sunday October 14, 2001 in Des Moines, Iowa. Originally scheduled for the weekend after 9/11, it was postponed for a month to allow people to adjust their travel plans. Despite the uncertainty, nearly 200 people attended from all over the United States, Canada and Europe. The keynote was delivered by Steve Gibson, president of Gibson Research Corp. Presentations included:
David Lawrence also made a live broadcast of his radio show Online Tonight from Gnomedex.
Sponsorship was by several companies, including SnapStream and Microsoft.
2002
Gnomedex 2.0 occurred on August 23 through August 24, 2002 in Des Moines, Iowa at the Downtown Marriott. The keynote was delivered by Leo Laporte, formerly with TechTV. The speaker list included:
Microsoft was the banner sponsor.
2003
Gnomedex 3.0 was held in Des Moines, Iowa on July 25 and 26 2003.
Jennifer Staack was crowned Ms. Gnomedex 2003.
Beth Goza and Kevin Unangst from Microsoft presented on Digital Media in Microsoft Windows.
Speakers included:
Microsoft and Google were the banner sponsors.
2004
Gnomedex 4.0 (a.k.a. "Geeks Gone Wild") was held from September 30 to October 4, 2004 at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Originally, Gnomedex 4.0 was going to be sponsored by Comedy Central and have an open bar. The theme (and sponsor) changed several times after it was announced. The keynote was by Steve Wozniak. Notable speakers and events included Nick Bradbury, Henry Copeland, Dan Gillmor, Ross Rader, Robert Scoble, Jason Shellen, Wil Wheaton and a live broadcast of the Gillmor Gang syndicated technology radio show. Sponsors included Microsoft, PayPal, Google, AMD, Yahoo! Search, DecisionCast, and ZDNet.
IT Conversations produced podcasts of the sessions, which are still available online. The podcast of Steve Wozniak's keynote address is one of the all-time most popular audio programs in IT Conversations history.
The published schedule was as follows:
2005
Gnomedex 5.0 was the first of the series to be held in Seattle, Washington at the Bell Harbor Convention Center. The conference took place from June 23–25, 2005. Notable presentations and activities included:
Scheduled speakers and panels were:
A sold-out crowd of over 400 people attended.
2006
Gnomedex 6.0 was held in Seattle, Washington at the Bell Harbor Convention Center from June 29 - July 1, 2006. Notable presentations were:
The published roster of discussion leaders was:
A sold-out crowd of over 400 people attended.
2007
Gnomedex 7.0 was held in Seattle, Washington at the Bell Harbor Convention Center on August 9–11, 2007.
Roster of speakers:
Also, a selection of Ignite Seattle! [3] participants gave a series of 5-minute Pecha Kucha-style presentations.
A sold-out crowd of over 400 people attended.
2008
Gnomedex 8.0 was held in Seattle, Washington at the Bell Harbor Convention Center on August 21–23, 2008. The theme for this year's Gnomedex was "Human Circuitry." Listed below are the speakers, along with videos of their presentation (hosted on YouTube):
The main hall was filled to capacity with almost 350 attendees.
Interesting or notable events included: Dancing with Matt Harding.
Sponsors included Blue Sky Factor, Chevrolet, CNN.com, Design Reactor, General Motors, HP, Mighty Leaf Tea, Pathable, Solarwinds, SnapStream, Sony, TechSmith, Ustream, Viewzi, WeatherBug, and Wetpaint.
Pirillo also announced he was interested in doing three to four smaller one-day events across the United States in 2009, but did not give further details.
2009
Gnomedex 9.0 was held from Friday, August 21, 2009 to Saturday, August 22, 2009. Commercial sponsors included Amazon.Com, BlogWorld, C-K Graphics, Comcast, CNN.COM, Digital River, ESET, Griffin, Hawaiian Airlines, Hewlett-Packard, ICanHasCheezBurger, Ipswitch Software, Jinx, Leatherback Printing, Mashable, Microsoft, nPost, PC Pitstop, PCC Natural Markets, PhotoJoJo, Picnik, Ping.fm, ReadWriteWeb, RealNetworks, Seesmic, Shozu, Starbucks, ThrowBoy, Ustream.TV and WeatherBug. Organizational sponsors included BBJ, BrighterPlanet, the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, Heifer International, Puget Sound Blood Center and Social Media Club Seattle.
Speakers:
2010
Gnomedex 10 was held August 19 through August 21, 2010, in Seattle, Washington at the Bell Harbor Conference Center and shared registration with pii2010 as a part of the larger Seattle Geek Week event.
Commercial sponsors included American Public Media, Atlas Networks, Banyan Branch, the Bellevue Business Journal, BlogWorld, Deploy Day, EventBrite, GirlsInTech, GoDaddy, Griffin Technologies, Hotel Max, Hover, IAmEastSide, the Issaquah Press, Jones Soda Company, Mashable, Microsoft, the Modern Media Man Summit, Parallels Holdings, PCC Natural Markets, Pipeline Deals, Pooper Trooper, PopChips, Privacy Identity Innovation, the Public Insight Network, RaceVision, RealNetworks, ReveNews, Seagate, Seattle Net Tuesday, SeattleWineGal, SmartCup, Social Media Club Seattle, SuperAntiSpyware, Swedish Medical Center, UStream.TV, Washington Technology Industry Association, WeatherBug, Yelp and Zing Bars.
The tenth Gnomedex conference had a similar schedule to previous Gnomedexes held at the Bell Harbor Conference Center, starting with registration and then a social mixer for attendees to meet.
Speakers:
Organizers indicate that the 2010 Gnomedex will likely be the last.
2011
Gnomedex 2011 was held on November 2, 2011 in Seattle, Washington at the Washington State Convention Center and held in conjunction with Seattle Interactive Conference 2011.
Speakers:
Chris Pirillo said he was thinking about holding another Gnomedex in 2012 as a standalone event.