Geek Cruises 2005

Now here is a clever idea. Neil R. Bauman, describes himself as Captain & CEO of Geek Cruises, based in Palo Alto, CA. They arange interesting speakers from the IT world and put them on cruise ships, usually in the Caribbean, but also in Europe occasionally. If you haven't seen the 2002 Doc Searls' review of Linux Lunacy I'd suggest that you to read it as it gives a very accurate summary of the Geek Cruise experience.

The plans (at the moment) include:

2) "Caribbean Click II", January 22-29, 2005 (Eastern Caribbean)
3) "Photoshop Fling II", February 5-12, 2005 (Southwestern Caribbean)
4) "Baltic Blast: MacMania 3.5", June 30-July 10, 2005 (Baltic Sea)
5) "Northern Light", June 30-July 10, 2005 (Baltic Sea)
6) "Video Voyage", August 6-13, 2005 (Alaska)
7) "Perl Whirl '05", October 2-9, 2005 (Western Caribbean)
8) "Linux Lunacy V", October 2-9, 2005 (Western Caribbean)
9) "Website Wave", October 15-22, 2005 (Eastern Caribbean)

They claim that the small, interactive sessions with top-of-the-line speakers comes at a cost lower than a traditional conference. Since I tend to avoid the commercial conferences (in places like London) the comparison is a bit unfair, but its a much better way of spending cash than buying some Forrester or Gartner report.