OmniFocus Junkies at DavidCo's Atlanta Seminar

[justin]

Any OmniFocus junkies out there going to the DavidCo "Mastering Workflow (http://www.davidco.com/seminars/detail.php?id=16484&catID=2)" seminar in Atlanta on Friday?

[justin]

I just returned from the "Mastering Workflow (http://www.davidco.com/seminars/seminar_mastering_workflow.php)" GTD seminar in Atlanta. Overall, I would not recommend this seminar to the majority of people on this forum. Here's some additional information to help you qualify the impression I got.

Presenter: Wayne Pepper (http://www.davidco.com/wayne.php) presented the 7+ hours of material very well. He was obviously well rehearsed and knew the material forwards and backwards. He is one of the most skilled presenters I've seen in a small conference type of setting.

Event Planning: Rachelle coordinated every last detail with Westin flawlessly, and was present for the entire conference. Lunch was good too, and throughout the conference they had plenty of water, coffee and snacks. Power plugs for laptop chargers were in short supply and not part of the planning. (Not a big problem.)

Material: As I re-read the course description on the DavidCo website (http://www.davidco.com/seminars/seminar_mastering_workflow.php), I have to admit that the material was exactly as described.

But I was disappointed that material was designed for someone who had not read even the first book, Getting Things Done. It was kindergarten-level GTD.

I have read all three books and I expected that anyone willing to spend the time and money to attend this seminar would have at least read one of the books. As it turns out, only a few people had even read the first one, and as best I could tell, I was one of two who read all three.

I was yearning for more in-depth coverage of the material in those books, not the Cliff's Notes for the books. I was expecting more...


scenario based training,
tangible examples, and
common themes in workflows implemented by David Allen Co. in their coaching.


My expectations were not met. Considering that hardly anyone had actually read the book, Wayne wasn't able to extend the material beyond the most basic level.

For this reason, I think the majority of OmniFocus users are already more advanced in their implementation of GTD than the target audience for this conference.

- Justin

[Splinky]

Interesting to read your account of this event.

I tend to think that there are many people (particularly in this forum) that have actually taken GTD further than David Allen has, will, and possibly could!

While I think he was the guy who successfully 'invented' the model and was able to write a catchy book about it (and go on to make millions), the true 'innovation' is now coming from people like us. We are taking the concept and ideas further than Allen probably ever imagined.

From a business perspective for him though, the money is to be made from the majority of people that have never even considered GTD. There's less money to be made selling a conference to 'edge-cases' like us.

It's sad that we'll probably never get a convention aimed at us, but good that at least we have user to user fora like these to communicate and share ideas.