This Thursday I'm headed to Gnomedex 5 in Seattle. The topic is blogging and syndication; many blog cognoscenti will be there.

Chris Pirillo is Gnomedex the way Elliott Masie is The Masie Center: his events reflect who he is. I love Chris's spirit. Would that people in our business planned events the way Chris does.

The caricature is Chris, and Chris is a caricature. He asks these questions:

• Why call it a "technology" conference if you're not providing reliable Wi-Fi?
• Why provide Wi-Fi when you don't include a place for power in the main hall?
• Why try to set attendence records when the true value of a conference is in meeting other people?
• Why have more than one track when it only leads to frustrations in choosing which session to see?
• Why pay more attention to a select group of attendees when everybody should be treated like a VIP?
• Why find speakers who only do what they do because it's their job?
• Why involve participants who haven't done anything interesting or exciting?
• Why spend a thousand dollars on getting lost in the hallways?
• Why force your attendees to pay more for food and beverages throughout the day?

Because everybody else does...? Wrong answer.

Chris Pirillo, your host for the weekend, will personally welcome you to the event, and do his best to make sure your time at Gnomedex will be remembered long after it passes. Attendees from years past have grown accustomed to this personalized experience - finding it refreshing and genuine. Chris created a conference that seemingly broke ALL the rules.

He created this conference for you.

I'm attending because I believe syndication and tagging will become very important to informal learning.