Chris Pirillo is an American entrepreneur and former television personality. He is the founder and former CEO of LockerGnome, Inc., a network of technology-focused blogs, web forums, mailing lists, and online communities that operated from 1996 to 2015. Pirillo was also a host of ''Call for Help,'' a call-in tech support show which aired on

TechTV TechTV was an American cable television channel with a focus on technology. It was launched as ZDTV on May 11, 1998, by computer magazine publisher Ziff Davis, Ziff-Davis following two short-lived technology-based programs by the company. Init ...

from 2001 to 2003. From 2001 to 2011, he hosted Gnomedex, a single-track technology conference.

Career

LockerGnome began as a technology mailing list in 1996, offering advice for operating systems and applications, software suggestions (with an emphasis on public domain and

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer. ...

software), and website recommendations. Over time, the site expanded to incorporate content syndicated from LockerGnome's blogs for IT professionals. The associated web forum for technology assistance and discussion operated from 2002 to 2015. Pirillo was the co-host of the show Call For Help on the former cable television channel

from 2001 to 2003. Pirillo has authored several books, including ''Poor Richard's E-mail Publishing'', ''Online! The Book,'' the latter co-authored with John C. Dvorak and Wendy Taylor.

Gnomedex

Starting from 2001, Pirillo and his staff at Lockergnome organized Gnomedex, a single-track technology conference which began as an outgrowth of Pirillo's technology channels. Gnomedex explored new and emerging

technologies Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

with a primary audience of influencers,

entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

and tech enthusiasts. The conference name is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of Lockergnome and the now-defunct Comdex technology trade show, a major technology event at that time. The first Gnomedex took place from 12-14 October 2001 in Des Moines,

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

. From 2005 until the tenth and final Gnomedex in August 2010, it took place in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Washington. 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.Gnomedex back from another near-death experience
/ref> In March 2015, Chris Pirillo announced plans to revive Gnomedex sometime in 2015, but this did not materialize.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pirillo, Chris Living people American bloggers TechTV people 21st-century American non-fiction writers

YouTubers A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

Year of birth missing (living people)