Chris Pirillo

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

Chris Pirillo
Pirillo speaking at Gnomedex in 2007
Years active	2000–present
Website	chris.pirillo.com

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 software), and website recommendations.^[1] Over time, the site expanded to incorporate content syndicated from LockerGnome's blogs for IT professionals.^[2] The associated web forum for technology assistance and discussion operated from 2002 to 2015.^[3][4]

Pirillo was the co-host of the show Call For Help on the former cable television channel TechTV from 2001 to 2003.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[5][6]

Gnomedex

Chris Pirillo at Gnomedex 2005

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 with a primary audience of influencers, entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts. The conference name is a portmanteau 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. From 2005 until the tenth and final Gnomedex in August 2010, it took place in Seattle, Washington.^[7][8] A Gnomedex stage was included in the first Seattle Interactive Conference in November 2011,^[9] after Jake Ludington reportedly convinced Chris Pirillo to continue the event.^[10]

In March 2015, Chris Pirillo announced plans to revive Gnomedex sometime in 2015,^[11] but this did not materialize.^{[citation needed]}