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Conferences on my mind
By | November 12, 2007
As an organiser and consumer of conferences, they are often on my mind. I am aware that there is a degree of dissatisfaction with the “PowerPoint and talking heads” model and that most of the interesting interactions at most events take place outside the conference room itself (by the pool, at coffee breaks, on the bus to the dinner, etc.). This presents organisers with some interesting challenges.
I have been aware of a few interesting threads on this topic in the past week or so. Jupiter Research’s Michael Gartenberg posted on “Why Most Conferences Suck“, quoting another post from Dave Gilmor on the subject. Gilmor worries that attendees are not really involved enough while Gartenberg suggests that he also has concerns about the value of spending time at trade shows.
Then we get onto the alternatives:
- Gilmor points to Paolo Valdermarin’s post about “pod” conferences. This seems to be an extreme version of the trend which has been evolving in IT events over several years to get ever-more focused; just a small group of attendees with very narrowly-shared interests. It can be great for the attendees. It’s very hard for organisers to make money with.
- Then, I notice 852Signal talking about the launch of the BarCamp ‘unconference’ in Hong Kong. I realise this is not a new concept but the fact that it is evolving strongly in Asia as elsewhere makes it clear that the organisers are onto something.
- Then, I notice that the lively Danwei China media blog is organising a “Plenary Session”, “a lively, PowerPoint-free panel discussion” on careers in the media, technology and communications. The point here is presumably that once PowerPoint is introduced, it’s hard to have a lively discussion.
- Finally, there’s a thoughtful post from Rebecca MacKinnon on the series of Web 2.0 conferences she has been attending in Beijing.
There’s lots going on and a lot of experiments. Nobody though, as far as I can see, has really come up with quite the right solution to making these events marketable, truly valuable and profitable for the organisers.