Conferences are strange affairs. You attend them to listen to people, to learn, to meet people, to sell to people, to buy from people and to hear what it is 'going on' in your niche. You pay a fee, which is often quite steep, to hear 'learned folk' and 'experts' tell you how they do things and insights they have gained. Four out of five tell you stuff you have already heard and the remaining speaker enlightens you.
I used to attend Microsoft Partner conferences, which were always in some American conference centre in somewhere like Minneapolis or Boston, and I soon realised that I was not doing my job correctly if I learned anything new from the presentations. Companies and organisers of conferences need speakers to attract you there. These speakers are, by nature, 'communicators' or, to use another term, 'show offs' who like to broadcast themselves through their books, blogs, Twitter streams and videos. So, if they tell you something new, you obviously have not been paying attention and you will be behind the times when you attend.
So, what they heck are conferences for if you don't learn anything from the majority of the presentations? You've paid (or your company has paid) a lot of money for you to be there and it would seem that conferences are just a big cover up for a party on company expenses.
Well, conferences only exist because the business happens in the corridors and the bars. That's where it happens. In the casual chats; over dinner; on the coach to see some local historical site which organisers have to attend to appease your boredom with the presentations. Also, the more conferences I attend, the more I log into my Twitter account to follow what people are saying about the presentations and the conference. You can get immediate insight into whether people are 'hitting the mark' with their session. This 'back channel', as Cliff Atkinson calls it, adds so much more to conferences in terms of thought and opinion, although it can be quite divisive when people become rude with their tweets.
So, conferences live on not because anyone is saying anything new in the presentations. They survive becuase people need to see people's faces, hear their tone and gain confidence in themselves and their peers. They want to read between the lines and understand what is really happening beyond the marketing speak and 'messages' which are pumped at you in the formal sessions.
Related articles
- Great uses of Twitter at conferences (customerthink.com)
- How To Land A Speaking Gig At A Local / Regional Search Conference (searchenginepeople.com)
- How to Host the Perfect Design Conference (sixrevisions.com)
Comments
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comment!