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What Do You Look For In a Conference?
Michael Lato writes "I've been a speaker at several Information Technology conferences and I know that I use conferences as both an opportunity to gain new skills and to network with my peers. In hopes of assisting others, I've started my own conference in order to boost the soft skills of computer professionals. However, we may need to cancel due to a lack of attendees. What are people looking for in a conference in the midst of this recession? Have we missed the mark in thinking topics like project management and remote team leadership will be well-received?"
For a non-academic conference, it needs to be
a: A good enough topic to convince the boss to pay...
b: Cheap enough to convince the boss to pay...
c: In a nice enough location that you want to go...
So a $100/person conference in Hawaii sounds about right to me.
Test your net with Netalyzr
I look for technical software engineering lectures, etc, in a conference. Then again, I'm an engineer and not in management. Give me PHP over PHB any day! ;)
But, seriously, a conference should tend to focus on the greater community... developers -and- management to some extent. The bigger the tent, the more to fill it.
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the pen is mightier than the sword, the sword is mightier than the court, the court is mightier than the pen.
Free stuff, free food and free beer. Only reasons I ever go.
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
What I look for is a decent lunch. No tuna-fish sandwiches or fricken' bagels. Food's the only expectation I have, because, without exception, every conference I've been to has been as dull as watching shit turn into soil.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Generally the people doing the work don't get to go to conferences, their bosses go as junket opportunities. Is your conference someplace warm? Is it near any tourist attractions? These are keys to greater attendance. Also how is your buzzword count in your promotional materials? In any case good luck with your conference and I hope it goes well for you.
Lots of good peering, accessibility to presenters, decent happy hours. Good stock content is a strong 2nd place, but definitely a 2nd place.
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
Combine with a fun one. I have found the 2pm software engineering panels to be much more interesting if I know Jedi are going to battle at 4pm.
My employer deals almost entirely with higher ed clients. Unfortunately, due to budget cuts, our customers basically *aren't* looking to go to conferences. Instead of our yearly training, which goes for 3 solid days, and costs over $1000, we're doing webcasts once a week for free. The end cost to us is about the same (we don't aim to profit off the conferences monetarily, so they break even, and WebEx is relatively cheap), they're getting the training they need, and our customers are happier.
So, to answer your question, I'd say they're either not looking for a conference, or for something really cheap. Try again when the economy picks up.
A decent set of topics for classes. Too many times I have seen a class and it turns out to be a 101 class for dummies. Mgmnt classes are good, but how about some real world how-to /how-not to type classes.
In times like these, people don't want to be seen as expensive to their company. Unless the conference is for hard technical skills, people don't want to attend. Even for people who are not hardcore technical, the conferences have to be seen as "must attend".
Pick any random 25 conference attendees. If at least one of them doesn't end up waking up in a ditch on the side of a highway 50 miles from your conference with no memory of the preceding three days except vague flashes involving tequila, three midgets, and a donkey, the conference is too lame for anyone to go to.
You're a self absorbed douchebag who got a taste of reality when nobody wanted to attend your coma inducing conference.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Booth babes!
What it really comes down to is that in a recessions companies cut back their training dollars. Think of it this way, if they just laid-off 10 workers then it generally does not look very good to send remaining employees on expensive training or conferences. Having said that, if the conference hours can be applied to maintaining a professional designation (i.e.: PDU's to maintain your PMP ) then you'll always get those people attending.
See store for details.
This sort of thing only seems to happen at the political conferences, not the technical ones.
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Copenhagen's city council in conjunction with Lord Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard sent postcards out to 160 Copenhagen hotels urging COP15 guests and delegates to 'Be sustainable - don't buy sex'.
"Dear hotel owner, we would like to urge you not to arrange contacts between hotel guests and prostitutes," the approach to hotels says.
Now, Copenhagen prostitutes are up in arms, saying that the council has no business meddling in their affairs. They have now offered free sex to anyone who can produce one of the offending postcards and their COP15 identity card, according to the Web site avisen.dk.
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http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,665182,00.html
That's it, basically. For IT people, finding information is *easy*. Why would I go to your conference, when everything you have to say is available for free from some website (and I *guarantee* it is).
I have yet to attend a conference that told me anything I didn't already know. The whole idea of a "conference" is pretty flawed. I want a *class*, with highly-qualified instructors that can answer my questions. I also want the class to only be attended by people that know why they are attending. Too many of the classes I've taken are filled with people that simply aren't ready for the class, and all the instructor's time is wasted answering their very basic questions.
What I'm saying is, you're doing it wrong. Nobody cares about a conference except as an excuse to take a day off and drink and meet women. If you aren't even offering THAT, then why are you bothering with it?
Recession or not, I always go for the conferences with the most swag
I only go to conferences to use the free wireless. And also the free power.
Too bad for the plane ticket and the conference fee.
The average kid fresh out of Computer Science probably thinks the working world is all about who you know. Well, don't forget that it's also about what you know. All these conferences won't do you good unless you have a technical background.
A nice midwestern locale, a place where eleven is the new ten, good rivalries, a great ground game, and overall good defense.
In short, the Big Ten.
Wait, we're not talking college football here?
I run Ubuntu skinned to look like a Mac on a PC. Go figure.
What Do *I* Look For In a Conference?
The exit to the buffet / bar.
Ok, firstly, how did you advertise your conference? Secondly, how many of these types of conferences are there already, and how well attended are they? Lastly, in your presentations in existing conferences on this topic (assuming in a wider scope conference), how many people actually attended YOUR talks?
You need to make sure that you are adding enough value for people to pay the money to attend and for employers to believe that the time spent at your conference is a better use of the paid time for their employees than would be spent staying at work and reading some books on the topic. I'm not trying to be harsh, but it's definitely worthwhile making sure you do your research first. There's also the possibility that if you manage to get the conference off the ground, that in a few years time it will really start to expand. But at the get go, you need to really be adding some value for attendees and the companies paying for them.
I intend to live forever, or die trying. - Groucho Marx
The EXIT.
Lonely women
I run a biennial scientific conference. The first two times we had it, it sold out (we had to turn people away); there is every indication that the next session in 2010 will be the same.
What makes it a successful conference?
1. Fantastic location (we chose a Greek island).
2. It's a little hard to get there, and a little expensive -- so people are committed to being at the conference.
3. We serve lunch on-site -- so people have good opportunities to be engaged.
4. There are plenty of breaks -- so people have good opportunities to interact with the speakers.
5. We have lots of time for discussion after each talk, and good moderators. Also, the length of time for each talk is just long enough to present one idea in detail and depth.
6. All of the speakers are invited and meet three strict criteria: (a) they are widely recognized as experts in their field; (b) they give excellent presentations; (c) they are people you want to hang out with for a few days. You would be surprised at how many potential speakers fail at one or more of those criteria, especially the last two.
7. We have separate periods for social interactions (a welcoming reception, and a final banquet).
8. The morning of the third day of our four day conference has no formal presentations, to help avoid attendee fatigue.
9. We serve alcohol during the poster presentations in the evening.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
Microsoft events involving free software are very well attended. Over the years I've acquired Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows 7 Ultimate, Visual Studio 2005/2008 Standard, SQL Server 2005/2008 Standard and Windows Server 2008 all for just showing up.
Of course it helped that the conferences themselves were also free.
Schnapple
The exit door.
Figure out how to do that in a recession, you're golden.
If you can't do that, reduce costs by producing an online/virtual conference.
A couple of months ago, I attended a virtual conference. It was quite successful, all things considered. The had 4000 + attendees, good exhibitors, good raffles, etc. And judging from the forum entries by attendees, everyone got something positive out of it.
I live outside the US so it was always expensive to travel to a conference recesion or not. What I've found from conferences like SIGRRAPH is that they do better when they choose a west coast city, mainly because the main part of the industry works there. So know your audience and where they work/live.
However, we may need to cancel due to a lack of attendees. What are people looking for in a conference in the midst of this recession?
Free is nice. Can you host one on the east coast, west coast, and midwest so people can drive to their destination? Oh, and Friday through Monday is ideal because it has to be vacation-time (If I'm "working" at the conference they have to pay travel expenses, but the travel budget was the first thing to go, so it would come from the emergency fund which I'd like to keep for real emergencies).
I look for video recordings of the talks.
To understand why people aren't interested in the conference, you should look at its purpose. If you go with the conventional wisdom that IT people are on average less soft-skilled than others, then this conference would have a lot to offer to a lot of people. However, why do these people stand to benefit from this in the first place? My guess would be that in most cases it's very closely tied to a conference about soft skills being just about the last thing they'd want to have anything to do with.
This time last year, I had a job that would pay for all of its employees to go to about a conference per year within a certain budget. It would also give them paid time off to go.
Since then, that company cut many of its senior/expensive people (including me) and eliminated that benefit for those that remained. My new job doesn't have such a benefit and I'm not likely to attend a conference I have to pay for purely out of pocket and take vacation time for. Probably a lot of former conference attendees are in a similar boat.
IT Pros understand project management. Maybe not to nth degree, but enough to know their part in the process. The problem with program management in IT is that managers don't understand IT and the workload placed on their IT staff. They care about "production" and deliverables, but miss the importance of maintaining baselines. If you have a conference on program management and target IT Pros, you're only going to get guys who's managers tell them to go.
It is unlikely that attending people will really learn something interesting in a conference. However, it is the perfect place to meet people; your next employer or your next employe.
The best way to organize a conference is to attend lots of them and pay attention to what works and what does not. Take the positive aspects and concentrate them. Make sure you don't nickel and dime your attendees. Have on-site food that is good, and serve alcohol with it. Have a single-track. Pick speakers very, very well. Pick a great location. Visit the location well beforehand (months) and talk to the people who run the facility. Get to know your vendors. Give attendees decent take-home items (pens, pads, etc.) that won't be thrown away immediately. Provide maps. Make sure the program is trivially easy to use. Make sure the conference site is trivially easy to find. Have a good web site that's easy to navigate. Make it easy for potentially interested attendees to contact you. Advertise. Promise the best experience ever, and follow through. Make sure your finances are well-planned so that if something goes wrong, you, and your attendees, aren't screwed. Ask for feedback, and take it to heart. Hire an A/V person and tell them that under no circumstances are they allowed to dim the lights (or promise a big bonus if that never happens), and that they should feel free to interrupt speakers to adjust microphones until such time as the speakers are clearly audible.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
Free food and an open bar is a huge plus.
Otherwise it's what the other posters say, get it from google or go on a boondoggle.
Honestly, right now it's just hard. I have plenty of conferences that I would love to attend, but my organization won't pay for any travel at all. I've encountered a couple that are offering webcasts of sessions at a discounted price, and my org. will often allow that - it's the travel piece that they won't pay for. So, if webcasting sessions is an option, that might be a way to up attendance. Especially if you can make it so people can just pay for the sessions they want to attend.
Even if your conference is free to attend, it still costs the delegates their travel costs, their accommodation and food, and covering the time away from their workplace. The tough question is- does your conference have enough to persuade your delegates' bosses that it's worth it?
Unfortunately as a new conference you are going to have to work that bit harder, can you bring in something with pulling power? Once you've got a good reputation it gets easier, there are some conferences which have a strong enough reputation that they sell themselves (I can tell my boss I want to go to Famous Conference X and if she's got the budget and it doesn't cross any deadlines I don't need to tell her any more). But a new conference will have to have great speakers or some other professional value that your delegates bosses will accept.
Have we missed the mark in thinking topics like project management and remote team leadership will be well-received?
Short answer: Yes
Long answer:
I personally wouldn't want to attend such conferences. Why? I'm not a project manager nor do I plan to be, and thus team leadership is another thing I generally don't need. Now, when I look at any team of IT pros, I see ONE person in that position, with several underlings to do the dirty work. I don't know about you, but in any of the companies I've worked at, there are AT MOST 2 managers for Information Technology and Services. One will generally handle all the in-house software and bug requests while the other one will handle everything else.
There are more people NOT in that position then there are IN that position. If you were to cover things that applied to my job specifically, like expected coding practices, I might be more inclined to attend.
And those Managers who ARE in those positions are usually too busy to attend a conference, they're on Call 24/7 in case a server goes down or Exchange goes nuts.
However, what REALLY draws the crowds is something new. New Technology, new methodology, new something. If you have something they haven't seen before, they want to check it out. Once you hook them into going, you can continue upon whatever you dang well please. If I book the time off for a conference about the advantages of Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 working together, and you happen to spend half the conference talking about Management, I'll feel obligated to stick around till you get to the good stuff.
Hi Reckon everyone is counting pennies just at the minute.. Does it really warrant a physical location? can it not be done online? Just my English 2p Bry
Anyone who uses the term network when they mean social interaction is a douchebag.
When you think techies are interested in project management and remote team leadership, that just proves you are a douchebag. Those are the sort of thing that douchebag execs like.
Depending on your ambitions for booking targets, of course, but there are some very good people out in the industry who are very well known but still aren't rich. You might be able to entice them to speak for a cut of the gate. Go after a luminary and ask them.
Given your interest in the "soft skills" I'd suggest going after someone like Pamela Jones, Richard Stallman, Randall Munroe, Cory Doctorow, Rob Malda, or Simon Travaglia. People who would drive geeks through the door, just for the opportunity to meet them. Give them an hour to talk and let them sell their own merchandise.
I've only ever set up one conference myself, but I've seen they can be just as big an opportunity for the presenters as the audience. Overall, I believe it's a good thing to do.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
I've had my share of security cons in my life. Invariably, whether I liked them or not boils down to a few simple points:
1) Interesting talks from interesting people. I don't want to hear about something I knew since 2 years ago from someone who was just accepted because nobody would willingly come. Have a lineup of people presenting something new and I'm there.
2) Spare the ad blitz. Concerning point 1, spare the corporate sponsored talks that peddle some of their latest crap and give little to no information. First, they're boring and second, the people who attend the cons I attend don't make the sales decisions anyway. I actually remember one talk by a certain poor fellow from a certain security company that I will not mention to protect the guilty who couldn't get his presentation done because everyone just started chattering amongst themselves without listening. And nobody was bothered by it. It was one of those "mandatory attendence" talks, so we were there. And made the best out of the situation. It was really embarrassing for the poor guy and him talking through a microphone kinda interfered with our conversation...
3) Make sure your guests feel welcome. Hire local students if you need cheap labour, but I want to get my registration done speedily and I want to have someone to ask organisational questions whenever I have one. It's kinda bugging me when I stand there and would like to know my way around and there's nobody to ask. Yes, signs help but not always. Also make sure the hotel bar has enough Vodka if you invite people from east/northeast Europe! GOOD VODKA! I can't stress it enough.
4) Don't put the most interesting talks at 9am. That Vodka needs time to settle, ya know...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
While your topic does sound a little interesting, I personally would be unable to attend. My employer doesn't do conferences, and I just can't see taking the PTO and paying out of pocket for the conference fees, hotel, and travel. It's not a recession thing either; they just don't do conferences. They've never done conferences - they will do training classes with vendors, and pay for travel for that; or even bring in a trainer from the vendor and do on-site training, but not conferences.
Free food.
Swag? Puh-lease.
I'm hungry!
In the current "great recession" it is not impossible to go to conferences but it is certainly hard to justify the cost, especially when travel is involved. Not only that, but the pressures on my time (and I suspect I'm not unique in this regard) budget are at least as great as those on my dollar budget. Spending 3 days somewhere else means having to find the time to do all I didn't do at the office during that period. Furthermore, it takes time away from my family life, which cannot be paid for even if I were being reimbursed for the overtime. So, if you want me to attend your conference you need to make it worth my while. I have been to too many conferences in my life and maybe I've become a cynic, but between the marketing BS and BS disguised as something else, halfway through day one I'm usually wondering what I am doing there. Words like "project management" and "team leadership", remote or otherwise, trigger my marketing BS alert-o-meter-inator. Have relevant people talking about real issues that I can immediately and directly relate to my needs in the real world. Show real solutions to real problems. You know, if you want to sell me your product it should actually have some value...
The Kloud Komputing Konference that just ran in Doomed to Obscurity. That's what I'd like to see more of.
So hang on. You're holding a face-to-face social event to help antisocial people gain more comfort and skill in handling face-to-face social situations?
And you're surprised that nobody showed up?
Next time, why not hold a conference on "Conquering Acrophobia" at the top of the Seattle Space Needle?
Something to experience worth talking about and like-minded people to talk about it with.
Oh, and cute girls... but, really, where don't we look for those, hmmm?
Reality is prettier inside my head...
The problem with technical conferences is that there are too many people at widely varying levels of skill to fully satisfy anyone. The newbies are going to feel like they have just had their butts kicked while the more experienced will feel like their time has been wasted. When I am looking to spend time training I prefer to do it with books, frameworks, and google at my own pace and level of competence. The last conference that I attended was mostly a waste of time and money IMHO. Conferences are among the most expensive and inefficient forms of training compared to what one gets out of them.
Unemployment is out of control and NOBODY in their right mind is gonna ask to go to a conference with all of the hungry competition out there. Conferences are gonna have to chill until after we have a domestic prosperity that justifies titties and beer at the casino.
My advice would be to set yourself apart as much as possible. There are just so many conferences out there, and so much competition for the scarce training budget funding, you need to do something to make yours stand out. Maybe you need to think about a niche market or a more targeted audience. If you pick a broad topic like "Java", you will be up against the big boys with the reputation and history to back it up.
I personally view my coveted conference as the time to get caught up on the "cutting edge". See what the newest research and development is. More importantly, to meet peers in my field and exchange battle notes. My advice: stand out and make it worth it to me.
And located where a large enough number of IT professionals will be able to attend with minimal travel expense?
Travel and training budgets have been completely wiped out where I work. This means the only way I can attend anything is if it's free and local or out of my own pocket. There are some things I'm willing to pay for, some I'm not. A brand new conference with unknown quality of presenters falls into the not willing to pay for category.
Same as in meetings: The DOOR and the CLOCK of course! ^^
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Most of the conferences I've wanted to attend offer very little in terms of value. They are sponsored by vendors. Vendors are not the right source for information. Conferences that are backed by user groups or other broad interest groups are desirable, but I can't think of any examples.
Here's my wish-list for the perfect conference:
1. Attendees will leave with new SKILLS (not the same as 'Product Knowledge') - Teach something you would otherwise have to take classes for to understand or is the knowledge of seasoned IT people that can help everyone accomplish something that is problematic.
2. Tech's don't appreciate 'Solution' hype directed at decision makers - The decision makers don't generally go to most conferences. It's that simple. You have to explain what your product does before you explain what it solves to techs.
3. Slow the pace, keep it meaningful - Tech people need to digest information just like everyone else. If you have accomplished providing a meaningful conference, you will be putting a lot of information forward. Keep the pace reasonable and don't overlap too many sessions.
4. Eliminate the sales pitch - Everyone is sick of the sales pitch. We're sick of hearing how Vendor X can solve all your woes with Product Z. Yawn. Next!
5. Eliminate the know-nothing booth TME - Techs don't like to be accosted by TME's. Quite frankly, those TME's piss off most tech people. Have the booths attended by the engineers who work on the product so that REAL QUESTIONS can be answered.
6. Eliminate the "if you let me scan your badge, you can have a free T-Shirt" scam - We all know you want to email/call us. If we want more information, we have your brochure and card.
Parmasean Cheese. It's what's for dinner.
The parent couldn't have said it better, but may I add:
Make sure your speakers aren't giving blatant advertisements for commercial products. While this is less likely to happen at academic conferences; some speakers at industry conferences will spend the entire time promoting their product or services. I'm okay with a speaker plugging a book or services, but when the topic is "adjusted" to be an infomercial; I walk out.
If you have less experienced speakers, (the parent has the luxury of picking the cream of the crop,) don't be afraid to "moderate." Make sure the speaker keeps good time so he/she doesn't spend 75% of his or her time on the beginning of the subject matter, and don't be afraid to remind a speaker that his/her time is running out.
Likewise, if you have less experienced speakers, don't be afraid to moderate questions from the audience if they tend to drift off topic or aren't timed well. (I can't tell you how aggravating it is to wait one hour while some doofus fields stupid questions that should wait until the end.)
No, I will not work for your startup
How much is that?
All of it?
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
I would never attend a conference on these topics. It sounds wishy-washy and generally not useful.
as everyone else here, but obviously this isn't a place where you can ask a question and expect a worthwhile response.
Without more detail, the conference you started sounds suspiciously like every other "professional" conference I've ever heard of. You know, the ones middle managers dream up and attend to make it look and sound like they're busier and more important than they really are.
You don't say who your target audience is exactly, but if you're looking to attract the Slashdot crowd, you have to have:
Running a con is hard. I was on a conference committee once and while my job was comparatively easy, many other organizers (especially the conchair) spent an entire year of their free time all for the sake of one great weekend. If you really want to figure out what makes a con tick, get involved with another con before diving into one of your own, no matter how great you think your event planning skills are. There are a few cons with a relatively open planning process, one in particular that I can recommend is Penguicon.
In hopes of assisting others, I've started my own conference in order to boost the soft skills of computer professionals.
That's why no one is attending.
No, I will not work for your startup
What Do You Look For At a Conference?
The Bar
The bathrooms
The place where the hookers hang out
At lower class affairs, I shall accept beer and pretzels.
I attend two technical conferences a year. One of them is very big (but shrinking), the other one small (but growing). Since I am on the steering committee of the small one, I'll share some of the things that I think make it successful:
My favorite reasons is as an "attaboy". You do something really great at work and they send you someplace nice, give you an expense account, let you hang out with the kind of people you like... Sending you to a conference makes you feel good. Everyone who wanted to go, but didn't get sent, knows you have more "mojo" with the pointy haired bosses than they do. It is a whole lot cheaper than a raise or even a real bonus. And, who knows, you might actually learn something of use to the company.
By far the most common reason for being sent has been to gather competitive information about other companies. How many people from the list did you see? What were their ranks? What booths and what presentations did they go to? Did they present? (Mandatory attendance at *there* presentations.) If they had a booth, how big was it? How was it staffed (and yeah, cup size and number of the models can be important)? How expensive was the swag they were giving away? Did you see the following people.? Did you get the ranks of the people? If you happened to have a chance to eavesdrop what were they talking about? Did any of their folks try to talk to you? If so, what about? What off site/after hours activities did they throw. Do you know who went? Had to do that even for attaboy conferences. This kind of information can be used to judge interest and intent of competitors. Well worth the cost of sending technical experts.
(One time I used an attaboy to get me to the Game Developers Conference out in California. I found I was the one being tracked. I was the only person there from a large telecom. Free drinks are not free when you have put up with being grilled by venture capitalists. Not one of them believed me when I told them why I was there. BTW, GDC was a blast! And, I wound up collecting some good info on Microsoft.)
I've been sent to more than one conference by mistake. I was once sent to a conference at Columbia in NYNY on zero notice. I was working in Austin, Texas at the time. The title of the conference and the list of attendees set of alarm bells with manager. The conference appeared to be on the economics of networks games, that is, MMOs and it had a truly amazing list of economist attending the conference. Turns out it was on who to use game theory to assign optimal prices for network usage. I found it facinating, but it did not apply to my subject matter area and it was of no interest the company. Things like that have happened more than once. :-)
When I've worked on standards I was always sent to the main conference relating to that standard. Have to show the flag. People will assume that if your rep isn't at the right conferences then your company isn't really committed to the standard. Customers might use that as a reason to switch vendors. And, oh my, but you can find that suddenly your emails are being ignored and no one is paying any attention to your issues. Not good, not good at all.
And, finally, I once got to go to a conference because it was being held in the building next door. It was just to cheap to pass up and it made me happy. (I met these two Brits who thought the signs banning concealed hand guns in the mall next door were a there to titillate the tourists. There words, not mine. They nearly ran back to the hotel when I informed them that they signs were for real and if they noticed, non-concealed hand guns *were still permitted*. Talk about failure to understand the local culture :-)
But, you know what? I have *never* been sent to a conference to learn a new skill. I have never heard of anyone being sent to a conference to learn a new skill. Learning is what classes are for. I have been paid to attend classes. I have been paid to teach classes on site at companies. Conferences are too short to actually acquire a new skill. OTOH, I have used conferences to identify areas that I wanted to study.
Stonewolf
As someone who is currently drunk returning from a conference (SES Chicago) I believe I can speak with authority. 1. Don't host your conference in Bumfuck, I don't care what state 2. Big names = credibility, shallow but true 3. Give vendors free tickets for their clients (that's me, hint hint) 4. WHY CAN'T I FORMAT THIS POST!!!
In the small city where I live there's only 5 people on my field.
...
I go the confs so I can have some real face to face time with other peers who have become friends.
1./ pick a city where the local attendees can guaranty some attendance. (LA, SF, NY)
2./ make sure the venue is appropriate
3./ charge as little as possible
4./ let people have fun. Throw some party, have free beer time.
5./
6./ forget about profit here
You forgot to include the word 'girl' in the topics discussed in your conference. A lot of IT professionals need a lot of help on that topic, so it would be sure to attract a lot of them.
Choice of venue plays a key issue. For example, the morons at the recent "Computing in a Changing World" conference, decided to host an event in Portland Amtrak Station, in the middle of the holiday rush. The conference staff and attendees were rather rude and indignant that anyone would go to a train station to wait for a train, to top it off. Way to go, IEEE, for picking a venue that doesn't compute! Either way, I kind of wished my train was late that day, Portland Police and Amtrak Police came to disperse the crowd of drunk and disorderly nerds just as I had to go board.
Furries make the internet go.
The majority of conferences in my opinion are a total waste of time, money and effort, regardless how good the speaker are. The reason is, the human brain forgets, deletes, generalizes and distorts, hence the delegate leaves with only a fraction of what was presented. The saying is “Apple a day not seven on Sunday) hence a conference (assuming it is good content) is information overload, hence a waste. The majority of conference organizers do not have the foresight to record and capture the conference for delegates. If a conference is worth attending, it should be worth capturing e.g. audio, Power Point, video etc. Additionally many conferences are multi-stream, which means automatically you miss 50% of more of the content. The majority of conference companies in my opinion are simply parasites that offer no real, lasting value for delegates. The charge huge fees to attend, pay most speaker nothing to present and charge outrageous fees to exhibitors. Some think they are “cutting edge” by providing delegates a copy of the Power Points on CD, which was possible 15 years ago. I am yet to attend a single conference that was designed specifically with the delegate in mind, whereby delegates could interactively create their own version of the conference, personalize the content and collaborate with others in real-time. The conference industry is total joke, for the amount of money to attend a conference, plus airfares & accommodation etc, you could easily purchase 20 to 40 great technical books and have the ability read and re-read as often as you want. Or better yet, learn how to search effectively and find the information you require online for free.
Michael, I Googled your conference and with all due respect, I did not see anything in the schedule that jumped out at me as fresh or new. It might be worth it to meet some new people, but the schedule only lists a small group of speakers (though I understand it has to start somewhere). As a grad student in psychology studying distributed teams, I interact with people who work in DTs all the time -- hearing somebody talk about their experience on a DT does not add enough value to justify a trip to the conference. The conference is also pitched at the IT crowd, most of whom have either worked on a DT already, know somebody who does, or have a decent understanding of some of the obstacles (vs. the luddite-on-the-street). On paper, the speakers all seem to have IT expertise but you're marketing soft skills for IT professionals. They are by no means mutually exclusive (and this reflects my own bias), but to give an example I'd rather listen to a leadership expert with IT knowledge than an IT expert with some leadership knowledge when the subject is leading DTs. Conversely, I don't want the leadership expert teaching me about SQL.
I am not saying the conference lacks any utility, it just doesn't appear to have enough to get me to show up. I am just one person. I hope this helps and best of luck to you!
1. First class to tropical destination
2. Free schwag that boots linux
3. Hot chicks dressed as vulcans
Keep in mind that bringing people to your event and ensuring that they get their money's worth are two different things and need to be addressed as such.
As far as attracting an audience goes, first of all, have something that will attract them. Do this before you really start advertising your event. I see countless ads from everything from comic cons to live music festivals where someone has had a cool idea and started advertising it before booking any bands/speakers/talent. At this point, all you're saying is "Hey, I've booked a hall somewhere! Come and hang out with me!"
So how does one put together a product which will attract a crowd? In short, know your crowd.
What are they interested in? What do they want to know more about? Who are the respected figures in their field? Do they have a broad range of interests or a more specialised area of expertise? Can you perhaps appeal to a wider market and still attract that specialist niche? Answer these questions and book your attractions accordingly. Asking your audience directly is a good (but not foolproof) way of getting this information.
Then, of course, there are the issues of scale and budget. How much are you willing to spend on the event? What is the capacity of your venue? Realistically, what are people willing to pay to attend and how many attendees can you reasonably expect? How many bodies through the door do you need to break even?
Now that you've got something which will hopefully draw a crowd, think about advertising. The web/social networking are inexpensive ways to reach people, but they're also heavily saturated. The amount of crap people have to wade through to get through content leads them to be ad blind, and many people will be using ad blockers anyway, so that's really not the best way to grab their attention. Instead, the best way to bring people to your site is to give them something worth coming for. This could consist of white papers, tutorials, interesting articles on subjects relevant to your audience or well written profiles of speakers. If they Google for a topic and your site comes up, and they find something informative/useful, they're going to be more inclined to attend your event and think that they'll get something of value out of it.
Other means of promoting your event could be direct communication - mail out info packs to companies or individuals you think would be interested in your event - displaying promotional materials at similar events (in my experience many event organisers are willing to do this on a reciprocal basis for the right to poster/flyer your event), advertising in magazines relevant to the field. Be wary of advertising too widely. Linux Übersysadmin Monthly will probably pull a hardcore Linux crowd. Linux Noob Magazine might get you a few interested parties. PC User is much more of a scattergun approach (replace magazine titles/subjects as required.)
Also be aware that many media outlets will be willing to come and go on advertising costs, especially if you provide them with a booth and access to your panels, etc.
OK, so you've brought your crowd out and you're getting all set for the big show. Now you just need to deliver on your promise of the best conference ever!
Make sure everything runs as close to schedule as possible. Some delays might be inevitable, but you can really help yourself out by making sure you have early access to the venue to set up. You might need several days to prepare the venue depending on the scale and nature of your event.
Hire competent people to whom you can delegate responsibilities. Hire decent equipment. You don't need to blow your budget on sound, lights, bells and whistles, but make sure that the gear you have can be relied upon to work consistently over the course of your event.
Make finding information as painless as possible. Produce a programme with a simple schedule of events. If anything changes, announce it on your web site, over the PA system, at the start of othe
We serve lunch on-site -- so people have good opportunities to be engaged.
Careful here: You don't need to go gormet, but make sure to avoid the mistake of only serving hot dogs drenched in ketchup or ham sandwiches loaded with mayo.
Make sure there is enough variety so that vegetarians, picky eaters, people with food allergies, and religious restrictions can still have a good meal. Buffets are good. Having to choose between a mayo-drenched ham sandwich or a bag of sour cream potato chips is a great way to make someone's afternoon miserable.
No, I will not work for your startup
I have been organizing and facilitating small conferences for over twenty years. One of them is a very successful conference, edACCESS, for information technology staff at small schools - next year will be the nineteenth annual conference.
The replies so far have assumed a traditional conference model - pre-programmed sessions with (hopefully) good presenters. What we do at edACCESS (and the other conferences I facilitate) is different. We use a peer conference model, which is the best way I know for a group of people with a common interest to come together for a few days to share and learn from each other.
Peer conferences are small, attendee-driven, highly interactive, safe, reflective, and build the community that participants want; they are like unconferences and Open Space events, but are more structured, less biased towards extroverts, and default to confidentiality.
They work really, really well, and people love them - several thousand attendees to date. And it's very rewarding to organize and run one. Four years ago I decided to try and get the word out.
The result - I've just published a book Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love that includes a detailed critique of traditional conferences and a complete roadmap for organizing and running peer conferences. You can read a more detailed intro to peer conference process at the accompanying website http://www.conferencesthatwork.com/. Comments and questions are welcome.
-Adrian-
Well, i think that making money for the first conference should not be the goal, but to make indirect money.
I think that you should make the conference FREE to the public, and make the sponsors support the conference.
The second is the topics in the conference: Virtualization, Unified Communications..... but, all the topics have to be oriented to business not to technical stuff.
People are also looking for free stuff a nice hotels places to go.
Summary:
Funny
Interesting
Free
Conferences from the perspective of the speakers are just opportunities for subliminal promotion, and from the perspective of the attendees, an easier time than work while feeling self important.
They pretend to be about education and networking but in truth, these days, with the Internet fed to most homes and companies, you don't have to be in the same room to network (pun unintended).
We don't need conferences.
Just checked out your conference sessions http://www.worktamer.com/conference_sessions.cfm it looks awful. Just awful.
Email and Blogging? Completely useless. Your attendees are supposed to be IT professionals for goodness sake! Just look at the description for the blogging session:
In this session, Brent Ozar will spend 5-10 minutes showing you why it's important to blog, and then focus on the mechanics of building a blog. By the end of the session, you'll know exactly how to get started blogging and avoid many common pitfalls.
I think IT professions can handle setting up a blog. Even if you only attract the least competent people, why is the session only 5 to 10 minutes? What value could this possible have?
The Women in Technology session comes out of nowhere.
Why your conference sucks: You're trying to be everything to everybody, thinking that this will somehow attract more people. All it's accomplished is to create an unfocused and completely useless conference.
Not that you'll read this -- your goal was to get free advertising on Slashdot. Congratulations.
Required reading for internet skeptics
What Do You Look For In a Conference?
Decent Wi-Fi access. Thank you.
Conferences are a waste of time and money.
... at the airport when you go through Homeland Security's gates with a bag of shit?
I think I'll get it at Home depot instead. $5.49 is worth it to not carry it so far.
Third Career: Tree Farmer Second Career: Computer Geek First Career: Teacher, Outdoor Instructor, Photographer.
MORE REAL WORLD EXAMPLES!
MORE REAL CODE YOU CAN USE!
MORE FREE GIVEAWAYS!
If I have to drive all the way to ____ city from mine, and then get a hotel room, then pay through the nose (which is almost always the case) and then get disappointed by sloppy examples that barely work, without even seeing real world code or real world application of why I could use this technology or not. Then add to that you give away a stupid tshirt or pen (yes I am looking at you M$)
I will be pissed and never come back to your conference.
greek island uh...?? was it lesbos? i know it was...now u know why pple really "came" hahaha
I just received a catalog for the upcoming SANS 2010 training conferences.
$1,000 per day for six days.
Worth it?