Slashdot Mirror
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'd just file this under "networking". That's really the reason people go to conferences: to meet other people in the same field, and share business cards and bs anecdotes.
Free stuff (or at least stuff that'll fit on the T&E card) is just gravy.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
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.