Thoughts on Web Design Conferences
I’ve been seeing a few blog posts the past couple months that are either answering, bemoaning or attempting to bring more clarity on the web design conference experience. I answered quickly on Dan Moll’s recent post on the subject and since this is my blog, just wanted to write a little longer on the subject for my own purposes. Hey, what can I say, I love this stuff…
I don’t know the what the experience is like at every event out there, how can I, i’ve only been to the ones i’ve been too. But i’ve been to and spoken at a bunch. My perspective is skewed at best, but maybe it’s useful to someone.
I’ve talked to a lot of conference organizers both big and small over the past 3 or so years, attended a ton of both small/local and larger/more professional conferences in that same time span. Even organized our own conference for a few years now: http://convergese.com. One thing i’ve come to understand is that the best conferences are treated as both entertainment and instructional events. People are putting down their hard earned $ to travel to, stay at and attend an event - as a conference you’re competing with things like family vacation, sporting events and not-billable work time. It’s tough work to convince someone to commit to attend your conference. They want to make sure they’re going to get something out of it outside the instructional. They want to feel “smart” for deciding to go, that they made the best decision and they want to make new friends. They expect to learn some new stuff so you gotta deliver there too.
*whew* that’s some tiring shit right there…
So I think that we’re hearing from people that they aren’t being challenged or not getting enough out of it is very telling. I’m constantly asking myself “why are we doing this?” it’s not to get rich, as many blog posts point out, but it’s because we want to help make sure the community has a place to meet together, learn and have fun. It’s not all altruistic, trust me, I do want to be the one throwing the party. At the end of the day though, the best conferences are the ones that are put on by the biggest fans of the community. I love this stuff, I love what I do - I can’t get enough out of it and that’s largely why I began working on the ConvergeSE conference with my friends a few years ago.
I’ve attended a few conferences that are put on by people who love our community and ones that have left me wondering what the motive truly was. But in each i’ve been able to take something away from the experience. Maybe it’s because I’m not new to it, maybe it’s just my personality, maybe i’m just a little crazy but I’ve learned to let me guard down, to meet new people, not to be afraid to come out from behind my many different portable web enabled devices and just shake a hand or two and talk. Here’s a big BUT though, I think a lot of conference organizers forget this about our community. It’s not easy for a lot of us to do that. As a conference organizer we have to ask: do we really care about this? After all isn’t this up to the attendee to figure out - to each his own?
I don’t have an answer. I’m not sure i’ve even gotten it right or not, but what i’m offering is that this may be one dimension to what some people have gripes about. Maybe that particular conference they attended seemed huge and uninviting to them, i’ve certainly been to some where I felt like I was on an island by myself. I’m not sure how you cut through that, maybe it’s impossible to do if your event gets too big. I’ve struggled with this same question and still can’t come to a conclusion. I think another part of it is that conferences take on a life of their own and as an organizer have to learn how to roll with it and make it work. The same goes for the attendee too.
Anywho, not sure where this is going but to close i’ll say this:
I have great respect for people who organize local meetup groups, conferences and other events where our community can gather. It’s a thankless endeavor. But if it weren’t for you guys who do this for us where would we be as a community.
Please keep organizing conferences and don’t let complaints get the better of you. For every complaint there’s plenty of attendees who loved the show!
Including me :)
