It’s a Conference-Palooza. Now What?

In many ways, it’s refreshing to see the conference business doing well again – particularly given I’m in “the business” as one of the organizers of mesh. Michael O’Connor Clark highlights four major conferences happening over the next two months in Toronto. That said, it’s looking like some people are starting to experience conference fatigue already. Thomas Howe, for example, has decided to pass on VON. (His rationale: “The VON show is ruled by business development arms of increasingly larger companies, not by thought leaders driving real communication innovation”).

Thomas’ decision got me thinking about what makes a good conference and how you decide which ones to attend given there’s no lack of choice these days. It’s something top of mind for me and b5media because we’re trying to figure out our conference plans for the year. So, what’s important when determining what conferences to attend and those that you decide to take a pass on. Is it the quality of the keynotes/panels? Is it the networking opportunities? Is it the location and opportunity to mix business with pleasure? Of course, it’s a combination of them all. And then there’s the cool factor? SXSW is cool; Gnomedex is cool; mesh is cool (A biased opinion, of course!), Les Blogs is cool; LIFT is cool.

As a conference organizer, I appreciate how difficult it can be to put on a compelling event. A huge challenge is creating a program with fresh ideas and fresh voices. This is a tough task given there is so much competition and there’s only so many topical/interesting issues that can be explored, as well as so many people willing to speak. In many ways, the difference between an alright conference and a great conference is atmosphere and customer service. If you can create an atmosphere that encourages real conversation – as opposed to let’s-go-through-the motions-networking – then you have something special. It also helps to have a conference where news actually happens, and people talk about new stuff.

Right now, the conference business is fairly balanced between being a buyers and sellers market. But it’s pretty easy to see it will soon be a buyer’s market as more conferences are launched. In theory, competition is a good thing because it will force conference organizers to do a better job of attracting good keynotes, putting on interesting panels, and providing services such as Wi-Fi, good food and fun parties/social events. Of course, the downside is many conferences will fail to attract enough people to be viable from financial or programming perspective, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

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