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?"

Location Location Location...

[nweaver]

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.

If its free, give me three!

[ez151]

Free stuff, free food and free beer. Only reasons I ever go.

NFJS is a good example

[rjstanford]

Lots of good peering, accessibility to presenters, decent happy hours. Good stock content is a strong 2nd place, but definitely a 2nd place.

Re:If its free, give me three!

[SatanicPuppy]

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.

Unfortunately, they're not

[geekboybt]

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.

Simple

[eln]

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.

Re:Location Location Location...

[onionman]

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.

Yep, that all sounds about right to me, but one more thing to add is a good schedule. The conference needs to have built-in breaks for both formal and informal peer networking/socializing. Formal networking can be small-group break-out sessions or very small panel talks on technical topics. Some of the best conferences I've been to for this have "coding sprints" on open source projects in the afternoons.

Informal socializing doesn't necessarily require booze. Some of the best I've attended have included hiking trips, museum tours, or even theater presentations. Don't get me wrong, I like alcohol as much as the next guy, but I think that there are plenty of self-identified geeks who are uncomfortable with the whole booze+mingling thing, so give everyone some options.

Re:Location Location Location...

[Anonymous Coward]

d: Is in a hotel with a nice bar that has readily available escorts trolling for well-off professionals.

The word is trawling [wordia.com]. It can be used to mean "trolling", but in the sense you were using it, "trolling" is incorrect (unless you mean the escorts were dudes in drag, cock-teases or part of Candid Camera).

Re:How to Organize a Conference

[pz]

That would be a deal-breaker for a lot of people. More than a few of us *need* to be reachable in emergencies (and not just work, either)[1]. If the conference I just attended last month had not had wireless in the hall, I wouldn't have gone. It was especially good that they did, since I found that wireless coverage (at least on my carrier) was very poor inside the hall. More than half of the time, my cell phone couldn't get a signal. It only worked reliably in the lobby.

In our conference, we ask people if not providing internet access in the main room is "a problem, or a blessing". 85% respond that it is a blessing. Internet access is provided elsewhere on-site.

If you *must* be accessible, then you won't ever be fully engaged in a conference. Better to arrange for someone else to cover your responsibilities back home so you can turn your full attention to being at the conference. You can read email and surf the web when you go to your hotel, otherwise what's the point of going in the first place?