The Future of Software Conferences is … Software

I had a geek dinner last night and a slice of a conversation kind of got persisted in my mind. So when I resumed my OS this morning, it was automatically deserialized. It was a chunk of the conversation I had with Carl Franklin and it was about the future of conferences. Carl voiced his convincement that the future is online. People stay home or in their offices—Carl said—pay a fair amount of money, and get the content they expect.

How much money? It doesn’t have to be necessarily little money; it doesn’t have, at the same time, a lot of money. Just the right amount money measured mostly against the quality and added value of the content they get.

I’m not saying that in some sort of near or remote future technical content should be paid as you like. I’m not certainly thinking of a donation model. I’m just wondering how much a typical conference fee is burdened with “extra” costs such as infrastructure, wireless, hotels, food, travel.

I did quite a few small tiny events myself and we constantly managed to keep costs as low as possible: no food, no CD, no bag, no accommodation, just great content. And small margins, enough to pay the day of the (very) few people involved. Clearly, it is a too extreme scenario to be replicated on a larger scale. A lot cost airline may propose you pay for the toilet, food, newspapers, drinks, water, but they can certainly not ask you pay an extra for the pilot J.

Are online conferences a concrete, starting-up business today? No.

The technology is not ready yet. As Carl pointed out, this is going to happen in a future maybe only a couple of years away. LiveMeeting and similar technologies are today totally insufficient and obsolete. We need stunningly beautiful and realistic graphics, bandwidth, ad-hoc software. But it can happen. And probably it will. Look at Xbox games; look at HD video technology; look at VOIP progress. It seems like we have all the pieces as single entities; someone will certainly merge them together quite soon.

Awaiting for that, don’t forget to stay tuned on next “traditional” conferences. As far as I’m concerned, DevConnections in Las Vegas, and BASTA in Frankfurt, Germany. But the first of all, is Microsoft DevDays in Sofia, Bulgaria, 16-17 April.

Published 26 March 2009 03:48 PM by despos

Comments

# Jeff said on 26 March, 2009 12:48 PM

But the thing is, I don't know anyone who goes to conferences just for the content. Meeting real humans, and socializing with them, is the reason we go. People like to hang out with people, and have drinks. Heck, Mix even has an enormous party for this purpose.

I'll always go to conferences in real life.

# Scott Mitchell said on 26 March, 2009 02:28 PM

The whole point of a multi-day, travel far away-type conference is to network, no? To meet prospective employers/employees, to meet with colleagues, to share anecdotes, to drink and be merry and revel with your brethren. I don't know what the value-add would be for people to attend these virtually.

For smaller conferences - local, one-day events - I agree that the primary motivation is content. And for those there would obviously be a draw to online for non-local people who wanted to hear you (Dino) speak, or whatever.

But what Carl appears to be proposing is not really a conference, just an alternate medium through which technical information is delivered. And the "live" aspect seems overrated for these events. What advantage is there for a person to "attend" a live, online conference? Why not just watch the archives a week later? And, if so, it seems that we're really talking about providing video content online.

# travaler said on 26 March, 2009 09:11 PM

как изменилось вообще в целом "The Future of Software Conferences is … Software" в период кризиса?

и изминилось ли вообще

# Chris Brandsma said on 26 March, 2009 09:43 PM

Actually, I think the Delphi community has been doing this for a couple of years already. It is what used to be BorCon, now CodeRage (they could be completely independent of each other, I don't really know).

conferences.codegear.com/coderage08

# Dew Drop - March 27, 2009 | Alvin Ashcraft's Morning Dew said on 27 March, 2009 08:52 AM

Pingback from Dew Drop - March 27, 2009 | Alvin Ashcraft's Morning Dew

# Chris Taylor said on 27 March, 2009 09:08 AM

Scott pretty much hit it I think. I don't go to conferences to necessarily hear Phil Haack or Guthrie speak, though it is enjoyable. I gain more out of the networking with others, talking ideas out, and god forbid, "white boarding" on a bar napkin.

As much of nerds as we are, look into Dino's very words of how the idea was socialized. A Geek Dinner. ;)

# Hadi Hariri said on 12 April, 2009 05:26 AM

I hope Virtual Conferences never take over the real events. As Scott and others point out, it's mostly about *getting away* and *networking*. And despite how important the content is, those two other factors weigh in a lot on the final decision.

As Chris pointed out also, CodeGear started doing this several years ago already and it hasn't had the pull they expected, despite their virtual exhibit hall even. Now I see Microsoft have done it with Virtual Tech Days. One can't and hopefully will never replace the other. Each have their own place.