I ran my first developer conference back in 2007. It was called Flex Camp Boston and it was a 1-day, single track conference all about Adobe's Flex...
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Thanks. I agree completely though I can see why that is unclear in my post. I am not worried about declining conferences because I worry about the business so much as I think they are great opportunities for developers and I worry there will be fewer of these opportunities in the future. Conferences (both speaking and attending) played a big role in my career development and I want others to have those opportunities as well.
Cool insights. A lot to unwrap and cover but in genera agree with you. 3 things if I may. People who come for content in most cases are coming on behalf of their companies. Like education benefit. What pandemic showed to the companies is they can go without conferences = monney saved.
Expectations from the audience are leaning to entertainment more than education. I blame gazillion of free content and influencers because they are making the waves and setting the trends.
Finally, in todays climate, one burdened with recession, the problem for keeping conferences is only gonna get bigger.
Thanks. Totally agree with your insights.
One note to add regarding virtual conferences (i.e. going for the content only). Our registration was down 30% this year but actual live attendees was identical (meaning a much higher participation rate). It's one data point but interesting.
Well said.
I tried to get a conference going just before the downturn but it imploded mostly due to contractual disagreements between my would be partners. The costs are indeed extreme and the finances are difficult.
I do a lot of conference speaking and I do tend to agree. There are also some other things that might be related:
Slowed hiring - a huge motivation in sponsoring and attending conferences is hiring and poaching. This is no longer a driver for many conferences
Better ROI - I can write several articles and produce multiple videos for the cost of a single conference (in terms of time spent). Their lifetime value is easier to measure. Thanks to the pandemic a lot of developers who used to attend these conferences learned how to hone these skills better
The last one correlates to your observation. The people who attend are the people that need the human connection.
Agree with your take. I think the overall slowdown in the industry and in hiring in general is definitely impacting conferences, which were hurting already. And, as a frequent speaker, I struggle with the ROI as well. If I spend a week developing a session, then a flight, hotel, food, etc., only to speak to a handful of people because the conference was poorly attended, it's definitely not worthwhile. And that is something I have little control over or even insight into until I show up.
That being said, I haven't seen a shortage of speakers. Many organizers I talk to seem to be inundated with CFP proposals, perhaps more so than previously. This is despite there often being fewer speakers/sessions due to declining attendance. Perhaps this is because many speakers fall into the category of those who need that human connection (for example, I know many folks in DevRel who now refuse to do online events - only in person).
What a coincidence you posted this when beyond tellerrand announced the early bird offer for the upcoming conference in Berlin in September 2023.
I still love conferences and meetups in real life, and I like to use online meetings for communication, but I am absolutely no fan of online events. Despite attempts to create online spaces in Gather, Wonder, or using Zoom breakout rooms, I find it much harder to have a casual conversation and I miss moving around when sitting at my desk or staring at my smartphone screen.
So I am mostly one of those eager to chat, make friends, and meet potential business partners at an actual event, otherwise registering for online events only to get a reminder of the screen recording.
But there is one exception.
The rise of online and hybrid events allowed me to attend meetups and conferences that I would otherwise never go to, invite speakers from overseas to my own online meetup (before finally stepping down as an organizer), and ask questions to experts without opening issues or writing messages in developer slack channels, no matter if it's at JS World Africa (I have never been to Kenya or Nigeria yet) or Switzerland where I could, at least in theory, have taken a train to the venue.
Thanks for sharing your experience, facts and data. So it's not only me, and the challenge remains, how to react as a sponsor or conference organizer. Hopefully there will be more hybrid events to save the opportunities and the atmosphere of in-person events while also connecting people from all over the world.
Thanks for the comment. You're correct that online events are generally terrible for making connections. As someone who runs them, I tend to see them as being all about the content but also, as you mention, about making conferences accessible to folks around the world who might otherwise be unable to attend.
I may be wrong here.... but I attended few in-person conferences on technology, business...It's more of content driven and sometimes speeches...I feel the missing thing is...Attendees are there for some kind of opportunities that they envision... like jobs, investments, partnerships, projects (profit/nonprofit like permanent or side hustles...so all this needs to be addressed...bcas online is doing that in different paths. No doubt networking and socializing is also quite important...but i see atleast some quite a percentage people are looking out for some help on newer opportunities. (100% could not be guaranteed...but let's say atleast some 50-60% people got what they aspired...then it's great for conferences)
In my own career, conferences played a big role in my development. As with anything, there are no guarantees but I feel you get out what you put in. Then again, I was never uncomfortable socializing and meeting people at these events and I know that is much more difficult for many people, which may adversely affect what they get out of it (in this case, they may prefer the anonymity of virtual events). I do think we need to think about how to add more value to events but I am not sure what kind of changes would bring that about.
It feels like the circumstances we're in today could be an opportunity to reimagine these types of events.
Maybe the traditional, large events are the way of the past, but there may be alternatives that people want to engage with.
Thanks for sharing your perspective.
Agreed. I think we've reached the stage where we know we need to reimagine them, but actually doing that is difficult.
Speaking for myself, the pandemic has had a lot to do with it, but I just wasn't getting anything out of a conference that I couldn't have had from a couple of nice blog posts!
I hear you and I think this speaks to my point about some folks deciding that they could watch virtual events, recordings/youtube videos or read articles and get the content. If they weren't there for the personal connections and networking, then going to a conference today might seem not worthwhile.