What’s with this collective blogging thing that now starts before conferences? I’m being rhetorical. Conferences that survive today become living events. They also have the opportunity to provide many more options for attendees to connect and explore before, during and after the conference.
I’m writing for the Supernova2008 ConferenceHub. I’ve been an attendee in the past and I’ve enjoyed blogging it. So I’ve made a commitment to join the group blogging about it and around it. Fact is many of them I know already. Still I’m hoping it will provide some new avenues for both inquiry, introduction and stretching me to think differently. I also just simply want the learning.
Last year I attended a few conferences but one in particular (KM World 2007) got me thinking about how we share and what the future of conferences should be like. Kevin Werbach‘s been encouraging experimentation in this area for awhile. Open to lively realtime IRC channels, and more last year they started the ConversationHub. Still if I reflect on the power that can exist around a major conference to influence a community then it is easy to point to TED (never been ), Reboot, Pop!tech and recently eComm. Poptech does a fantastic job re live shows with their Pop!Casts. eComm emerged out of an O’Reilly conference that was canned. The community wanted one on emerging telephony.
So like writing in the ConversationHub I believe there are probably many more ways to bring value to a conference. Live bloggers (think Ethan Zuckerman) and I’ve done some myself is one example. Still I will suggest just three here.
1) Open it Wide. Broadcast in real-time over the Net. Closing it doesn’t extend to the broader community who couldn’t get there this year.
2) Set aside time for larger open space style sessions, and sessions that are impromptu. Give the audience the opportunity to really contribute and get to know each other.
3) Think about the presenters and those coming. Look up their blogs, (do they have blogs?) If they don’t… how do we know we will get something new? Is there a social media quotient? I’ve proposed before that metrics on conferences are possible. Now I’m going to run some.
I’m fairly sure Kevin has all these covered to some degree for Supernova. Then outside a more geeky techie conference you are unlikely to see these things happening. The attendees aren’t prepared, the organizers don’t see it as a priority or money-maker.
In a time where the “unconference” is promoted more and more (and bastardized for marketing reasons at some events) there’s a role for intermingling all of these things. Guides are important to conferences. They lay out some of what they see, and select. Increasingly they are bringing in the Audience in design, and in real-time. We just need to remember, not everyone has the same agenda at a conference. Some want to learn, others do business or sell. I’m firmly in the camp of going to conferences where you can learn and not just hear a pitch. I’ve always said.. if I went to a conference and came home with one marketable solution, a new idea or perspective that I could carry out it was usually more than worth going.
For many of us… that’s why we go back. The second reason is the relationships that grow out of these events. The third is often the guide (think Kevin Werbach, Jeff Pulver etc.)
I’m hoping I’m going to see some of you at Supernova2008.
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Sounds something like Hubpages where everyone wants to go to these seminars and then write online in these various blogs and social sites.