Better conferences
What is the future of the design conference? Does it have a future in its present form? And if they remain in their present form will they eventually cease to exist? Are the organizers who are willing to develop their events in new directions, into new forms and introduce geographical and location-relevance more likely to prosper?
What is a conference for? It has got to be more than just a self-congratulatory physical event. A date in the calendar. Coming togethers of people are still valuable, but the more and more crowded the conference calendar gets, the less relevant this becomes. We need more properly curated, themed, learning events.
These are questions that need to be discussed.
While there maybe only the usual murmurings of discontent in the way things are there is definitely a desire for more beyond the front facing seats and poorly prepared and rushed workshops. Many events get many things right and some events get almost everything right but many, many don’t. Often a line up of fantastically insightful looking talks and challenging workshops add up to a selection of damp squibs, leaving attendees with more of a feeling of why did I bother than wow.
Organisers need to push themselves into realms of the unknown and challenge their comfort zones. Organising events and conferences big and small is bloody hard work and very time consuming but that doesn’t mean complacency should be allowed to set in. The message is “we are paying/attending your event because you are organising it and we are there because of your skills in creating a coherent whole”.
“If they came once it doesn’t necessarily mean they will come again” is the main problem for organizers building on past successes and striving for continued sell outs. Design folk want variation, real learning and insight. Their time (particularly) is in short supply. While they may be doing reasonably well money-wise, their pockets aren’t endlessly deep.
Organisers hoping to continually sell out a regular event by the magic of its first incarnation will eventually come a cropper. Of course there continues to be those that find themselves able to attend and support almost everything (even internationally) regardless of quality, but they are never enough to fill an auditorium. This variation is coming from less directly related events. Events that are providing analogies for understanding work challenges and problems.
However, is turnover of attendees a bad thing? At this year’s dConstruct there were a high proportion of first-timers. If we keep hearing the same people talking to the same people (even if they take it in turn to speak to each other) will these events not just become entrenched? Broadening appeal is certainly a good thing.
Services such as Lanyrd provide a spotlight onto the vast array of events and conferences and their associated output, commentary and feedback. The more visibility, the more likelihood for development and improvement. For example, if someone has spoken at a major conference in the US, I can check up on them before I decide to pay £1k to have the pleasure to sit in the same room as them in Europe and hear them repeat it.
My belief is that conferences and events that involve the geographical location as strongly as the conference space are the ones that are most likely to continue to succeed.
By exploring the spaces around us as analogies for better learning and understanding we will surely have more fulfilling experiences as organisers, speakers and attendees. Make the city and the experience of it part of the conference, the learning and the experience. Avoid conference experiences being isolated in windowless spaces – fine for shopping (supposedly), rubbish for learning.. And learning is supposed to be what we are doing at these things not just parking our fat arses to stare at small screens and to moan about the closest, softest targets.
This makes it easier to mix up the format – people are more hesitant to return to something if it’s just the same old same old.
Understand that variety is key to busy people’s interest. Stale formats are off-putting. A conference should be an ambassador for a location. For example UXLX, IXDA, UX Hong Kong and dConstruct are all increasingly making this part of the experience, some explicitly, some more subtly. Visit their sites for more details.
To encourage previous attendees, make them feel part of something important. Engage with them. Offer discounts and find ways for them to engage with the conference organisation and events. Again, UXLisbon provides a great example of participating not just consuming with the lightning talks strand – a thoroughly good thing and a means of discovering new voices. (Call for entries still open.)
Like everything in life, endeavour to be ahead of inevitable change.
An alternative to complaining about other organisers events? Start organising. No event is too small to be irrelevant. And remember, no organiser (however successful) was born with a silver spoon in his/her mouth.
Many thanks @byekick and @pixeldiva for their input
Any comments to @solle