Conferences are not the kind of three-way you’ve been hoping for

Like a magazine, a conference is typically a three-way relationship between content, participants, and advertisers, with the producer/organizer in the middle of the triangle. (Imagine a diagram here) As the producer, you might choose to have no sponsors (or, on the other hand, not charge your attendees anything), but most conferences derive revenue from both attendees… Continue reading Conferences are not the kind of three-way you’ve been hoping for

Matchmaking is the killer app for conferences

Why is there no Tinder for conferences? I’ve been in the conference business for more than 15 years, and in addition to all ways that conferences can be improved so that they don’t suck so much, there is a huge opportunity to improve on the conference experience that most conference producers aren’t fucking up — because… Continue reading Matchmaking is the killer app for conferences

Most conferences suck

Let’s face it, most conferences suck. Major suckage. Soul-sucking, bumming-out, identity-smashing, time-wasting, wandering, wondering why you spent the money, WTF-ing, straight up sucking. Am I just super critical? I don’t think so. Conferences are a bit of a paradox: there’s one for ever–y–thing (even conferences!), and people love the idea of connecting with like-minded people, but the… Continue reading Most conferences suck