CHOOSE FREEDOM
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
There are lots of reasons to go to a conference. As a conference-goer, it pays to be explicit about what you expect to get out of your conference experience — and to be aware of how that matches up with the reasons the conference exists and the goals of the conference producer. Great conferences have […]
Conferences, right? I know, super exciting. But I bet you’ve been to a lot of ’em, and only a few have been really great. It’s a bit of a paradox that there is a conference for everything (I’ve been the a conference about, yes, conferences), and yet most people hear “conference” and roll their eyes. Conferences are […]
I’ve produced more than 100 conferences over the years as part of my work leading AdMonsters, and I believe there are some reasons why most conferences suck – and some straightforward ways to make your conference awesome. One way to encapsulate this is with core values for conferences.