HallwayConf! A new style of conference
Conferences are an integral part of the Go community, but the experience of conferences has remained the same even as the value propositions change. In this episode we discuss what conferences generally provide, how value propositions have changed, and what changes conference organizers could make to realign their conference experience to a new set of value propositions.
Matched from the episode's transcript š
Andy Walker: Great to be here. Alright, so letās get into the topic. So today we are talking about conferences. And not just conferences in general, but sort of a new idea, a new way of doing conferences. For those listeners who havenāt been out there before, or havenāt been to conferences before, conferences are generally events that get held - you know, large to small, over the world, meant for people in the community to come together, where some people give talks, other people are just attendees to listen, and there are sponsors. So that is the general thing that we are referring to when we say āconferenceā throughout this podcast, or throughout this episode.
So to start us off, I want to start with an overview of the value proposition that conferences have had for ā Iām just gonna say roughly the last 20 years. I donāt really know much before that, but this has certainly been the way itās been during the 21st century, since around the turn of the century.
So Iām gonna go through kind of my thoughts on this, and then weāre going to have a little panel discussion about it, and then, after that, weāre going to move into this idea I have for a new style of conference, and the things that we could get from that basically shifting to a new value proposition. So with that, letās get started.
So the way Iāve come to see conferences is that thereās a standard format, where you have kind of two main areas within a conference venue. You have your stages or your theatres, where speakers are giving talks, and you have this dining den/sponsor area, where you have sponsors setup, that are interacting with attendees.
So there are three main parties at most conferences - there are speakers, there are sponsors, and there are attendees. And speakers - so weāll start here with the value proposition that conferences give for each of those parties. So in the past, speakers have gotten this ability to disseminate information rather widely by getting up on stage and giving a talk to hundreds to thousands of people. They also get the opportunity to interact with their community, and more or less build out their brand. So that, for the past 20 years, has been a big thing that speakers have gotten from conferences.
For sponsors, itās been twofold. There are some sponsors who get opportunities to meet with candidates, who they can hire and bring on board, so it serves as a hiring opportunity or interview opportunity, and for sponsors who are selling something, it gives them access to an audience that they can talk to directly. So instead of having to go through a sales team, or procurement team, you can talk to developers directly in the case of tech conferences.
And then for attendees, the largest value proposition has been acquiring new knowledge. Before YouTube was a big thing, before Twitch, if you wanted to see the content that a specific speaker was giving, you would have to go to the conference and see them in-person. So it was very important that you a) attended conferences in person, and it was important that you also kind of took that knowledge back to companies. A lot of companies were sending people to conferences to gather information to bring back to share with their co-workers.
And in addition to all of those things that happen at conferences, there were also a few social events, like happy hours, welcome parties, and those sorts of things. So - panel, is there anything that I kind of missed there, anything you guys want to add to that description of the main parties of a conference?
