Why I’m not going to any more conferences until further notice!

For some time now, I have been observing an increasingly negative attitude towards digital conferences among many people. Many people think they are boring, played by the same old phrase-mongers and yet they keep going back. Because you can meet people there that you otherwise only know from Twitter & LinkedIn. However, there are many alternatives to the conventional conference. And I have the feeling that they are on the rise.

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Less but more

A few months ago, I decided to only attend events at which I am booked as a speaker. The reason for this decision is quite simple: the time required for most conferences seemed out of proportion to the benefits.

Too often on conference days like this, I ended up in the audience doing my work on my notebook because the talks didn’t offer enough new and/or interesting information. Without wanting to be arrogant, this probably has a little to do with the fact that I deal with all topics relating to technology, society and business far more than the average conference visitor. But still.

Quality of the talks

In general, I think the quality of the talks is shockingly low. When CEOs of traditional companies suddenly tell us, accompanied by great visuals, what they have learned in Silicon Valley and that their company will now become the Amazon, Uber or Airbnb of the industry, the most I can do is smile mildly. To cover up the embarrassing touch.

These are the same people who a few years ago were still loudly claiming that digitalization would not really affect them and that they would “rely on their own strengths”. That meant and meant as little back then as Silicon Valley slogans mean today. That is noise. Where there should be signal.

No decline in conferences

It may seem paradoxical that, on the one hand, more and more long-standing conference-goers are getting a little tired of the whole thing. On the other hand, however, more and more digital conferences are taking place with more and more attendees. At second glance, however, this is completely logical: digital is making inroads into more and more sectors and is thus affecting more and more people who would previously have perceived such events as being outside the industry.

New formats

What has emerged in the meantime are new types of events. One trend that I am observing and that I also support is so-called “boutique events”. Events that are small and where people can get to know each other outside of existing acquaintances.

A few colleagues organized such an event with me in February. I wrote about it here. I think that such events will become more important in the future. Of course, they will not replace large traditional conferences, but they can become strong and important “islands” for exchanging experiences.

Barcamps

I’ve been able to gain quite a lot of barcamp experience in recent years and I think it’s a great event format. I know that it works particularly well in the developer environment. But obviously not only.

In March, I had the opportunity to give the keynote speech at a barcamp at the St.Gallen University of Applied Sciences , which dealt with the topic of ERP. What was special about this event was that the participants had no barcamp experience and were mixed in their nature. They were suppliers, product users and consultants. I was never really skeptical that the barcamp would work with this audience. However, I did expect that there would be major teething problems.

However, this was not the case at all. The event was a complete success. And it didn’t take long for the session slots to be scheduled. There was no need to break the ice.

What should conferences be like in the future?

I think that in the future, tech and digital conferences should have more women as speakers. That’s where the organizers come in.

Secondly, talks should increasingly not be selected from the sponsor environment. It is common practice today for sponsor representatives to be given speaker slots. Perhaps not officially, but unofficially.

Thirdly, the speaker’s position within their company should no longer play such an important role when selecting a speaker. The knowledge gained from the talk should take precedence over the celebrity factor, so to speak. Unfortunately, this is often not the case.

Knowledge gain & exchange

In general, I would like to see conferences focus more on gaining real knowledge and exchanging ideas. At the moment, there is always too much of a cult of inspiration and motivation. That’s all well and good in itself. But you don’t usually get much of that in concrete terms.

Because the next day in the office, you’re back in your own little world with challenges and problems that don’t compare at all with the spotlight and the big stage from the day before. And you are not aware that the speaker also has a list of petty problems somewhere at home in their office. In the long term, this demotivates more than it helps.

Error culture

What would help us all a lot more, I would argue, would be to talk about mistakes that have been made and corrected. It takes a lot to stand up and talk about what you didn’t get right, how you “engineered” the problem and ultimately found a solution.

After all, a talk about a case like this may convey concrete approaches to solutions, but certainly a certain methodology and, much more importantly, confidence that even extreme problems and challenges can be solved.

Here in Europe, we are not very good at dealing with mistakes and failure. If we want to be successful in the future, we have to learn to deal with mistakes differently, in addition to the good virtues we have here. To talk about them. To make them an issue. Not just on a dedicated Fuck-Up Night.

But in the Courant Normale. And that’s where all the conferences offer a good opportunity.

 

• (* with the exception of 2 or 3 start-up conferences)