{"id":266,"date":"2007-04-19T04:11:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-19T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulgillin.com\/2007\/04\/why-most-tech-conferences-suck.html"},"modified":"2007-04-19T04:11:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-19T11:11:00","slug":"why-most-tech-conferences-suck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/2007\/04\/why-most-tech-conferences-suck\/","title":{"rendered":"Why most tech conferences suck"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a glimpse at what\u2019s wrong with most technology conferences \u2013 and why IT managers don\u2019t attend them \u2013 you have only to listen to this podcast of a session called The Future of Search<\/a> from the Supernova 2006<\/a> conference. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t mean to pick on this session or this event. I have great respect for Chris Shipley and several of the panelists. It just happens to be one good example of a sin I\u2019ve seen committed repeatedly at scores of conferences over the years. <\/p>\n

Here you\u2019ve got a great topic and people who are well-qualified to discuss it. But they ruin the opportunity BECAUSE THEY CAN\u2019T STOP SELLING. In one five-minute segment I chose at random, I counted 26 references to \u201cwe,\u201d \u201cour,\u201d the product name or an insult aimed at a competitor. In fact, Technorati<\/a>\u2019s David Sifry was the only panelist who talked about the future of search outside of the context of his or her product. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s ridiculous. Presented with the opportunity to discuss a weighty, important issue and to look smart, informed and visionary in front of an influential group, the panelists do little more that deliver advertisements. They look foolish. <\/p>\n

Perhaps this plays well to the audience of investors and journalists who hang out at this type of event, but it\u2019s an example of the reason you never see CIOs in the audience. They know that a panel stocked with vendors is going to be one long sales pitch, and they have entirely too much of that in their lives already.<\/p>\n

Marketers, please don\u2019t do this. Don\u2019t force your executives to be \u201con message\u201d all the time. Give them a chance to show what they know and to enlighten their audience. Let them admit that their competitors have good ideas and build on those ideas. Let the audience trust<\/i> them. There\u2019s nothing that undermines a speaker\u2019s credibility faster than engaging in the kind of embarrassing behavior that you see in this all-too-typical session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a glimpse at what\u2019s wrong with most technology conferences \u2013 and why IT managers don\u2019t attend them \u2013 you have only to listen to this podcast of a session called The Future of Search from the Supernova 2006 conference. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[121],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pTy95-4i","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}