Will the “2.0 Conferences” survive?
I hate to say it but overall last week’s Office 2.0 Conference was a miss. The first two experiments (as Ismael likes to call them) were smashing successes but applying the same recipe this time around collapsed like a Soufflé. From my perspective the main reasons were:
- Poor Ismael only gives himself 6 weeks from start to finish to plan and execute the whole thing (and he doesn’t do this gig full time). The guy is brilliant and the things he can do is amazing, it’s just a different world now.
- The short time frame makes it a stress to delegate responsibility and to market the event itself (only 300 people attended this year and most everyone was a vendor)
- The number of conferences focused in this space has increased. Focusing on value is even more important.
- It’s no longer a “new” market. The same old session topics, speakers and cast of characters have been in play for a couple of years now.
- The economy makes picking and choosing discretionary trips more challenging.
My panel on Adoption (w/customers Disney, EMC, Chordiant)
This should be a wake up call
Tradeshow companies: Make sure you’re driving value at the lead-gen and content levels for your attendees. Make the effort to Market the content and attract the right buyers. If you played Xanadu last year play a different song this time around. If vendors have to speak, make sure it’s not a commercial. Focus on customers.
Speakers: Bring something new to the table. It’s worth the effort. Xandu applies to you, too. Broken record, party of one?
Vendors: Make your customers successful and then talk about that. Now that the veneer has rubbed off, the real work begins. As Godin would say, “lean into it.”
Is this the a sign for the rest of the year?
Office 2.0 kicks off the echo-chamber mania from now until the end of 2008. I’m praying to the social software gods that the rest of the year will be very different. Here’s my dance card so far this year:
- Next week I’m in NYC at Web 2.0
- KM World in the Bay Area (please, for the love of all that’s holy change that horrible name)
- The New Marketing Summit in Boston (looking forward to seeing what @chrisbrogan can do)
- Burton Group’s “Catalyst” in Prague
- Web 2.0 Berlin
- Social Media Strategies (SF)
- Defrag (Denver)
- Web 2.0 Summit (SF)
- CMO Summit (NY and then one in Napa)
- Potentially a tour over in China with @christinelu and @shelisrael (as a blogger not a jiver)
- Then eat a turkey, spin a dreidel and wonder how I gained more weight.
Things people have said about this post
Hey Sam-
I’m reading these comments with great interest — being the guy behind Defrag (www.defragcon.com).
I’ve always envisioned defrag as a very “out on the edge” kinda experience — ie, i think as markets like “enterprise 2.0″ mature, then shows like “enterprise 2.0″ need customers on stage. I do NOT think that’s defrag’s mission. rather, i see defrag as a forum for really pushing our collective thinking onto the next boundary. i know that’s a harder thing to pull off in a slow economy, but dammit -someone’s gotta do it!
I know that vendors need leads (ultimately), but I also know that conferences like Defrag can serve to both A) provide leads and B) push thinking forward in the community (and its the B) that I personally love). I’ve found that the “leads” that attend Defrag tend to be very strategically-oriented folks — what I would call “extreme influencers” – or people that are of value as much for all of the introductions they can make, and not simply the things they can buy. Attracting those kinds of people means not just putting the same ole same ole on stage, or focusing exclusively on case studies. I think it means trying to stretch a bit, break some thoughts wide open, shoot some ideas down, and provide some fertile ground for new ideas to germinate.
You can get some idea of what I mean here:
http://defragcon.com/Blog/?p=266
Anyway – I’m rambling a bit….I’m working very hard to make sure that Defrag really dives into the future, and I’ll be overjoyed if someone like yourself comes out of the conference excited by the ideas and possibilities. In a slower economy, we still need the innovators and rule-breakers.
If you have any ideas about what I can do to ensure that, I’d always love to hear them.
tks – looking fwd to seeing you at Defrag.
ejn
[...] was this year’s Office 2.0 a flop? On balance, I’d say no. Yes, I would have liked to have fewer empty chairs (formerly known [...]
I can’t get the videos to work
Neither can I … what’s up with that?
Hmm. No idea. Works for me. Which browser and version are you guys using? I can let the Veodia guys know.
Sam,
Sorry to hear that the conference did not match your expectations. We’ve received much better feedback overall. But you’re absolutely right in saying that “it’s a different world now.” The industry is maturing, and our experiment needs to grow up, while taking into account the fact that people cannot travel as much as they used to. We’re listening, and have already started working on the next one. I think you’ll like it.
Best regards
-Ismael
Hi Dan & Chris,
if you still have problems with playing the videos, please contact us at support@veodia.com so we can sort that out.
Regards,
Tim
Something I found was that I could not play the videos across VPN. When I turned it off, everything worked fine.
[...] was also a key reason for the good things that came from the conference. Sam Lawrence had some good observations about the challenges that conferences like Office 2.0 face [...]