Why we do conferences the "360" way

Tom sent me this post, “Take a look, see if it’s good.” It was.

Adam’s post pretty much explains not just his reasons for going to conferences, but also explains why Tom and I produce them.

And on a related note, what’s with the no-wifi nonsense?! I have Verizon broadband [sic] for my laptop now, but still… ack!

We hear you, Adam. As a conference attendee who has sat in a session trying in vain to lock onto the Access Point, believe me, we hear you. Most conference centers offer wifi, but it’s almost always so completely inadequate that less than half of the attendees can use it. We’re doing everything we can to make sure our events, are not “like other conferences”. In fact, we scratched a few venues off our list because the hotel didn’t have free in-room wifi. That’s how much we’re looking out for you.

Among Adams many other points (all good), he has this to say.

Lastly, seeing someone in person provides a very helpful new perspective on what they’re meaning to communicate online. It’s easy to misread text on a page, especially when there’s no immediate opportunity to follow up with questions. But in person, issues get cleared up on both sides, and that’s good for everyone.

This is what we’re all about. Conferences that are so big you can’t truly meet anyone, suck. It’s really that simple. At 2000+ people, you completely lose the community feel. You can spend 3 or 4 days at a conference and never even see some one you know is there, weak.

For future 360 events, will continue our ‘360’ theme by being small, 360 attendees, small. Sure we could do more (we are for 360|Flex Seattle because we lost our heads for a second), but why? We’ve found that small events, done well, with the attendee in mind, not only create a much more enjoyable experience, but are just better conferences. Aren’t we being elitist? No. Sure, inviting every person we’ve ever met to our respective weddings would have been neat to, but would it have been fun? Nope. Sometimes, you have to fore go growth just for growth’s sake. We hope you all agree.