cruel to be kind

Yes,I noticed too , that a lot of conferences feature the same speakers over and over again. And that would not be much of a problem, if those speakers would change their talks. Let’s be frank: today I am likely to have heard your talk if you have given it at a bigger conference. I don’t need to hear it again. Times have changed.

So, let’s make a new rule: You are not allowed on the same conference again after you have presented. You have to set out at least one year.

Will that help increase new voices? Yes of course. Will that help increase quality? I don’t know and I am not sure if that is the only possible outcome. Because there are presenters who give a lot of work into their presentation and how they perform it. But for every good presenter there are dozens of not so good ones …

(And please don’t start blaming powerpoint again: Doing a “one though a slide and a nice photo!!” is not a great new way of presenting with keynote but just another way of using a tool. Don’t blame the messenger when your personal performance lacks the skills).

What are many people complaining about?
– the same people
– the same presentations
– the same topics

I question that they really mind the topics and also not so much the people. But if the presentations stay the same and also the same people appear without adding new content, then it gets boring. So in favour of new and compelling against known and boring, I do take new, compelling and accept a bit of less experience.

But one can do different things to add a voice to the conversations. As you may well know, I do like to do pre conference podcast because I found this to be working best with what I like to do and am interested in. Take a look at the wiki participant page for the upcoming reboot, a conference I am really looking forward to.

There are several people on that list already which I would like to give a minus one. Because their presentation is either completly known or their style was left me wanting. But there are a lot of ideas on this list who to take to this conference. And it displays the will of the participants to engage in the process of selecting and giving a vote.

Back to “Aussitzen”. That is the German term for if in a game, you are skipped over for a round. How about that? You presented last year but cannot do this year. Except for a wildcard of one speaker per day which is voted for by the community as in “must have”.

Which would suit exactly what I have been reading about that topic. But then go and read Ewan’s piece on how much it costs to get a conference running the bigger style. Those conferences need big names to attract users in the first place. Or?

Is it maybe just time for them to come out of their boxed minds and start something new. Before we do. :)

Tags: conference