Web Conferences UGH!
Lately I have been really interested in all of these web conferences all over the place talking about the latest trends and technology out there in my field of work. They seem like great events, which the leading “top dogs” of the industry speak, but its just one thing there expensive as hell!!!
I would love to go to something like An Event Apart. This conference has some of the most influential speakers of the web industry and will be in Chicago in August, it’s the first one I have seen so close to me over here in Michigan.
- Steve Krug
- Dan Cederholm
- Molly Holzschlag
- Andrew Kirkpatrick
- Cameron Moll
- Ethan Marcotte
- Jason Santa Maria
- Eric Meyer
- Jeffrey Zeldman
That is one great line up, but I will never be able to go and participate. The event is going to cost about $800. For someone like me, a young freelance web developer that hasn’t yet made it there in my career to be able to just blow $1k dollars to hear people speak. Its just not feasible. I know this is cheap compared to other conferences such as the Web 2.0 conference that cost something like $5k dollars WOW or a other conferences for other industries.
I think this contradicts everything that most of the speakers preach in their practices. They want everyone to hear the word of how great web standards are and they try to get as many people as possible to help create a better web.
Why limit this to only companies that can afford to send their employees or the other normal elite Developers that show up at every conference? Why not open it up to all of the developers and small businesses which are passionate about the web and follow what these people teach us in their books and blogs?
It seems to me that these presenters just go from conference to conference, most likely making tons of money off each one. Then we have to sit there and read in their blog about how good the conference was and all the things that were presented. We get the podcasts and get to listen to the important stuff anyways. Most of the time its stuff that I have already read about, but it would be cool for someone like me to be able to take part of these events, for the simple fact that I really do admire the presenters. They are what I hope to be one day, someone that makes a difference and has a passion for everything that is the internet.
Sure you could say the conference needs to be able to pay these presenters and keep the conference going and pay for the facilities but I doubt that it needs to cost $1k - 5k for each attendee. I may be wrong but it just annoys me that someone with as much passion and drive for the web that I have doesn’t get the chance to participate in such great events because someone puts a huge price tag on ideas they want everyone in the world of development to follow.
Basically these conferences are nothing more then to put money in the presenter’s pockets and to get corporations to start realizing they need to follow web standards to make the internet a better place. When in turn they will go back slap in some nifty little Ajax script and some cool new CSS effects inside of their crappy coded, non semantic, inaccessible and unusable website.
November 20th, 2006 at 10:08 am
You raise a sore subject—sore because, as an event organizer (I’m one of the co-founders of An Event Apart), I’d love to be able to make it open to anyone with an interest! Unfortunately, that’s just not possible. I wrote about the economics of events a while back; the URL is http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2005/12/14/event-pricing/ if you’re interested. Note, however, that I wrote that piece in regard to a smaller event, with correspondingly lower costs. For something like the two-day Event Aparts planned for 2007, the costs are a great deal higher, as we’ve found out. (WAY higher. Kind of scarily higher.)
It’s also absolutely the case that, as the organizers, we both want to pay our speakers well and make a profit for ourselves. No question there. But we constantly struggle with the balance between making sure we don’t lose money and making sure we don’t shut the door on too many potential attendees due to the price. Jeffrey and I, and most of our speakers too, are the kind of people who really do want to be able to open the doors to everyone. But we also want to avoid going broke doing so.
That’s why we put so much material online for free–because that’s a door that is open to everyone (who’s online), and we can give to the community that way. It’s not the same as meeting people face to face, but it’s something. Many of us probably give away more than we should, from a cold capitalist point of view, but most of us aren’t cold capitalists.
As for speakers making tons of money: not even close. I’ve been a speaker in the web field for many years now, and most of us are lucky to get $1,000 to present at a major conference (though keynotes are usually higher, there aren’t many who keynote). Some of the newer conferences are paying better than that, but still not enough to make anyone rich. We’re most certainly not making tens of thousands of dollars per appearance. Factor in the travel time, and the fact that some conferences don’t even pay for that travel, and the economics of tech speaking become dubious at best.
Most of us speak because we love to interact with people, and because it gets our names and faces out there, and because we really do want to spread the word. It’s also the case that we don’t want to lose money on the prospect, although we sometimes choose to do so, SXSW and the WWW conferenfce series being prime examples.
I guess in short, I really, really sympathize with you. I remember starting out and how expensive conferences were. Sadly, in order to have a conference at all, someone’s going to have to take a pretty huge financial risk, and so they’ll set things up to minimize their chances of losing that money. That’s what we had to do for An Event Apart, and it’s what every conference organizer does.
I’ll make you a deal, though–if I ever DO make tons of money and become so wealthy that I’ll never have to worry about working again, I’ll pay out of pocket for a conference just for students and newly minted designers, with next to no registration fee and all the accoutrements of an expensive conference. Cool?
November 20th, 2006 at 12:32 pm
Wow Eric thanks for the post I didn’t even realise that you have posted here until I checked my email and was kinda shocked.
After reading your response I had to re-think my next blog entry that I posted this morning because when I posted this last night I was just frustrated with the situation of not getting the chance to participate in such a great event.
Thanks for coming to my site and explaining to me the meaning of why things are the way they are and I am greatful for all the material you guys do put online other wise I wouldn’t be where I am today a long with most of the other web developers out there today.
I probably didn’t put as much research and thinking of what the presenters do for everyone and what they get out of it before posting this so hopefully you didn’t take to much offense.
November 21st, 2006 at 12:22 pm
No offense taken at all. I completely understand the frustration! It’s one of the reasons I wrote that piece, to try to pull back the curtain a little bit and show how fees get to be where they are. I know it doesn’t make it any easier to afford, but at least understanding the process can take some of the sting out of it. I hope.
One way you can try to bridge the gap between wanting to be part of the web community but not being able to afford a conference is by organizing a BarCamp in your area. This works better if you’re in a large city, of course, but it can be fun even in a smaller-city setting.
Oh, and if you still have the next entry around, I say you should put it back up. It’s cool if you dig Andy more than me—he’s a designer and I’m not, for starters, and I’ve got no problem with people’s personal preferences.
November 21st, 2006 at 12:58 pm
I read your article on the pricing and fully understand now why conferences seem to get a little pricey. The $800 for the An Event Apart isn’t really that expensive compared to a lot of the other conferences, especially since you and the other well known pioneers are presenters in it and to be created from the people from A List Apart, you can’t get much of a higher quality conference.
I live in Ann Arbor MI, and we have a lot of people out here that are very passionate about the web community. We have places like the IT Zone where they have a lot of good presenters for business in Ann Arbor to be a part of, and network at. I haven’t seen a bout that bar camp thing yet or might of when searching over the blogosphere but didn’t look much into it. I will have to ask some of my associates about it and see if there is one around.
I don’t have that other entry and to be honest it wasn’t really accurate. After this whole post I have learned that you never know who could read your blog. I don’t really dig him more then you I just liked the CSS Mastery book a lot. I really don’t even know that much about him except from that book and his blog. To compare him and you was probably not the smartest thing since you two are so different. I was just trying to be different then the norm. I probably should of stated that I am digging his book at the moment.
When posting this I more or less thought of you as somewhat like a movie star and that you would never care or even find what I wrote. Like I said before I don’t think I even have more then 5 people that actually subscribe to my blog.
The fact that you would even respond to my posting and even comment twice shows me that you are not like what I stated about the presenters in my posting about being just out to make a buck. You took the time to actually explain to me something that you believe in and have a passion for. This shows me that you aren’t this god like figure of CSS and web standards, but a guy who just wants to share his knowledge for his passion, a lot like me but just at the forefront of the community.
The fact that I have had the chance to discuss this with you, it has gave me more of a drive to follow of my passion for web standards and development, so thanks and hope to hear from you again in the future!!