Weird conference…disappointing at best
Today was day two of the Future Web conference here in Raleigh. There are some really impressive people here that are on the panels for the sessions. The problem is that they aren’t really showcasing their awesomeness.
I sat in a Future Entrepreneurship session today, and although i was kind of inspired to think of some good ideas and work towards making them a reality, i was left feeling a little underwhelmed by the rest of the discussion. I mean, I guess it was cool to hear how these guys who had created and sold companies for hundreds of millions of dollars, but i could have read about that stuff online just as easily. The good thing about meeting or seeing these types of people in person is to gain a little more perspective or information that doesn’t always translate onto a report on a web page.
The entrepreneurship session was unfortunately the highlight of the day. It was kind of downhill from there.
After lunch, I was in a Future of Analytics on the Web session. Again…really impressive resumes of the guys on the panel. But it pretty much just devolved into them talking to each other and giggling about inside jokes. (I hope i never “get” inside analytics jokes). I lasted about 35 minutes before i realized i was totally not paying attention. So i closed my laptop, focused on the discussion, and then 10 minutes later i walked out. The sessions were set for 90 minutes. WAAAAAAY too long for this type of format. 60 minutes would be much better, and would let you fit in more sessions during the day.
So i left, bored and uninspired about analytics.
The next talk was pretty much the same thing. This one was about the Future of Media on the web. Again…I lasted about 40 minutes before leaving.
I am left confused as to who comes to this conference. Not the countries that are represented, but the actual people’s interests, job titles, industries. I feel like the sessions are geared towards someone, but it’s definitely not my demographic. I feel like there are really impressive minds in the rooms (like Vint Cerf, the father of the Internet yesterday), but I dont feel like the panel format is really putting their intelligence and insight to proper use.
Tomorrow I hope to get to a couple of afternoon sessions, because I am tied up in meetings tomorrow morning at the office.
The worst thing about the conference, is that although I know there are interesting things being talked about, I find myself not really caring if i miss tomorrow completely.
I’m sure there are many people who are enjoying the conference like it’s Christmas morning, and Vint Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee are in place of Santa. But i feel like i got all excited about things, and then found that my nicely decorated stocking just had a lump of coal put in it.
Sniff.
