About IT Conferences Today

Observations from the other side

It’s funny to think that 20 years ago, I began my IT career as a project manager in a company that mainly organized conferences. We had a group of young students who updated databases, so we project managers could do our research effectively. In our role, we talked to people from various jobs across industries to find out the main trends in specific topics. Our main job was to discover real-life stories and find speakers who could share their experiences. This process took a lot of time, from understanding the main topics of the year to finding genuine examples from the industry and convincing the right people to join the conference as speakers.

I’m no longer working in the conference industry, and now I have the opportunity to observe it in Poland from a different perspective. I have mixed feelings. I might be wrong or not fully appreciating the organizers’ efforts, but that’s how it is.

At Agile or product conferences in Poland these days, there’s a common pattern. They often have speakers who are conference experts, travelling around and presenting the same content in different places. There are also sports figures, or people who used to be athletes, sharing wisdom about commitment and achieving goals. Alongside them are well-known agile and product coaches, working to stand out and promote themselves in the market. The rest of the speakers are usually chosen from those who submitted papers.

If the only job is to pick the best examples from those who apply to speak, then, in my opinion, it’s not enough. In my ideal world, organizers would know a lot about the industry, do good research on the year’s best accomplishments, and be good at finding people or teams in the industry (not just speakers!). And they should be able to convince them to share their stories.

Conference tickets can be quite pricey, but no worries, our corporate employer will foot the bill, right? As I mentioned a few years ago, I’m not keen on professional speakers, not interested in ex-athlete advice that feels like manipulation, and not in the mood to listen to agile coaches — I already get enough ads in my daily life. I’m genuinely eager to hear both success stories and lessons from my peers, even if they aren’t superstar speakers. Otherwise, the only real alternative to conferences these days seems to be local meetups driven by enthusiasts.

(Is my comment too critical or unfair, merely scratching the surface? If you have a different perspective or can offer more clarity on aspects I may have overlooked, please feel free to share your thoughts under this post.)

[original blog post on Medium]