A return to in-person events

With CRAP Talks #18 just under a month away, I wanted to share some thoughts about a couple of events I recently attended and more generally the return to in-person events and what that means for virtual events.

The first of the in-person events I attended was Measurecamp (a community run event and one of my favourite industry events) and the second, The London Product Club (hosted by Amplitude).

Measurecamp is an all day event run on a Saturday where anyone can give a talk, run a workshop or host a discussion. There are multiple rooms and timeslots to put your name against if you want to run your own session. Given that this was the first Measurecamp event in a little over two years, I decided to give a talk. I knew there would be plenty of technical talks by much smarter people than me so I figured I'd share something a bit different in an afternoon slot when people are feeling that post-lunch lull. By this point most of the attendees are unable to absorb too much more information anyway, as their minds begin to reach full capacity.

That was fine by me. I wasn't after anyone's mind, I was after their hearts.

My talk, "Finding your passion", was a journey I wanted to take my audience on about how I came to find my own passion, presented in a format I knew my audience could relate to - a time series graph. It felt amazing to be able to stand there and share such a personal story so close to my heart with my voice AND through my body language. It felt incredible to be able to see my words resonate with my audience through their own body language and facial expressions.

Throughout the course of the day, I wandered into several talks and listened to some amazing speakers. I attended several highly engaging discussions and had chats with people in the analytics community who I hadn't seen in over two years. And after the signature post-Measurecamp drinks, me and a few others strolled over to a restaurant where we enjoyed a nice meal and further discussions. I left the city feeling as excited and exhausted as a child who had just spent the day at Legoland.

The London Product Club was a much more sophisticated evening event where I was invited to join Spenser Skates (CEO, Amplitude) and Ross Webb (Host of Fast Track to CPO podcast) for a panel discussion. Although, by the end of the discussion I'm fairly certain I lowered the level of sophistication a few notches. This was a fairly new event aimed at Product people and I hadn't actually been to one before so I had no idea what to expect. It turned out to be a lovely evening with a good discussion about Product development.

About 10 minutes into the discussion, I realised that I was giving some really vanilla answers that were putting me to sleep, God knows what they were doing to the audience! So I decided to shift gears and be my authentic self and share my frustrations about Product to a room full of Product people. This was a risky move on my part as I hold some controversial views on the Product industry (as most of my Twitter followers will know) not to mention I was sat right next to the CEO of Amplitude and I was about to hold a mirror up to a room full of Amplitude's customers and give them a harsh dose of reality.

My candour was actually surprisingly well received by the attendees. At least that's the feedback the team at Amplitude gave me... whether I'm invited back ever again remains to be seen. Once again, I found myself "buzzing" on the journey home having enjoyed an evening of meaningful discussions with likeminded people.

So why am I sharing this? Well, the truth is, until recently I've felt at conflict with myself. Over the past year I've been working at Hopin, a virtual conferencing platform that helped bring together communities from all over the world when they couldn't physically be together. Our platform ensured that the people with a story to tell could continue telling it in an immersive environment that mimicked the in-person experience as closely as possible. Audiences around the globe were able to continue hearing from the brightest minds their respective industries, fields, communities and networks had to offer. And people were able to continue connecting and building new relationships with like-minded people. In a nutshell, we helped the world continue connecting in our own way. So going to an in-person event felt like I was suddenly betraying my company (we do have an in-person and hybrid solution for the record). It was almost as if being there somehow meant that I was turning my back on the virtual events space and I couldn't help but wonder about the future of virtual events.

But that's when I realised, it doesn't have to be binary. It's not one or the other. There is place for both in-person events and virtual events to co-exist. Communities and organisers just need to pick the option best suited to the outcome they are hoping to achieve for each event. In some cases it might be in-person, in others, virtual. I realised that for me there were outcomes and benefits I hadn't even thought about until I stopped to think.

Reflecting back over the last two years, I've attended some amazing virtual events where I wasn't looking to engage in a conversation, I was simply hoping to gain knowledge. During those days where I couldn't take a full day or even an afternoon off, I was able to "attend" by simply opening a new browser. I myself ran a few highly engaging events with attendees from all over the world, something I wouldn't have been able to do in-person.

Virtual conferences have also led to improved diversity and inclusion with studies showing an increase in female participation rate in comparison to in-person events. We've seen increased adoption of pronouns making it easier for people to be their true-selves. Other noteworthy advantages include lower carbon emissions, ease of mobility, lower economic costs and ease of participation.

The last two years have seen the pendulum swing completely towards virtual events and as a result, we're potentially seeing an overcompensation of the pendulum swinging back towards in-person events. I imagine we'll end up somewhere in the middle as communities and organisers realise the benefits of both worlds - running virtual events as a way to cut costs, gain a wider reach, run more inclusive events and reduce carbon emissions and running in-person events for more community building purposes with high levels of attendee engagement and networking.

I myself will be running my first in-person event after almost two years and I couldn't be more excited to bring the community back together again. But I think I'll also run more educational virtual events that focus on the delivery of knowledge and diversify my ability to connect with my community. Who knows what the future will hold, but I know one thing, I can't wait to create it - virtually and in-person.

Bhav

Link to the next CRAP Talks event.