What can elk teach us about data conferences?

As a person who has been to a lot of online and in-person data conferences (like a lot), there have been a number of changes over the years.

First off, I've enjoyed many of these conferences. Sometimes I learned a little and sometimes I learned a lot (sometimes I drank a little and sometimes I drank a lot). And I also met a lot of the people that have been my peers and colleagues (and now friends) for the past 20 years.

I used to attend conferences and (sometimes) would give talks about a few about my analytics learnings in b2b and b2c. I began to talk about the mistakes I overcame and the infrastructure we'd build to make our lives better. Many others, independently, saw similar problems and solved them with similar home-grown solutions.

As the field grew and the value of the skillset grew, much more money was spent to make data analysts (and later data scientists) more efficient. Rather than the solutions being home-grown, they could be made (and maintained) once to serve many companies. Many vendors (including Mozart Data ) come from this mold.

The data conference became distribution. A set of useful talks, learnings, and networking would justify taking the time away from the office. It could all happen in a short period with a lot of my most-admired peers in attendance. As a vendor, you'd want to be there to meet with the ICP -- the most-forwarded thinking, well-resourced data teams.

Because you could do targeting, certain conferences bring the out the relevant crowd, you'd want to not only participate, but attract attention and stand out. No mediocre tee shirts, swag became great. And so did the parties, after all who only wants to talk about data for 3 days.

"A faster gazelle is better equipped to outrun a cheetah, and so, [Robert Frank] writes, 'being faster conferred advantages for both the individual and the species.' Antlers, on the other hand, are used for fighting with other males. The pressure to have bigger ones than your rivals leads to an arms race that consumes resources that could have been used more efficiently for other things, such as fighting off disease. As a result, every male ends up with a cumbersome and expensive pair of antlers, says Frank, and 'life is more miserable for bull elk as a group.'"

In many ways, this is the downside of the limited-attention arms race. A few of the conferences are almost cost-prohibitive as a vendor and often to make them "worthwhile" need to be supplemented with even more lavish supplemental event.

A few LinkedIn posts are highlighting this frustration - for attendees, organizers, and vendors. Like the elk, we've got large antlers, but I miss the days of really amazing content and genuine networking. That said, please send any relevant party invites my way!