Comments for What Web Conferences to Attend

What Web Conferences to Attend

2007-07-30T05:41:21Z

Alex Iskold wrote a great post on his company's blog, outlining conference tips for startups. It is written from a vendor or sponsor's point of view and makes for interesting reading. Alex definitely recommends ETech, SXSW. He gives a firm "maybe" to TechCrunch Party, Web 2.0 Expo, Web 2.0 Summit, Defrag, Blog World, AJAXWorld. His comments about what startups should do at conferences are helpful. For example he says of the recent TechCrunch party:

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"The TechCrunch party was a total blast. A great atmosphere was created by a lot of people who matter in the valley. Overall, I had good demos and good conversations. A word of caution - most people are there to socialize not to look at demos. If you decide to sponsor make sure that you are visible. We spent money on the 32‚Ä≥ monitor and have no regrets. It does not make sense to invest into sponsorship but not to invest in equipment."

From my point of view (blogger/media), the conference I really want to attend but haven't yet is SXSW. I also view the Web 2.0 conferences that O'Reilly/CMP holds as essential, mainly because they let me network with my peers (I only get to do that 3-4 times a year, as I live on the other side of the world). Ideally I'd like to go to the TechCrunch ones too, and Defrag, and the ones in Europe, and the ones in Asia...etc. But beggars can't be choosers. Which Web conferences do you recommend, or want to attend?

Comment from Aidan Henry on 2007-07-30

2007-07-30T07:07:27Z

Richard,

What about Gnomedex? You seemed to enjoy it last year :) Anyways, I'm biased as I love the conference and will be attending again this year.

-Aidan

Comment from Robert Scoble on 2007-07-30

2007-07-30T07:09:13Z

I answer you over on my blog. The short answer is "Upcoming.org" but I need more than a blog comment to explain why. The post is here: http://scobleizer.com/2007/07/30/crowdsourcing-the-answer-to-what-conference-to-attend/

Comment from Richard MacManus on 2007-07-30

2007-07-30T08:00:47Z

Great post Robert, I'd almost forgotten about the value of upcoming in that respect.

Aidan, definitely Gnomedex was awesome the year I attended!

Comment from Berislav Lopac on 2007-07-30

2007-07-30T09:10:06Z

I loved the Future of Web Apps past February, and I'm still hoping I'll be able to attend the next one in October.

Comment from Jeremiah Owyang on 2007-07-30

2007-07-30T09:44:00Z

Great points, in addition to just going to conferences the savvy startup will join the tech community at many of the local (and free) events. This can yield new customers, partners, and even employees.

Here's a list of local user groups in Silicon Valley:

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/06/02/get-connected-with-the-web-user-groups-in-the-silicon-valley-and-san-francisco-bay-area/

The ultimate blogger event is our own BlogHaus event which we held earlier this year at CES. A great way to meet the industry's most vocal and influential.

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/03/06/what-was-bloghaus-dont-ask-me/

Comment from Lachlan Hardy on 2007-07-30

2007-07-30T11:25:05Z

I'm blatantly biased as I'm Australian and this conference has changed my life for the better every time I've been (which is all 4 years so far), but... Web Directions

Web Directions is an amazing event and well worth checking out. If you're on this side of the globe, you'd be crazy not to go and if you're anywhere else I suggest you save your pennies

My other personal favourite was RailsCamp. A 4 day exercise in sheer productivity for people interested in Ruby on Rails. 11 apps got built - some of which have gone live or will do so soon. Inspirational!

There will be more RailsCamps around Australia in the near future

Comment from Mind Booster Noori on 2007-07-30

2007-07-30T14:23:35Z

XTech, awsome yet underrated... Maybe because it's where the real stuff is, but not really the really hyped stuff :-P

Comment from Graeme Thickins on 2007-07-30

2007-07-30T15:27:59Z

DEMO is the best. Its original focus was not just "Web," of course, but naturally that's what it's become for the most part. Experience matters: they have twenty some under their belt, and the logistics are superb. About 70 companies pitch at each event, held every Feb and Sept. Each pulls about 700 people, with strong media and invesor attendance. I wouldn't miss it -- and haven't for many years.

Comment from Ben Edwards on 2007-07-30

2007-07-30T16:43:30Z

I think ConFabb (http://www.confabb.com/) has a lot of potential as this is a big problem. Many people have one shot each year at going to a meaningful conference. I haven't used Upcoming for this, interesting.

Comment from John Eckman on 2007-07-30

2007-07-30T17:09:18Z

What about OSCON?

I can't imagine being a startup today without leveraging open source throughout the infrastructure and likely even in the core application.

At OSCON you run into the people who created (and continue to innovate) the infrastructure on which the web runs today - not just folks who know how it works, but folks who wrote it.

Comment from Mike Brown on 2007-07-30

2007-07-30T20:29:14Z

Richard,

How about a bit of love for Webstock (http://www.webstock.org.nz) from 11-15 February 2007? :)

Comment from David Scott Lewis on 2007-07-30

2007-07-31T00:31:52Z

For the R/WW audience, DEMO and DEMOfall, CES, SIGCHI, SIGGRAPH. Maybe E3. The AlwaysOn conferences are pretty good, too, such as their Stanford Summit, OnHollywood and the forthcoming GoingGreen (although GG doesn't relate to the R/WW audience).

IMHO, the pure play Web 2.0 conferences are for Web 2.0 Jihadists, people living in a secluded (and illusionary) universe, not part of TRW.

Comment from Cheryl on 2007-07-30

2007-07-31T01:12:11Z

I agree with Lachlan above, in Australia there is one must-go conference, Web Directions. We really don't have the options that you guys in the US/UK have, and to leave to go to SXSW, etc, is at least a $3k investment. I've been to SXSW twice, and will definitely go again, it just hurts the bank account a little.

Definitely check out Web Directions though - a very inspiring conference.

Comment from Yihong Ding on 2007-07-31

2007-07-31T16:30:21Z

Hi Richard,

I have a suggestion. Why don't you start to organize a virtual conference (online) annually for R/WW peers? We do not need to leave our work for the R/WW conference. But we can share our viewpoints altogether. You can invite different companies and individuals to present their products and innovative ideas about World Wide Web, and allow R/WW readers to ask questions and discuss as we are attending a normal conference. Since R/WW has a great number of regular readers, such a conference could be very interesting and even fairly productive on collecting various ideas, especially when many of our R/WW readers do not have the chances to personally participate the mentioned conferences in this post. I will not suggest on the business model of such a conference since I am certainly sure you know much better than me on this side.

By the way, if you really decide to organize R/WW conference, please keep a VIP slot for me due to this suggestion. ;-) (just kidding)

cheers,

-- Yihong

Comment from Joe Flood on 2007-07-31

2007-07-31T19:51:33Z

SXSW - definitely. I don't know how good it is for vendors but if you're looking to learn about new, creative ideas in web development, and have a lot of fun in the process, then SXSW is for you.

Comment from Serdar Kilic on 2007-08-01

2007-08-01T11:02:06Z

I've not been to any conference's outside of Australia, so I maybe a little biased, but webdirections has been an awesome event. I got to go a couple of years ago and everything was clockwork, other than a fire alarm going off! :) but the quality of the speakers, event venue, etc. all very well done. I'm happy to say that I'll be going this year as well.

Comment from Bryan on 2007-08-01

2007-08-01T12:30:58Z

Last year I attended the inaugural Office 2.0 Conference and it was great. Exceptionally well organized, compelling topics, high-quality venue -- one of the best conferences I've ever attended. (The 2007 conference is Sept. 5-7, so hurry if you're interested.)

Comment from Amir Nathoo on 2007-08-02

2007-08-02T11:51:42Z

I would recommend Essential Web in London. I went this year for the first time and it was great because:
- There were plenty of investors and journalists present as well as other entrepreneuers and the usual assortment of service providers
- I got a chance to do an elevator pitch for our service (http://www.tagandfile.com) to the whole auditorium along with a number of other startups
- It only cost ¬£95 and there was a great drinks reception afterwards

Comment from Ruth Ellison on 2007-08-07

2007-08-07T07:25:53Z

I agree with my fellow Aussies above - Web Directions (http://www.webdirections.org) is an amazing annual conference. The quality of speakers is fantastic (good mix of international and local speakers) and the entire event has run very smoothly over the last few years. The networking aspect is excellent - I got to meet many of my peers in the industry and it's inspiring.

Other conferences that I haven't been to but would like to get to one day (when cost isn't an issue):
* Webstock (http://www.webstock.org.nz/)
* SXSW
* UX Week 2007
* @media

I also like watching Web Conference Junkies at Upcoming.org for interesting conferences.