Taking A Closer Look At Tech Conferences: The Nitty Gritty Details (A Study)

Taking A Closer Look At Tech Conferences: The Nitty Gritty Details (A Study)

• By Jan Constantin


• October 14th, 2014


• ConferencesStudies


• 3 Comments

As we was drifting behind from a Smashing Conference in New York, we wondered possibly it was a success. This wasn’t an strange thought. We are always wondering what creates a contention good and what elements will make courtesy workers stay away.

Good and bad are such biased terms, though, with roughly as many expectations as there are attendees. We motionless that customarily looking during a numbers instead competence be a good idea. This essay will not benefaction best practices for formulation a conference¹, though rather will demeanour during how it’s indeed finished many of a time. While this is not a beam to putting together a ideal conference, it gives a good overview of what seems to work and that elements are so indeterminate that they do not offer as arguable guidelines.

The Aspects Considered

I analyzed a statistics of about 85 opposite conferences. we looked all over a world, looking during all from vast obvious events to tiny non-profit village meetings. we chose conferences that have been around for years and that have facilities that set them detached from other events.

Some of a information is straightforward, such as dates, series of speakers, marks and workshops. Other aspects yielded many some-more sundry and specific information (such as themes and technical considerations). And some are seemingly argumentative (gender of speakers). So, I’ll benefaction some sincerely plain total about some aspects, and communicate customarily a clarity of a variability of others. You can find a formula in this PDF².

The Questions

1. How many speakers were invited to a conference?


2. How many days did a contention last?


3. How many marks were offered?


4. How many workshops were associated to a conference?


5. How prolonged did particular sessions last?


6. How prolonged were a workshops?


7. How many did a contention cost?


8. How many did a workshops cost?


9. How many people attended?


10. What were a technical details? (Was there Wi-Fi? Were videos done available?)


11. In that month did a contention take place?


12. Was a thesis a renouned one?


13. Which nation hosted a conference?


14. In what kind of venue did it take place?


15. How high was a commission of male/female speakers?

First, a few things per a statistics. we will review both a normal and a median, given a discrepancies are during times pronounced. The median lists all values of a information set and picks a center value. It’s therefore not shabby by impassioned values, and gives improved information about a genuine information distribution. The normal value is a sum of a illustration information divided by a series of values. It’s shabby by impassioned values and therefore gives customarily information about a information placement in theory. The disproportion will spin transparent by directly comparing a figures.

Conference Size

Anyone who is meddlesome in organizing a contention or customarily attending one will notice that conferences are run in dual really opposite styles. This has a outrageous impact on scale (number of speakers, choice of tracks, length of conference).

Some conferences, such as TYPO3 Conference 2013¹⁶³, with a 65 speakers and mixed tracks, aim for vast audiences and limit information propagation. Others, such as a Smashing Conference⁴, have customarily around 18 speakers and a singular lane and set out to emanate a village experience. Two styles, dual opposite goals.

The information shows a transparent bent towards smaller conferences, many approaching for a elementary reason that organizing a vast contention is many some-more dear and limiting in some ways than a smaller one.

• Median series of speakers per conference: 19
  
  This median indicates that some-more than half of a conferences analyzed were sincerely compress village events.


• Average series of contention speakers: 31
  
  This shows by how many a normal is lopsided by a few really vast events when compared with a median.


• Median series of tracks: 1
  
  This is a sincerely judicious course from a median series of speakers. Small conferences tend to hang with singular tracks.


• Average series of tracks: 1.9
  
  This normal implies that dual marks are a norm. While a disproportion between one and dual marks seems negligible, it is anything but. A single-track eventuality final fewer compromises than multi-track events from both attendees and organizers. Attendees don’t have to worry about overlapping topics, speakers and interests, while organizers can set adult a eventuality days accurately as they want. On a other hand, multi-track events give attendees many some-more coherence and a wider operation of networking opportunities.


• Median series of contention days (workshop days included): 3


• Average series of contention days (workshop days included): 2.7
  
  Conferences frequency final longer than 4 days. The reduce normal reflects a reduce series of conferences that are longer than a median.

There is a transparent bent towards smaller conferences.

Back To School

This indirectly brings us to a theme of workshops. Most events offer a certain series of workshops, customarily around a contention days. Only 9% of conferences do not underline any workshops. Combining customary talks and workshops creates a good understanding of clarity for both organizers and attendees (and their employers!). The multiple reduces yearly transport time to training events for attendees, and it spares employers’ pursestrings from a combined transport losses of steady training excursions.

Conferences that do underline workshops around a eventuality average 5 full-day workshops; a median, however, drops down to three full-day workshops. This series is not totally arbitrary. Organizers should devise according to a series of attendees expected, gripping in mind that not all of them will attend a workshops. It comes down to a appropriateness of a workshops, that is a formidable non-static to accurately evaluate. The theme, orator and embankment come into play, in ways that are not always easy to discern.

Finally, not to be lost are two-hour half-day workshops and “lightning talks.” These are sincerely popular, generally during vast conferences. Some tiny conferences also cite to underline a lot of half-day workshops, instead of rarely manifest full-day ones. Altogether, 13% of conferences underline brief workshops, possibly subsequent to a full-day ones or exclusively.

The Cost Of Learning

Evaluating contention and seminar prices is utterly wily given a spectrum is utterly far-reaching and is dynamic by opposite variables, including sponsorship deals and informal standards. A minute research of a motivations behind environment a certain cost for an eventuality is over a operation of this article. Keep in mind that a numbers next are merely an estimation given we couldn’t find information for all of a conferences that we reviewed. Additionally, several conferences have a one-price-fits-all approach, including workshops in a contention price.

The average and median costs of workshops are really close, during $311 for a former and $307 for a latter (US dollars). This make ideal clarity given a costs of workshops change customarily according to a generation of a events. A few outliers are value mentioning given of a informal considerations. Meta Refresh 2014⁵ in India, for example, offers 4 half-day workshops during a comparatively low cost of $49 for both days. Reasons to be Creative⁶ in a UK comes to $501 to $669 per workshop, that is sincerely customary for a UK.

Conferences are reduction predictable. The average and median are utterly close, with a former during around $420 and a latter around $349. This, however, is a lopsided illustration of contention costs. For one, early-bird prices differ significantly from latecomer rates. Also, enclosed in both total are all conferences prices, though differentiating between one- and multi-day conferences.

Conferences mostly seem to cost between 300 and 400 USD.

Comparing a prices of conferences and workshops to those of other events in a same nation competence be some-more telling. This would give a good denote of possibly a prices are reasonable.

We The People

Despite a total here being really spotty, a normal (840) and a median (500) series of attendees differ greatly. we would charge this inequality to blank data. However, notwithstanding a uneven data, we think that a tangible normal is really tighten to a median that we calculated, simply given a infancy of conferences reviewed here are tiny single-track events.

The Technical Side

There is deficient information to make any decisive conclusions about a technical aspects of conferences. Still, several facilities seem to recover during roughly each conference.

On a websites of a 84 conferences in this study, 14 privately discuss that they offer Wi-Fi access to attendees, and 32 pledge to recover videos of a talks and workshops on their website or on their YouTube or Vimeo channel.

Interestingly, notwithstanding many events charity Wi-Fi access, trustworthiness is customarily so formidable — or costly — to pledge that some conferences (such as Blend⁷) state adult front that Wi-Fi entrance is not provided, even going so distant as to demarcate inclination entirely. The motive is that a participation of inclination and a cost of Wi-Fi detracts from a peculiarity and delight of a talks; some palm out coop and notebooks instead. This proceed does have some consequence given it frees organizers to concentration on curating their themes and speaker.

The Ephemera

Finally, let’s fast demeanour during some total that are applicable though formidable to evaluate: contention themes, ancillary events, plcae and gender. These factors are mostly dynamic according to possibly preference or a biased viewpoint of a organizers.

Themes

Themes are abundant in this industry, trimming from UX pattern and growth collection to selling and commerce. This chart⁸ shows some of a many common themes, though keep in mind that these vacillate as a courtesy fast evolves.

Events That Round Out a Conference Experience

These are a staple. For some-more than 50% of conferences, this means parties. And this is a one area where organizers can get as crazy and talented as their check allows. You’ll find all from paltry and marginally prolific networking parties with drinks to enthusiastically artistic affairs (such as Build⁹’s). Some employers, a ones balance a bill, competence find this to be over a top. A some-more psychological investigate competence inspect a value of comparing silken amicable practice with work, though that is over a operation of this article.

After-parties are where — to counterfeit Pat Allen¹⁰ — organizers mostly make mistakes. From knowledge with organizing them, we know how critical it is for a credentials song not to meddle with a conversations. Organizers should know that venues tend to get this wrong; many venues can’t seem to trust that vast congregations of people don’t automatically wish to “get down and boogie.” At a initial Smashing Conference’s after-party, we found myself using to a DJ each half hour to ask him to spin down a volume, that would mysteriously and gradually lapse to a same noisy level. we insisted regularly that customarily given some of a attendees were moving to a song while articulate did not meant they were fervent for a rave, though conjunction a venue’s manager nor a DJ seemed to grasp this.

While a few conferences concentration mostly on a simple content, many offer additional experiences, many approaching reflecting a faith of their organizers. For many contention enthusiasts — including organizers — a pivotal duty of conferences is to combine a web pattern and growth community. This is mostly reflected in a diction of promotional materials (“Let’s get together in a association of a few friends¹¹”).

Some contention newly has focused on reevaluating these normal events, such as after-parties, that some disagree misuse some insensitivity. For instance, ethanol is, to put it mildly, not everyone’s crater of tea. As Sara Soueidan explains¹² in an talk for CSSconf EU, that is a reason because some attendees or speakers do not attend certain events. JSConf US 2014¹³ provides bikes for people who wish to try a area, and it even offers a “Significant Other Track” for a families of attendees. There are really alternatives to a normal approaches that beget a opposite ambience.

Locations

Below are some total associated to location.

• 52% of conferences are in Europe, 38% in a Americas, 6% in Asia, 3% in Australia and New Zealand. None are in Africa!


• 34% are set in a US, some-more than half in a easterly (see map).


• 18% take place in a UK.


• 14% are set in Germany.


• Just one is set in Southern Asia (India), and one (not on a list) in Southeast Asia (Philippines).


• The 5 biggest contention cities on a list also horde a many conferences for their region.


• Among a 5 biggest cities are a 3 cities that horde a many conferences (New York, London and Berlin).


• The fourth most-frequented city, however, is also one of a smallest on a list. With customarily 156,000 inhabitants, Brighton is customarily some-more populous than Faenza, Columbia and Osijek.

The US and EU are a dual hottest spots for web conferences.

The distance of a city doesn’t seem to be a determining cause for choice of location, though it is relevant.

Gender

I’ll persevere really brief space to a statistics for a many argumentative theme of this study, gender. While a gender count among attendees has proven to be impractical, we was means to count — by hand! (never has a some-more repeated try been undertaken given Sisyphus’ stone roll) — a series of masculine and womanlike speakers during roughly all conferences. we found that 22% of speakers were female. Or, to put in in tough numbers, a median series of speakers during a conferences was 19. Of those, 5 were women.

This theme has been heavily discussed in a IT press recently, with some of a biggest tech firms disclosing their gender-related statistics. According to John Mindiola in an essay from 2010¹⁴, 82.6% of web designers are male. The total for contention speakers simulate this ubiquitous trend.

However, while this is a stream reality, a emanate has reached renouned awareness, heading some organizers to actively try to incorporate an equal series of masculine and womanlike speakers. Such efforts are not customarily attributable to tiny conferences either, that can collect their speakers many some-more carefully; gigantic events such as WebTech Conference 2013¹⁵ and TYPO3 Conference 2013¹⁶³ are perplexing to even out a personification field, too (see investigate PDF).

Gender inconsistency in a web courtesy is not a myth. That being said, a commission of women in content-generating areas is aloft than that of men. And while a area of web growth boasts a frighteningly superannuated male-dominated environment¹⁷, many wish that conferences — being a open face of a courtesy — will lead by example.

Conclusion

To sum adult (pardon a pun), a infancy of conferences are small, with around 20 speakers. Most are single-track events, solely for those that are 10-plus-track affairs. Many offer workshops to turn out a experience. The events customarily cost around $500 and offer a slew of fun activities to element a training experience, following a unapproachable tradition of “work hard, play hard.”

The full operation of a web industry’s work is covered, nonetheless a latest advances are removing a many attention, such as a mobile web. Most conferences take place in a EU, though a US hosts a many events of any singular country. Finally, a web courtesy still needs to work on a male-female disparity, that is reflected in a ratio of female-to-male speakers during conferences.

(ml, al)

Front page picture credits: Marc Thiele¹⁸.

Footnotes

1. 1 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/08/15/plan-and-run-a-great-conference/


2. 2 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/conferences.pdf


3. 3 http://t3con13de.typo3.org/


4. 4 http://smashingconf.com/


5. 5 https://metarefresh.in/2014/


6. 6 http://reasons.to/


7. 7 http://www.blendconf.com


8. 8 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/conferences.pdf


9. 9 http://2013.buildconf.com/


10. 10 http://freelancing-gods.com/tags/conference


11. 11 http://2013.buildconf.com/


12. 12 http://2014.cssconf.eu/news/meet-the-cssconf-speakers-sara-soueidan


13. 13 http://2014.jsconf.us/schedule.html


14. 14 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/11/12/gender-disparities-in-the-design-field/


15. 15 http://webtechcon.de/2013/


16. 16 http://t3con13de.typo3.org/


17. 17 http://archive.aneventapart.com/alasurvey2011/01.html


18. 18 https://www.flickr.com/photos/marcthiele/14444487112/in/set-72157644792424680

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Taking A Closer Look At Tech Conferences: The Nitty Gritty Details (A Study)