The uncertain future of industry events

I was recently at XOXO, an independent creative technology conference. If you're not familiar with the conference, I recommend looking at its backlog of recorded talks, picking one of interest, and watching it while in a thoughtful mood.

It was a great conference, and I plan on writing a recap post on the event themes. However, it was also the final XOXO.

I was also at Strange Loop last year, a similar creative technology conference, with a little more focus on "backend" technology but deeply similar in spirit. I’d also recommend working through their backlog, finding a talk or two that piques your interest and sink in. That conference last year was also the final Strange Loop.

The parallels of the conferences ran deep—they were independent organizations hosted in the organizers’ hometowns, explored the amazing and complex intersections of creativity, technology, and industry, and even occasionally overlapped in speakers and content.

As similar as these two events were (and it's odd to type "were" here), it's sadly poetic how similar the reasons for ending their runs were. Events are outrageously expensive, and organizing them is intensely strenuous. Communities are challenging to manage in the best of times, and COVID has complicated and escalated these challenges exponentially. So, I do not fault, blame, judge, or otherwise hold any feelings other than gratitude to the organizers for the efforts and work they were able to do.

On a similar note, O'Reilly disbanded their events business during Covid. They were the leading institution for industry events. They were not "independent," but those events played a vital role in our industry.

I don’t know what will fill the gap of these broad industry events — independent and corporate. That unknowing makes me a little sad in the short term, but more deeply concerned for the future. This concern is not just about the loss of these events, but about the impact on the creation, formation, and dissemination of ideas in an industry that is inherently decentralized, typically disorganized, and beautifully scattered across the world.

Vendor events are still happening and have a notable place in the ecosystem. In full disclosure, I’ve always worked for companies that throw these events, want to throw these events, or otherwise benefit from servicing these events. But they will never consistently or reliably fill the same role as the independent or broad, focused industry events. I should say that New Relic’s FutureStack event was a corporate conference that served this role successfully, but that was a rare gift.

Realistically, I believe that future events will spring up. Like past independent events, they may start as a very small gathering of friends and snowball into something more substantial. It is inherently human to organize. It is inherently human to share and discuss craft. it is inherently human to be creative. All of those deep tendencies point to an inevitable future where more events start to spring up as a form of generational rise and fall. Nevertheless, it's always bittersweet when one chapter closes so that another chapter can open. But it’s also a sign of the industry’s resilience and adaptability.

On that parting note, if you are reading this post and know of an interesting event, conference, or festival that could fill the gap at the intersection of creativity, technology, and (a little bit of) industry, let me know.

• source: ChatGPT: "draw a picture of people at a conference; make it crazier"