The last tech conference I attended was SXSW in March of last year. Prior to that, Blogworld was in between trips to Columbus and Amsterdam. I really love those two shows because of the people, the content and the locations. Austin and Vegas are two of my favorite cities and it’s great to see all of the people who helped my career and have supported me and are just a lot of fun to hang out with.
I had a feeling though, following SXSW ’11 that I wouldn’t be going back. The post I made following the event last year mostly recapped the great things about the show but I never signalled that next year my attendance wouldn’t happen. I would have attended Blogworld in 2011 except it moved to Los Angeles and I really didn’t want to go to LA because I didn’t feel like paying LA hotel prices or renting a car just go get food every day. There are other conferences in NYC and Boston and things worth attending but as I round my 11th month since my last “Tweetup” or “Drinkup” or Conference, I don’t have many regrets or thoughts of remorse about missing these must-attend seminars. Attending a seminar doesn’t make you an entrepreneur and it doesn’t guarantee success. Conferences do help. They helped legitimize me in a way. I went from being a subject matter expert in Florida (no one respects you) to an expert living in San Francisco (okay, you’re probably legit) to an expert attending conferences and making connections (this guy knows his stuff) to speaking at said events (I’m gonna send some business his way. He’s hot shit). That’s how it goes in the industry and I’m where I am today because of the investments made in networking.
There are people I love seeing at these events and I miss not seeing them because it would be a full time job to individually meet with everyone I see at Blogworld and SXSW every year. However, these are fewer and fewer numbers every year of people I care to see that aren’t already a phone call away. This may be a phenomenon of getting older and focusing on doing more work than play but it’s something I’m fine with. Now, the content is invaluable at these conferences but everything is livestreamed, liveblogged and live tweeted so missing the conference is not a big deal. I tune in from home and save a few grand.
I can’t really foresee when I’ll be going to a tech conference again. It’s hard when everyone I follow on Twitter is at SXSW in March but, when the show ends, it’s not really spoken about until the submission of Panels happens in September and then it dies out again. I just ignore the talk about it and I no longer feel like I’m really missing out. I guess it is age and a focus on my vacation time toward exploring new places instead of networking with people that really aren’t your friends.
Maybe that’s a lesson for anyone reading this. Industry people are like co-workers. The likelihood that you’ll talk to or hang out with someone you worked with after they quit is slim to none. I’m talking outside of the bay area where there are no circles that overlap. The weekly Flickr meetup has people you may have worked with before so that’s different than Rural America where someone quits, you might recommend them on LinkedIN and then never see them again. That’s sort of what I’ve experienced with tech conferences. If I’m not planning on going or at one of these conferences, I won’t speak to anyone at all. It’s only at a party I’ll see a guy who, after I moved to New Hampshire, unfollowed me on Twitter and unfriended me on Facebook and he’ll act as if we’re still BFFs. I’ll talk about work and life to people who I used to see every Friday night but now only see once a year and then never speak to them again after it No one in the industry checks to see if you’re even going to SXSW and I’m fine with that.
This is not some rant about me having my feelings hurt. I understood this dynamic before leaving SF but I am still surprised what people unfriend me on Facebook after quite a bit of bonding in SF. Oh well, it’s just an industry thing. I guess my point is that you can go to conferences and network. You can make “friends” and make plans and swap business cards but, when you leave the conference, it’s important to have real friends like in real life that call you despite you not tweeting for 30 days or email you instead of just leaving a comment on one of your blog posts. The people who reach out to you despite you being a project manager and not a social media guru are your actual friends. It was a hard lesson but I know it now and, since I’m not doing anything in my field that’s related to marketing in 2012, you won’t see me at any conferences.
So no SXSW for me this year, no Macworld (no surprise there) and no other SF event in line. I’m going to be at my cabin relaxing and I’m really excited about that.