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SXSW 2008: A turning point for conferences?
A remarkable thing happened at the SXSW conference last week. An audience loudly revolted against an interview of a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company. Were they right?SXSW is the largest conference (and party) in our industry and it was supposed to peak fittingly with the keynote interview by Sarah Lacy of Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook. Zuckerberg, Facebook, and their social graph movement have been a part of almost every interesting tech conversation amongst geeks in the past year. This keynote interview had such promise and yet it failed spectacularly.
Many attacks and defenses of Sarah have been tossed around, but most have noted that Sarah didn’t know her audience and what they wanted to hear. The audience had been left out of the direction, content, and tone of the interview. It was here that we saw a crucial law of conferences broken:
Amazing conferences are made by conversations
Sarah failed to recognize that today’s conference attendees demand to be a part of the conversation. Sarah’s audience was expected to just listen and consume. However, in a industry breakout moment, they didn’t. Twitter streams exploded with bombshell critique after critique from people live in the audience. Even people absent from the conference couldn’t ignore the uproar that was generated. The audience had re-inserted itself back to the forefront of the conversation to such a degree that afterwards the conversation is more about the faliure to relate than about Zuckerberg and the content of the interview.
So what is the Fallout?
You have to believe that the best conference organizers are watching this. Not a single one of them wants a repeat of the frustrated attendees and the controversy created by the SXSW keynote. Even the SXSW organizers saw their mistake and had Mark Zuckerberg come back the next day for an open Q&A session. It was a crucial step in repairing the break with SXSW attendees.
Going forward, we as conference attendees are demanding less consumption and more participation. We are tired of a selected few pontificating on a panel while we sit silent, as if not capable or worthy of contributing to the discussion. Eric Norlin, organizer of Defrag conference, has it right when he addresses the critics who accused the SXSW keynote audience of overtaking the conference:
“Do I want my attendees to take over the conference? You’re damn right I do. WE SHOULD ONLY BE SO LUCKY.”
Conclusion
The best thing about great conferences are the conversations and the connections made by the attendees. SXSW is a prime example that when the attendees are left out, revolt will ensue. And this is a good thing.
Note: This is more businessy than usual and will eventually be republished on EventVue’s blog.
