I’ve given up on conferences.

I’m a pretty decent public speaker. I have been told I break things down well, my materials are polished and sometimes, on rare occasions, I have even displayed what some have called "showmanship".

But let’s be honest, I am generally not that far ahead of my audience in terms of subject matter knowledge. For me, the best presentations are done by those whose command of a topic far exceeds the audience’s and generally, that’s not me.

I have so far been asked to speak at two conferences:
a) Interop New York 2005 on the topic of RIA
and
b) The Semantic Conference 2007 on the topic of the Semantic Web.

Ok, to be fair I could probably put some slides together, fill 45 mins on either of these topics, then muddle through some questions at the end. I’d be happy to do it but it’s not really doing conference attendees justice.

It’s all a racket. These conferences charge upwards of $1,500 dollars (early-bird) to attend. Conference organizers also rake in big bucks through advertising and stands. It’s really insane given the research that goes into picking the speakers. Generally there’ll be some decent keynotes and no doubt and you might even learn something but I wouldn’t count on it.

Some say the real value with conferences is in the networking opportunity. For me though, you can build a more meaningful relationship through interactions in the blog-o-sphere. Then, when you’re actually you’re ready to do business, meet the person. By then you’ll already know if they’re flaky or not.

Perhaps it’s self-deprecating catholic guilt but I would typically not want to attend a conference that would hire me as a speaker.

Unconferences ++;  [LINK]