Virtual Conferences - My take, So Far

This year has been the year of Remote. Remote Working, Remote Access, and Remote conferences. We have seen many in-person events transform to all digital events. Many of these have been near flawless. Certainly, there is a timing thing now and again with the occasional green screen showing in the background due to a blip here and there, but for the most part, these events have been stellar.

I attended the first real big event at-scale which was Microsoft Build. This was the formula for all events Microsoft has had, or at least they were based on build. Built on Build, the Application conference added a few more things logistically. Then Inspire, the Microsoft Partner Conference (WPC) layered in interactive breakout rooms for sessions (all based on Microsoft Teams). I have been pleased with the execution.

What have we been missing?

The community aspect is there but not the same. Sure the MS Techcommujnity and RT Chat are nice, but I do miss meeting new people, vendors, and future clients at these events. There are still opportunities to do this but much more difficult than someone wheeling up to a charging station and chatting about each respective one’s business and creating a connection.

Another aspect that will be missed is the ability of a service provider to have an in-person event / happy hour / meetup at these large scale events. I have had one every year for existing clients and potential clients at Ignite (or tech-Ed or MMS) since I have been going over the last 10ish years. These types of events help solidify your partnership with your business contacts. I would be as bold to say that I have had the event costs (tickets, airfare, evening event) completely covered for me and my team that I have taken with just one project that came out of hosting one of these less formal evening events.

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Microsoft Partner Conference - Inspire

What have we gained?

These events, at least this year, from a Microsoft perspective, have been cost-free. Which has included many more people than in previous years. The opportunity to gain insight and access to materials to a much larger group of people will increase adoption. Other vendors have done similar approaches while others are taking a hybrid approach where there is a core set of sessions and presentations that are free with registration and more exclusive content requires a paid-for pass.

Getting away no more…

I know a subset of tech peoples that love the conferences so they can get away from the office, essentially a paid trip to learn. they love the fact that they are away from the trudging through the workweek and can hang out at vendor parties or just be away. I am not one of those people, I tend to like being with my family. Though I do love travel, I (pre-pandemic) used to be on the go a whole lot. In fact the last Ignite I had a business trip the week prior and was home a whole 28 hours before getting on a plane to Orlando for the week. So it is easy to say that the logistics of the conference, though cool and great, is not among the top missed things about conferences.

Undesired consequences…

One of the things I never really took into account is the sheer amount of movement that one does at a large scale event. 10k steps are easy to accomplish. Getting up early and being cattle herded into the breakfast and lunch lines with a well thought out portion-controlled meal, kinda took for granted too. I can say that attending from home has the snacks and drinks at hand and my but planted for 18hours a day.

Sure some conferences build in time to move and other fun type sessions though it is worth noting that in the past you attended what you could and picked the rest up at another time. Microsoft has the same content presented ‘as the sun rises’ so you can attend those sessions you had to previously choose to skip. Good thing right? Well yes and no. You do get your content but it is at the cost of staying awake much longer than one should. They are on-demand so why attend. If you are trying to stay on the leading edge you have to recieve the messaging, ingest, process, then record and evangelize. It can take a toll.

Conclusions

I beleive that this change to virual is a good thing and dont know how we are going to go back to the way we have done it in the past. There are trade offs but the cost does not outweigh the gains. As the next conference looms closer I will stock up on my snacks, buildin some exercise and me time, and get ready for the marathon.