Wanted: Conferences that Don't Waste My Time

Registration to an over-attended, over-hyped, weekend long social media conference in Miami: $775. Flight and hotel to Miami for said conference: $906. One day of work lost for not being in the office, plus meals for the weekend on the company dime: $1,500+ (estimate... depends on how much your time is worth, and assuming you don’t want to eat Taco Bell for three straight days). A stack of shiny new business cards and pamphlets from numerous first (and likely last) time acquaintances and glorified conference speakers: Useless.

These days, I find it pretty hard to believe that I can learn more from attending a 10 minute speech from a company’s CEO or VP of Marketing than I can from following their Twitter feed... and you tell me which one is more “turnkey” or which gives a better "ROI" (that’s “more streamlined or cheaper” or "return on investment" for those of you not fluent in corporate speak). Yet, repeatedly, accounting departments everywhere see company expenses like the ones I listed above when they balance the books every month.

As a (relatively) young guy working to find new ways to expand my knowledge of the industry I work in, my question is simply... “Why?”. After college, I went to my fair share of job fairs. And each one was packed to the rafters with speakers spouting vague advice on how to look for and land your next dream job (do your research, make a good first impression, show up on time and hopefully have some sweet family connection strings to pull... thanks for the insight, Donald Trump). Not to mention the fact that most companies at these fairs all seemed more interested in spreading their own rhetoric and telling me how great they are, than in actually helping any of the attendants accomplish their own goals (in this case, landing an interview or a job).

Sounds a little bit like your standard (insert industry here) conference doesn’t it? Only the topic of conversation is shifted from “Things you can do to get a job” to “Things you can do better to succeed in your industry”... but yet, the advice is still just as vague, the people are still just as interested in their own agenda and the price tag has gone up... way up. If you only wanna give me some insight that I can easily find on Google, or a message that’s already spewed all over your company’s website and blog, I think I’ll just save myself some time, (and my company some cash) and go to work that Friday.

Now I’m sure there are plenty of conferences out there worth attending, but it just seems to me that the selection is far too over-saturated with options that will leave me feeling like I just had an unsuccessful night at a sorority party; unsatisfied, a little confused, drunk in an unfamiliar place, and with a few phone numbers from new acquaintances that seemed interested but probably won’t return my call. So if this reminds you of a recent conference you've been to... maybe you should reconsider before registering for your next event.

But, if after making it to the end of my ramblings, you can actually suggest a conference or two that would be worth my time (and money) I'm all ears. Mainly, I'm interested in conferences that focus on specifc topics within social media or web / mobile marketing... and don't cost an arm and a leg.