I was supposed to be there too – but reading this post, i start being gratefull for these mad tax guys who took away the money i had for this trip.
“I’m sitting here at a conference that I flew all the way to Paris for.. for two days, and damned if it isn’t full of panels, broadcast mode all the way, telling the audience how it is. And well.. it’s so freaking undynamic. Because it’s not a discussion. These are bloggers. They know a lot. They know what it is. These 300 people make media every day on their blogs and yet, panels are here giving us time to email the office, our cats or the mailman about a critical lost postcard.
This audience is creative, bright, thoughtful and our brains are being numbed to death by one-way talk about how blogs are about losing legacy control and we’re all taking it back. Somewhere there is a tragi-comedy in here. It’s time for a revolt. Please, please, please can we do all conferences from now on differently? For the love of transparency, aliveness, I hope we can.”
I do not think this conference is bad, but as martine pointed, things might need to change.
Conferences around the world are being held everyday, the same way it always has been done, because, well, because that’s the way it has always been! So yeah, it might be time to shake things a little, yeah, i am talking about changing standards! UUUhh, scary hm?
What about attendee becoming speakers? What about speakers having more interaction with the audience? what about the audience moderating panels? what about the panel topics being chosen by the attendee? Switch!