TechCrunch Disrupt (web) kickstarted it’s first event in San Francisco with Mike Arrington sporting a t-shirt with the words “unpaid blogger”, a clear reference to his noisy departure from TechCrunch . The show on stage is rather boring due to the abuse of the “fireside chat” format, actually meaning “the speaker does not want to prepare a speech so we’ll just do a sort of interview.” With very few exceptions, I find these informal conversations a waste of my time as an attendee. In fact, I can get the same content out by reading the article later posted online with the summary of what was said.

An interesting format though was the on stage “office hours”. Venture capitalists do live interviews of startup founders in a similar picked from the audience way to what could be a first meeting. Paul Graham and Harj Taggar of YCombinator held office hours yesterday with something like 6 startups (article here) and the result was interesting, as others in the audience can learn from the experience.

The most valuable thing about TC Disrupt is the Startup Alley (exhibition area for mostly not-yet launched startups) and the Startup Battlefield. I roamed around the former and picked up the 8 most interesting ones for a conference organizer.

PS: Asking questions

At a certain point, Arrington was on stage interviewing Douglas Leone from Sequoia Capital. He turned back and asked towards the people in backstage if there is any mechanism for picking questions from the audience… WTF Mike???? The room is full of techies and geeks… It’s a no brainer to have one of your writers to pick questions from the twitter stream by using a pre-defined hashtag (like #QDisruptSF). What happened was the next possible solution: they planted a mike in the front of the room and attendees could queue in front of a it (drawback compared to Twitter – you might get really dumb questions from eloquent participants, which wastes the time of the rest of us).

Interesting Startups for Conference Organizers

Many of the startups present at TC Disrupt SF ’11 are demoing their product for the first time, so expect some of the links below to redirect to a “launching soon” place holder.

1- LaunchRock

LaunchRock has been announced a few months back already but founder Thomas Knoll says that “launch is very near, we’re just ironing some bugs and other details”. The use for conferences? It’s a cool tool to have potential attendees sign up for your upcoming conference on a fully personalized template before the official website is up. The system then exports the contact list to CSV and the premium version will allow you to do advance segmenting of that audience.

2- Quixey

Quixey is a search engine for apps on multiple platforms. The use of it? Well, I tried searching for “event management” and got a list of 97 iPad apps, 69 iPhone apps, 25 Mac apps and tons of other more for Android, Blackberry, Facebook et al. In a bulging market of apps for many different devices, Quixey might become a point of reference, with snippets of information scrapped from online reviews to complement the description of the app, which usually is more of a marketing pitch than a really informative blurb.

3- Slides.io

Slides.io is yet another iteration of a web-hosted presentation software, with the special feature that you can plug in a live video (from your camera or another source, like the live video from your conference) and combines both plus a chat feature into one screen. For now, you have to create the slides inside Slide.io, which is kind of a drawback if you made your deck in another program (Keynote, PowerPoint, etc). The creators say that in a future version you’ll be able to import your slides in pdf format.

4- Storify

Storify is not new, and I actually wrote about it here as a great tool to aggregate content from your conference (selected tweets, photos, videos, blogposts, etc) in a sort of modern “executive summary”. A recently added feature is the “slideshow” mode, that allows you to display Storify in big screens around the venue.

5- Vibe

You could dismiss Vibe as a Twitter wannabe, but this guys have a nifty feature for live events. The app allows you to post tweet-like comments but set their duration in time (say 3 days) and establish a geo-fence that limits the  geographica space in which  ”vibes” will be readable by others (say 50 m, so that only people physical present at the event can see them or 5km, for those around the venue to discover them). Vibe can be projected onto walls or screens as a sort of intelligent backchannel (aka twitter-wall).

6- Scaneroo

Scaneroo is yet another photosharing app who’s strength is a feature that could easily be replicated by a web incumbent but still adds value by allowing you to tag people through QR codes and then easily distribute the photos by allowing people to scan the codes, say by placing them on the attendee’s badges, on posters, etc.

7- CardFlick

Cardflick joins the crusade of startups trying to get replace paper business cards with a digital clone. Will it succeed? Hard to say… I’ve seen many players come and go but I’ll still give it a try. You create your own business card by choosing a template and adding your contact info. In a near future you might be able to have several cards under one account (e.g.: for different occasions or projects you might be working in) but for now you can only get one. The sharing happens inside a GPS geo-fenced area (the app infers you’re both at the same event). They still have to polish some details, for example here at TC Disrupt the app goes a bit crazy because there’s lot of people with the same GPS location. You can also mail your card (with the attached vCard) to someone that does not have the app.

8- Livepad41

Two guys from Perth, Australia, came all the way to San Francisco to show their cool-looking visualization of live messages (from tweets and SMS). Livepad21 is not yet publicly available but will eventually allow the organizer to use them as “conversation indicators” by displaying  them on huge screens around the venue.

 Bonus

These are not new but have a few features that could be useful for conference organizers.

a) Evenbrite

Eventbrite is not a startup anymore but it’s about to launch an iPad app that allows the attendees to pay at the door of an event (several payment methods, including swiping your credit card… I guess with a Square-esque device or something like that). Status: internal beta

b) Posterous

Posterous launched “Spaces”, combining previous features like groups and revamping the looks and apps. Spaces can be kept private or invite-only, and could be a great way to share selected information (posts, photos, documents) with attendees.

The Conference (web), a media focused event organized by Media Evolution, took place in Malmo, Sweden, on August 24-25, 2011. Martin Thörnkvist (Program Director) and Yasemin Arhan (Project Manager) discuss the outcome of the event. Among other things, they talk about their biggest challenge, what was new and what comes next. The videos of the keynotes and other sessions are online here.

If you’re into design, technology, innovation and world-changing stuff that still has to become mainstream, then PICNIC (web, twitter) is an event you shouldn’t pass (disclaimer: I worked for picnic as Marketing Manager for the 2009 and 2010 editions).

The Early Bird Ticket expires on July 1st, 2011

… so hurry up to get yours! (the Early bird is 30% less than the full 3-day ticket and 25% less from the 1-day ticket).

The theme for 2011 is: Urban Futures

The world is undergoing the largest wave of population growth in history: we are looking at more than 8 billion people in 2030 and essentially all of the growth will take place in the less developed countries, concentrated among the poorest populations in urban areas. By that time at least 70% of the world population will be living in an urban environment.

[...]

We’re looking to engage you and others of the world’s most creative and innovative minds at PICNIC Festival 2011. Join us investigating several urban future scenarios, including perspectives on:

Infrastructure: mobility, sewage, utility grids, street plan, public transport, public and private buildings, public services.
Sustainability: waste, water, green energy, pollution, Co2, building green, nano-tech, urban gardens, economy, bio-tech, food.
Society: governance, open data, health, education, social cohesion, poverty, democratization, privacy, aging, immigration, safety.
Design: city planning, architecture, health care, educational system, green, social change, data visualization, products, services.
Media:

urban screens, social media, gamification, trans media, augmented city, open versus closed, privacy, social engineering.

The seventh edition of Frontiers of Interaction (web, twitter, Facebook) took place in Florence, Italy, on June 20-21.

I’ve been a regular to Frontiers since 2009 and during 2010 I was its the conference director (had to leave the job in December 2010 because I no longer had the time to run two full conferences in two countries and happening with just a week of time from each other).

This was the first time of the conference in Florence (after successful editions in Milan, Turin and Rome) and it was hosted at the Otel Variete which usually works as a nightclub. The setup benefited from a non traditional venue for this kind of event. The first day was dedicated to multi-track workshops and the second one was for the talks, both with an impressive lineup of speakers from all over the world (highlights: Luke Williams, Amber Case, Zdenek Kalal and Andrei Herasimchuk)

Follows a slideshow of photos I took during Frontiers.

I‘m always [positively] surprised by the variety of interesting conferences taking all over the place, reinforcing my thesis that even though we’re hyper-connected digitally, there are more physical events taking place than ever (and we need them more than ever too).

My latest find through a tweet in my stream is the Buddhist Geeks Conference (web, twitter, facebook) that will take place next July 29-31 in Los Angeles, USA (not a very zen-ish city IMHO… but it might be just a foolish stereotype of mine).

The Conference brings together some of the most exciting teachers, leaders and thinkers from the US and beyond as Buddhist Geeks continues its ongoing mission to discover the emerging face of Buddhism. With a vibrant program of presentations, workshops, performance and participant-led elements and its inclusive non-denominational attitude, #bgeeks11 will be the most innovative, energetic and relevant event in the Buddhist world.

I wish I could attend, maybe next year.

I‘m now in Austin, Texas, a city that morphs into a huge city-venue to host both the official and unofficial events around South by Southwest.

Today (March 11th) I’ll be speaking in the How to Rawk SXSW panel together with Christine Auten, jbrotherlove, Kris Krug, Mark Couvillion and Neil Petty. (I hope not to disappoint: my new job in Madrid and a series of other recent personal events have prevented me to prepare as well as I would have liked… Though I realize that’s a lame excuse anyway).

My contribution to the panel will follow more or less these lines:

SXSW attracts people from all over the world and sometimes it’s the cultural details that make a difference. From the point of view of an argentinean turned italian turned japanese turned dutch and now spanish, discover which differences and similarities you should consider to make the most out of the event. Also,  let’s discuss about the gadgets and apps that will help you navigate the tons of content and relate with the thousands of fellow attendees.

Last year I came to SXSW and got a lot of ideas for articles worth sharing on Conference Basics, but for one reason or the other, most of it stayed in draft phase somewhere in the middle.

This year I come with the purpose of reducing the time-to-market of my South-by inspired blogposts and am saying so now so that I can’t hide later on. Will be tagging them with SXSW11 so that you can browse them all together in the end.

Last month, in London, 200 people turned out for Boring 2010, the first conference devoted to under-stimulation. The Wall Street Journal has a story about the conference—which included readings of paint color catalogs and lectures with titles like “The Intangible Beauty of Car Park Roofs”. The interesting thing, though, is that this conference really didn’t seem to be about boredom at all. Instead, the topics leaned more towards “Things that are stereotypically considered boring, but which some people are very interested in.”

Via Boing Boing [thanks to Laurent Haug for pointing it out]

This post, like the previous two, highlights the fact that there are plenty of opportunities to create meaningful conferences, that is meaningful to the right audience. It’s just a matter of understanding what is relevant to whom and make it happen with an honest desire of connecting people.

Some passages from the Wall Street Journal article that I found interesting:

Boring 2010 is the handiwork of James Ward, 29 years old, who works for a DVD distribution and production company. In his other life, as the envoy of ennui, Mr. Ward edits a blog called “I Like Boring Things.” He is also co-founder of the Stationery Club, whose 45 members meet occasionally to discuss pens, paper clips and Post-it Notes.

Boring 2010 sprang to life when Mr. Ward heard that an event called the Interesting Conference had been canceled, and he sent out a joke tweet about the need to have a Boring Conference instead. He was taken aback when dozens of people responded enthusiastically.

One eagerly awaited talk was about writer Peter Fletcher’s meticulous three-year—and still running—sneeze count. With the help of graphs and charts, Mr. Fletcher disclosed that he had sneezed 2,267 times in the past 1,249 days, thus gaining “a profound understanding of the passing of time.”

“I’ve even sneezed when recording a sneeze,” he said.

To get to the conference, Jo Lee took an hour’s train ride from the seaside town of Brighton. She said it was worth it because her own idea of fun is to take photographs of random marks left on walls and of chewing gum stuck under desks.

“We’re all overstimulated,” said Ms. Lee. “I think it’s important to stop all that for a while and see what several hours of being bored really feels like.”

Continuing with the interesting people I met at Le Web ’10 are Paddy Cosgrave, Daire Hickey and David Kelly, organizers of the Dublin based conference F.ounders. The event brings together about one hundred tech-company founders from the US, Europe and Asia, providing an opportunity for them to “meet and discuss issues” but also to connect with each other in a way that usually does not happen (that is in an intimate and curated space).

The first edition of this by-invitation-only conference took place in October 2010, paired to the Dublin Web Summit in which the Irish trio mentioned above are also involved (and to which most of the F.ounders speakers/attendees had participated too).

In the video Paddy Cosgrave introduces the goal behind F.ounders and insight in how to stimulate better relationships in conferences (hint: it has to do with the size of it).

Who said there are no spaces and ideas for new conferences?

I love to see all these cool events reinventing the conference format to create new business and connections with a touch of fun and altruism Summit Series organizes  invitation-only events “that connects top young minds and inspires a new generation of leaders to succeed in business and in life”. The next edition will take place in April 2011 in the middle of the ocean.

In 2008 Elliot Bisnow, an entrepreneur with several companies to his name, started Summit Series, an “un-conference conference” that would serve as a mutual aid society for young entrepreneurs. It started with 19 people on a ski trip, and has grown to the more than 750 people who attended their latest event in May. Part networking, part TED, part extreme sports, these invitation-only events have become the epicenter of social entrepreneurship.

And along the way, Summit Series had raised over $1.5 million for not-for-profits. Participants include Bill Clinton, Russell Simmons, Sean Parker, Mark Cuban, Ted Turner, and John Legend.

Via Fast Company

An interesting passage from the article

What problem or issue did you first try to answer?

Justin Cohen: How do you create an atmosphere that fosters friendships? Instead of a spectator conference format, we chose a format based on positive shared experiences. Activities like skydiving or paintball fast track friendships–especially when you have a shared experience like a keynote address by Ted Turner to discuss.

It’s clear that Loic and Geraldine Le Meur have righteously created what’s the “Number 1 Internet Conference in Europe”. If there is one particular characteristic to define Le Web (web, twitter, facebook, youtube) is that it is a huge networking machine, with the 2010 edition attracting around 3,000 attendees from 60 countries (mostly European but with a good dose of Americans and a few Asians and Middle-Easterns).

Loic Le Meur, founder of Le Web

Le Web is less about what happens on stage–with its ongoing parade of entrepreneurs, managers and web-stars–and more about the networking and deal-making that takes place elsewhere around the venue (this year dislocated in 3 buildings of the Les Docks center).

It’s not that the “show” is boring. Rather most speakers won’t share any real news to those already following online the happenings of web world. Michael Arrington from TechCrunch asked interesting questions but top Google exec Marissa Mayer doesn’t give off any unexpected news and does not engage in the controversies that Arrington is trying to spark. Dave McClure gave useful tips for startups and Gary Vaynerchuk made a powerful closing of the event. Yet, Le Web is not a place to discover new technologies and companies like at, say, South by Southwest (though there was a startup competition).

The killer feature of this conference is the networking. If you ask around you’ll hear things like “everyone that matters in my industry is here” or “I come here to do business. It’s no longer cold and food is abundant unlike before [citing a situation that happened in 2008] and I occasionally listen to an interesting speaker”. In fact I spent most of the second day at the Nespresso Lounge in a series of back-to-back meetings that I had organized using the networking tool Presdo Match (more on it in an upcoming article).

Three thousand attendees, most of them paying for a ticket somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 euro, is an amazing result if you consider that Le Web is managed mostly from San Francisco by Geraldine, the producer, and a small team in Paris. In fact, I know of several full-time conference organizers that envy those results badly.

A packed conference room during Marissa Mayer's interview

But at times this high attendance also felt overwhelming. It’s a lot of people. Forget about intimacy. I knew very well at least 50 other attendees and we never even bumped into each other.

A few tips to improve the odds of meeting people would be:

Make the meeting-points VERY obvious

While Presdo Match was like manna from the skies to set up meetings, the meeting-points were not clearly indicated. It would have been great to know beforehand that there were 3 predetermined meeting points, for example by including a reference to them in the pre-event email “Prepare your Agenda for LeWeb” that was sent on November 25.

An official meeting-point

The meeting-point hidden behind a few people, imagine when there were hundres of them

The ideal meeting-point (not kidding!) - Photo by Roswellsgirl on flickr

Make the names on the badges HUGE

The badges had a clever disposition, with a pocket to hold the name tag, the program booklet and a two point lanyard. But the names were small, small, small… it was very difficult to read them even at close distance. Sometimes, when you’re trying to meet someone for the first time, being able to read the name on the badge from a few meters apart is extremely useful.

The Le Web badge - practical but name is impossible to read, even from a short distance

Don’t seclude speakers in a VIP area

As I said, Le Web brings a high number of speakers, most of them current actors of the Internet world. In most cases it’s difficult to meet them or make an appointment to talk business as when they are not on stage they are gathered in a VIP area where “regular” attendees cannot access. Positive exceptions were people like Dennis Crowley, Gary Vaynerchuk or Robert Scoble that decided to stay amongst the attendees, something that was widely appreciated. After all, they are enabling new business opportunities for themselves too.

All in all, Le Web was very positive for my professional activities: shared time with old friends, maid new acquaintances and opened several paths for new projects. Thanks Loic and Geraldine, see you next year!