Hacker News Reader

Honestly, this sounds awful to me.

1. Invite-only increases the likelihood of an echo chamber, in my mind. I go to conferences to find out about things that arean't already on my radar.

2. This approach means only topics championed by those loud enough to speak up are discussed. There's no possibility for niche topics to get an airing if noone else knows anything about them since there's less likely to be a consensus to add them to the agenda.

3. One of the best aspects of attending a conference in my mind is the ability to combine it with a bit of tourism. I suppose that's a personal preference.

4. That's good for now, but when Google an The Knight Foundation stop supporting it, who's going to pay?

5. This is terrible. Work is for the week, weekends are my time and my work does not get to encroach on that.

6. Great, so at the end of the day, I can't even relax in the hotel room. So the next day, I'm wiped before we even start.

Completely agree with all of the above.

> 1. Invite-only increases the likelihood of an echo chamber, in my mind.

They have a great approach to recommend inviting surprising and unexpected people. I don't work in publishing or journalism and have been twice, for example.

> 2. This approach means only topics championed by those loud enough to speak up are discussed.

Same is surely true of topics presented on stages. The organisers of Newsgeist make a serious effort to unearth unusual perspectives, partly through the invite-list. Last year I debated themes with an Icelandic politician, an NYT journalist and Jimmy Wales - there's no consensus from specialism occurring there.

>4. That's good for now, but when Google an The Knight Foundation stop supporting it, who's going to pay?

Great question of course, this approach falls apart.

> 5. This is terrible. Work is for the week, weekends are my time and my work does not get to encroach on that.

To attract a mix of industry leaders the mix of weekday / weekend days is a pragmatic choice.

> 6. Great, so at the end of the day, I can't even relax in the hotel room. So the next day, I'm wiped before we even start.

It's all voluntary of course! And fascinating to observe if not participating. There are plenty of early birds who skip the late hours, or meet up for jogging at 6am.

> Honestly, this sounds awful to me.

The events can be very intense and tiring in the short term. That's because real things are happening, difficult issues are actually being resolved, voices are listened to and progress gets made. Ultimately they are seriously energising, and not for people who sit at the back or like to take time off for sightseeing.

> They have a great approach to recommend inviting surprising and unexpected people. I don't work in publishing or journalism and have been twice, for example.

Fair enough.

> Same is surely true of topics presented on stages.

In my line of work (science) the topics are submitted ahead of the conference and then relevant papers/talks are submitted to each of those. As such, anyone is able to propose a topic so long as they can justify its inclusion.

> To attract a mix of industry leaders the mix of weekday / weekend days is a pragmatic choice.

I'm not sure I understand why industry leaders are more likely to attend if it's at the weekend. Surely if it's their industry, it's part of their work and so they can come during the work week.

> It's all voluntary of course!

In principle, at least. Of course, if a lot of important decisions are being make the in voluntary evening activities, then those that choose not to or can't go to the evening events are at a disadvantage. Point taken about early birds.

All that said, I can definitely see the benefit of organised social activities.

> That's because real things are happening, difficult issues are actually being resolved, voices are listened to and progress gets made.

This sounds awfully like the tag line for some startup.

> people who sit at the back or like to take time off for sightseeing

An interest in sightseeing or a quieter demeanor is not mutually exclusive of valuable contributions.

Newsgeist may be the type of event that people feel passionate about but can't really justify taking time off from their day job to attend. I agree that weekends work for something like that. However, the vast bulk of conferences that I attend are primarily people attending on the company time and dime and most would not want to go to a weekend event.

I know I wouldn't. Just for one anecdotal example, there's a yearly local event tangentially related to my work that I've attended and led Open Spaces at. But it's on a Saturday (on what is invariably the first really nice spring day of the year). I've stopped going solely for that reason.

This is the model for O'Reilly's FooCamp which was an amazing experience early in my career. I was a nobody, lucky to score an invite, and got to sit next to tech celebs at breakfast and heard/participated conversations that were and still are well above my pay grade. Some were nichey, but even in those cases there were a few people who were REALLY passionate about game design or some emerging programming language. I made contacts that still pay-off today.

All your criticisms are fair, but we're talking about a couple weekends over the course of a year. If you're enthusiastic and ambitious (and can assemble a like group) I can't imagine a better format.

> 6. Werewolf.

One thing I dislike about this industry is the amount of random entertainment you are expected to be part of, but I am not really interested in.

I agree. Having Werewolf as an optiononal-but-not-really part of a conference is, to me, like if they had organized a skinny-dipping session or maybe a catholic sermon. Some might like them, but they are not everybody’s thing, and doing this is the very opposite of being “inclusive”, which should be the goal of conference organizers.

> 3. Suburban location. The venues are invariably 40-60 minutes outside a major city, easy for international guests, yet harder for attendees to wander off into the city during the day (or even at night).

Why stop there? Turn the clock back to company towns in the middle of nowhere.

Corporate suburbia vs. “Creative Cities”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_city

1. can work, especially in the context of an organization that runs a bunch of events. There are also examples of long-running free events and essentially all events are dependent on sponsorships to a greater or lesser degree.

Generally these days, when there are Open Spaces (unconference) there's a mix of curated talks and attendee-led sessions.

I'm personally not a fan of weekend events although I understand the reasoning that a lot of people can't get time off work to attend conferences. And I'm totally with you on location. If I'm traveling to an event, I prefer an interesting city center--which admittedly even many urban conference locations aren't. I'm not attending to be kept prisoner.

> 6. Werewolf. Daytime discussions invariably merge into dinner and then on to organised games of Werewolf to the late hours, hugely increasing camaraderie, intensity, socialization, truth-telling (eventually) and so on.

What in the world is Werewolf?

Well, I know one person who's not getting an invite.

(To answer your question - no idea. I'm not getting invited either)

A variant of the mafia game (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_(party_game))

Quoting the article: " Mafia, also known as Werewolf, is a party game modelling a conflict between an informed minority, the mafia, and an uninformed majority, the innocents. At the start of the game, each player is secretly assigned a role affiliated with one of these teams. The game has two alternating phases: night, during which the mafia may covertly "murder" an innocent, and day, in which surviving players debate the identities of the mafia and vote to eliminate a suspect. Play continues until all of the mafia have been eliminated or until the mafia outnumbers the innocents. "

As a game to play with friends that you know well, it's great. But I'd be wary to play with strangers. And another problem is that once you get "killed", you can't say anything, you have to stay silent until the end of the round.

Yeah, I would definitely nope out of that, then. Especially after a long day of talks; my batteries would be fried.

Well it depends on who you're playing with. But it's a game that takes little mental load, you play on "easy mode" by not thinking too hard on your actions and just go with the crowd. Also as someone who rarely speak up, I find it easier to do it in such a game.

While I like Werewolf and also enjoyed it with strangers, it is not for everybody. Just generalize it to board games or team sports or other social activities.

Wonderful format. Some aspects are similar to DebConf.