Just a few recent off the top of my head:
- Paddleboard breakouts at East Meets West
- Asking Vinod a question about next-gen registers at Program Synthesis Conference
- Animated discussion about cpu design over beers post conference in SF
- Talking to a startup about IOT management on the roof of an Accel event
And some ones from 10+ years ago:
- When I was a college student sitting on a folding chair and chatting with a nice woman about the startups pitching at TechCrunch40 (turned out to be M Mayer)
- Drew pitching me on Dropbox before launch in Cambridge (boring, I thought)
- Nate pitching me AirBedAndBreakfast in Mountain View (loved the idea from the get go)
The only things that have come close to being memorable online were some recent Teamflow ice breaker type events we did at Our World in Data around the virtual campfire.
Can be done as online gaming events
> - Asking Vinod a question about next-gen registers at Program Synthesis Conference
Can be done using a microphone and camera attached to your device
> - Animated discussion about cpu design over beers post conference in SF
Animated conversations can be done via microphone and video
> - Talking to a startup about IOT management on the roof of an Accel event
Can be done as a vendor breakout with a virtual background of a roof
> - When I was a college student sitting on a folding chair and chatting with a nice woman about the startups pitching at TechCrunch40 (turned out to be M Mayer)
You can always sit in a folding chair and chat with M Mayer in a slack room for the breakout
> - Drew pitching me on Dropbox before launch in Cambridge (boring, I thought)
Drew also has a microphone and camera I bet, but it probably won’t make him less boring
> - Nate pitching me AirBedAndBreakfast in Mountain View (loved the idea from the get go)
Who would ever want to actually go to Mountain View? (N.b., I lived there for many years)
As an participant for me the "hallway track" often is the most interesting, where I get into random discussions and run into people In otherwise rarely meet.
Presenting remotely in real-time is a pain in the arse, and sucks everything that's enjoyable out of making presentations.
- I can do some different things when I record and edit such as inserting clips that aren't just a slide and me as a talking head. (Though having a thumbnail of the speaker is a practice I hope we keep versus just talking to a full screen slide.)
- Reduce the likelihood of network-related or other issues at my end.
- Can interact with an audience in real-time in chat.
- Can redo sections that don't come out well.
I also have to control everything about the environment (lightning, background, microphone and camera quality, etc), which is a pain compared to a conference organiser providing technical support.
So it is much more time-consuming to record the presentation compared to preparing it for live delivery.
I agree that pre-recording is better than live over video, for the reasons you mention (otherwise, there is nothing you can do regarding any stray helicopter or your router having a bad day).
I hate interacting in chat. Everything feels fake and wrong. People always need to pay attention to everything, lest they interrupt someone starting a sentence or trying to intervene (any latency is really bad in a vocal discussion). This is a bad imitation of chatting with other people over a beer.
The ability to re-record is a mixed blessing: it is a time sink and it is very difficult to be satisfied with the result if you are even mildly perfectionist. It would be better if we had access to professionals to record and edit talks, but we haven't.
That said, it's gotten easier over the past year. My office is pretty much set up as a studio now with lighting, mikes, camera and so forth. And I've learned things like better eye discipline. I've also learned that, sure, I should do a retake if I really flub something (or, umm, forgot to hit the record button). But for anything longer than a very short clip, it doesn't need to be perfect.
But, then, this is one of the things I do for a living so it's been worth the time and money to get things right.
Sounds like a case of “I don’t like the tools so therefore the domain must be insurmountable,” which tells me it’s ripe for some very clever people with some strong experience and opinions on how to organize online conferences and workshops to make a fortune.
However there will always be a difference between a crowd in a room and a digital representation. There's lots of subtle stuff in a room (are they all looking forward or are the talking to their neighbor?) Which are hard to translate. Especially if people switch of camera&mic etc. while watching without any interest in sharing.
The Chaos Computer Club did a quite good "hallway track" for the rC3 event https://links.rc3.world/
Companies like https://mingle.cloud try to do virtual event platforms as a business.
Things improve, but it's always gonna be different.
And yes, for.some events it's good enough, for others it's even a better replacement. But some things work better human to human
I think the point is some people find one vs the other better, not that there’s one true way for all. The world will be better if we can figure out how to be inclusive of all styles, not just the style extroverts prefer.
I think in a hybrid event you would both have a crowd in a room and a crowd remote. This seems fine.
From my point of view it has some obvious advantages, like no need to travel. But it is not a satisfying replacement by a long shot.
Personally, as someone who now happily works remote 100% of the time, I would be more inclined to attend a local in-person conference than ever before.
Online events give me loads of fatigue. In-person events energize me. The backroom conversations are why they’re great.
At the beginning I was always into the speakers. Later I realized they were really a gimmick to bring us together.
Clubhouse captures some of this in person magic. There was also a book club that was pretty good. Slate I think it’s called.
Let’s hope Apple can capture this. :)
Completely opposite for me, and I bet other introverts or people with social anxiety/low social mana.
I've been pretty involved with online events over the past year. The formal part of the conferences have gone pretty well. (TBH, even when I'm attending a big event physically I'll often watch the keynotes streaming rather than cram into a conference center with thousands of my closest friends.) But chat, virtual booths, and any sort of attempt at serendipity have mostly been big fat failures.
However I see the benefit for having a local audience for those who can make it there but we are still a year off before travel resumes to normal levels if not 2023. However being such world wide company perhaps they will in the future have similar events or simultaneous events across the world.
How about just getting engineers to occasionally participate on their own developer forums, and settle some of the edge questions that have been waiting for answers for years.
- It's a boondoggle and I'd never approve the expense (OK they are but not just a boondoggle :-))
- It's inefficient
- I'm an introvert
I don't agree but those are opinions.