The Conference is Dead!(not really)

I posted this comment in response to this blog posting today:

http://ow.ly/wAXP

As someone who also makes a living helping conference and tradeshow organizers more successful, I hope the hypothesis that 'The Conference is Dead' is true is wrong! I think it is, although many of the comments above are right on the money.

For the conference organizer of the future, they have to both be part of the industry and find that running conferences makes business sense(makes profit)- while not having so many moving parts that it becomes difficult to manage. This is now harder than ever.

I see 50% of the events around two years ago will be gone 2 years from now similar to what Jeff mentioned, so there is indeed pressure to be better and more valuable.

What is my prescription for making things easier?

1) Stop having anything without a solid core audience in resort locations that take time and money to attend. As best as you can, bring the event to your audience(New York, Chicago, SF, etc):

2) Do some basic market research to find out what social media applications, pain points and format preferences and pricepoints your target audience wants;

3) Spend on quality content but make sure you give this quality audience time to meet each other;

4) Assuming you do the above, making money shouldn't be a problem, as you should easily(!) attract paying sponsors who want to interact with the attendees.

5) Make sure that you create buy-sell interaction which is valuable to both.

Sounds easy, but it is harder than ever!