Spring is at the doorsteps and with that Conference Season is upon us. Recession or not, Some Conferences Are Worth Attending Even in Bad Times. We @ CloudAve are the Media / Blog partners for three conferences coming this spring – each notable in its own, unique way.
Today let’s talk about Web 2.0 Expo. The “Mother of all conferences”, the place to be for anyone living and breathing the Web, or for those who wonder if they should. In the organizers’ words:
Web 2.0 Expo is a semi-annual conference and expo targeting the builders of the next generation web: designers, developers, entrepreneurs, marketers, business strategists, and venture capitalists from around the globe.
I admit I have somewhat ambivalent feelings toward Web 2.0 Expo. Ten thousand or so people wandering around @ Moscone Center, trying to get in crowded sessions that often have not even standing room left – it’s a Zoo. By the 4th day or so, with our feet hurting, we swear never to do this again. Yet we all flock back to Moscone year after year. Apparently we like the zoo.
Jeremiah wrote about SXSW:
SXSW isn’t about the panels, why? the best ones are going to be blogged and put on slideshare. What matters here is the networking, as the social web assembles as a collective community in person, true magic happens.
He could have said the same of Web 2.0 Expo. It’s all about networking. If you plan to seek out specific people – well, good luck. But the real value is dozens of impromptu meetings, all the unexpected discovery of like-minded people you have already known from the Web, and now they are here, in meatspace. Such is the Zoo effect. So much so, that a lot of people who can’t afford conference tickets still hang around just for the networking part – there is even a term for this: lobbyconing. (btw, Jeremiah offers some interesting tips for conferencing on the cheap.)
Except that you don’t really need the cheap tricks for Web 2.0 Expo. For years, O’ Reilly and co have been giving away Expo only passes for $100 nominal price, but anyone could easily find a discount code to drop it to zero. In fact, here’s a discount code you can use at registration: websf09tro25. This will give you 35% off any rate, not just the Expo Only.
While creating Expo Only passes is a standard conference trick, you get access to a lot more than just the Expo Hall:
- All keynotes (Wed-Fri)
- Sponsored Sessions Track (Wed-Fri)
- Expo Hall & all events held there (Wed-Fri)
- Web2Open
Now, for the twist: despite everything I’ve just said “on the cheap” and it being all about networking, I actually believe there’s good value in the official conference program here. In fact the program, and this year’s theme of Power of Less is worth another post in itself – coming up soon. Stay tuned, especially since we’re giving away free passes – in the meantime enjoy the Power of Less Love.
