If @media and FOWD were music festivals which would they be?
July 5th 2009
I was fortunate enough to go to both the FOWD conference and the @media conference this year. I say fortunate because I think you are pretty lucky if you or your employer can afford to pay for (and allow you the time away from your normal duties) 4 days of conferencing in one year (let alone a quarter) – I managed both because I was volunteering 1 at @media, so I only had to pay for FOWD.
There was quite a striking difference between the 2 conferences this year and I thought I’d share these thoughts here. Please note that I am comparing like for like, so I’m only considering the conference part of FOWD with the @media conference. Obviously one of FOWD’s selling points is the following day of workshops, but that is a whole ‘nother story, one which I promised to blog about here, but we’ll see if that ever happens!
@Media felt like a much more mature, serious event than FOWD this year and I think this owed to a few reasons:
- the 1 hour slot (cf. to about 30min at FOWD) allowed for speakers to go into more depth in their presentations
- the speakers tended to be more confident and experienced [at presenting at conferences] 2
- there were less audience members using laptops throughout the presentations—which personally I find quite distracting and makes me think they are not really interested in the presentation—though this may have been due to the lack of a decent wifi connection 3
- there is no (or very little) corporate sponsorship, in the form of stalls in the foyer or faux-presenters
- there was a smaller number of attendees (than FOWD and previous years’ @media) – I wonder if this is because of the credit crunch and prof. dev budgets being cut
- content of presentations was carefully chosen and curated so that it covered hot topics in the web design industry today
- although @media is roughly the same price as FOWD if you count the cost per day, tickets are only sold for the full 2 day event (whereas the FOWD conference is only one day), so the cost may deter those who’s budget for conferences is limited
To use a live music analogy, FOWD is like your regular music festival in a field: the sets are short, there are lots of new and upcoming bands playing, socialising is a main event, and everything (stages, refreshments) is sponsored. @media feels more like the SBC’s Meltdown festival or the even the Proms: the bands are well known or tend to have some significant industry recognition, they are curated (in the case of Meltdown, by a different, established musician each year) so there is some kind of coherent theme, each artist puts on a full length show, there is often collaboration and experimentation between the artists participating and there is little or no outside sponsorship.
Lovebox festival isn’t exactly in a field, it’s in Victoria Park in Hackney, but it’s near me and I’m lazy
I use this live music analogy because I want to be clear that both these formats are good in their own way. I go to music festivals to hang out with friends, meet new people and discover new bands as well as enjoy singing along to those bands I already know and love 4. I might get tickets for the Meltdown festival because I want to see one of my favourite groups put on a full length show and/or try out other bands that I trust will be good because of the particular artist who is directing the festival.
We are lucky to have a growing number of choices of web conferences to attend in the UK but this means (unless you have a bottomless pit of a professional development budget, which, these days, is unlikely) that we have to start being selective. I know I’m going to have to make some tough decisions next year.
P.S. In case I don’t get round to writing a post to review @media09 in full—which is quite likely looking at my track record—I must share a link with you now, which will take you to a collection of links to all the slides and videos from @media09, on James Lindeman’s beautifully designed blog.
(1) I have been volunteering at @media for the last 3 years, since I responded to an informal request for volunteers on the Pub Standard’s mailing list. I guess I showed so much commitment and enthusiasm for the task that first year that Patrick was happy to have me back again. (And you’ve got to be committed to get up at 4am to pack 700 bags, really).↑
(2) everyone has to start somewhere, so of course we must have conferences where people are speaking for the first time.↑
(3) excluding those using a laptop for note taking/live blogging, of course.↑
(4) No, I haven’t sung along to anyone on stage at FOWD before (!), but I have felt like I’m hearing something I already know, and been happy to hear it presented well by someone I respect.↑
Hey Emily,
I enjoyed hanging out with you at @media - thanks for saying hi
Cheers for this writeup - really helps me out to see peoples perspectives on the various design shows. We’d be honored to have you as a volunteer at FOWD if you’re interested!
Best,
Ryan