The Most Important Presenters At Techdirt Greenhouse: Everyone
from the it's-about-the-participation dept
We've had a great response in the last few days to our announcement about our idea workshop, Techdirt Greenhouse, to be held on March 11 in Sunnyvale. A few people have asked "who will be presenting?" since we don't list the presenters on the site. This was done on purpose. As many people have noted, the most value you get out of a conference isn't from the canned presentations, but from the people you meet out in the hallways or at meals. So, while we will be revealing some info about the presenters as we lead up to the event -- the point was that this event is not just about the presenters, but the attendees. Too often, you go to an event because there's some big name presenter, and all you get is a sales pitch of stuff you already knew. That's not valuable to anyone. At Techdirt Greenhouse the point is that, not only will you see some cool new ideas, but you'll also get to interact with a bunch of other smart folks in the workshops. So, yes, we'll start revealing some information about the presenters (many of whom will be discussing interesting ideas and challenges), but the real value isn't just in the presentations, but in the workshops, where you get to think about new ideas and meet other interesting people.
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I'm sold
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Re: I'm sold
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Re: I'm sold
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Re: I'm sold
The event is designed to benefit everyone by not just focusing on the needs of the presenters -- like many conferences. Attendees get to hear a bunch of new ideas, as well as meet lots of interesting new people, while discussing those ideas. I realize it's not for everyone -- but that's good, because we don't have space for everyone. :) Anyway, many of the presentations actually are not going to be about specific products, but broader questions/ideas. Will reveal more soon...
As for Jackie and Hillary, great to have you signed up.
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product testing? focus group?
Typically one gets paid for participating in such things, but you want $95.00 from me.
Don't hold your breath.
I expect it to be attended by a bunch of sleazoids who also want my money.
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Greenhouse
Regarding the $95 registration fee, I honestly don't feel the Techdirt brand is substantial enough yet to impose this type fee upon attendees. If your target audience are businesspeople and the like, then fine, but know that having such a high registration fee often excludes the best minds from the jump start. On the other hand, you shouldn't be expected to host free-gratis either, so as to help in recovering costs for the event, but maybe a more reasonable compromise regarding this fee can be reached. Otherwise, I feel attendance might be marginal at best, again due to it being the first event of its kind (although personally I might have chosen an alternate location to host the conference, one that is less.. well, stuffy..
Although it is good to see you guys branching out into more ideas and testing new waters.
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Re: Greenhouse
Thanks for the feedback. Techdirt CI is actually doing quite well and has been expanding *quite* a lot over the last year. We'll be revealing some more about this at the event.
With regard to the fee, most comparable all day events go for many hundreds of dollars -- with what we believe to be much less value, since you're mostly just hearing product pitches. In fact, a few people have compared us to another event that is charging something like $300, and it's a straight product showcase event, where there's much lower likelihood of being able to network -- and the list of companies for that event seem all over-exposed already. Meanwhile, we see other 2 hour events that charge $50 or $60. Actually, the feedback we've received from most people already is that the fee seems *low* -- especially considering all of the food to be served and the nature of the event. So, we're quite happy with the registrations so far, and I can guarantee that they will not be, as you suggest, "marginal" because there's already a very good turnout. We've actually been discussing whether or not there are ways we can fit more people into the event than we had originally planned for.
Also, can you elaborate on why the location is "stuffy"? We actually think it's quite a good location. Have you been to that building?
Thanks for the feedback, however. We'll take it into consideration for future events.
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Sunnyvale?
Also, now I've repeated a comment like the above, they probably wouldn't let me in anyway. See Total Information Awareness Lives On
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