Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Aren't People Going to Local and Regional In-Person Events Anymore?

brentozar.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 96 posts

Re: Why Aren't People Going to Local and Regional In-Person Events Anymore?

#61

Post by bonoboTP »

BrentOzar wrote: post #17
arn3n wrote: post #8

I love conferences and talks and wish I could go to them more — what stops me is the sudden drop in corporate sponsorship of them. It’s been nearly impossible to convince leadership to spend money to train their employees or to socialize within their own discipline, and while I’d love to go to conferences, taking time out of my own PTO and my own wallet to see them isn’t worth it.

> what stops me is the sudden drop in corporate sponsorship of them. That's true in two ways: not only are less companies paying to send their attendees to training, but less companies are paying to sponsor these events as well.

Even at AI research conferences the trend seems to be such (also fewer industry exhibits), though I'm not perfectly up to date on this, might have turned around very recently. The reason seems to be that they are not hiring as much right now.

I think this is a shorter-term trend in the economy though, it doesn't necessarily hold as much inertia as other factors. Unless the AI job replacement really works out the way many companies hope.

Re: Why Aren't People Going to Local and Regional In-Person Events Anymore?

#62

Post by bonoboTP »

diego_moita wrote: post #19

Do you know the reasons why people (including you) don't want in-office jobs? Now multiply these reasons by 10. Instead of 1 hour commute, have an airplane travel or a couple hours drive. Instead of hours in a cubicle, have an hotel. And now add more expenses and crappy food. Sure, the "social interactions" in a pub might be more pleasant than the "water-cooler side chat" but they won't be much more productive. Socia…

If you have a steady job you're satisfied with, and a settled, well-oiled life, then yes sure.

But changes in life trajectory almost always happen through in-person socializing.

Re: Why Aren't People Going to Local and Regional In-Person Events Anymore?

#63

Post by ghaff »

lazide wrote: post #54
cosmic_cheese wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of folks moved out for cost of living savings too, both organizers and attendees alike. With many roles having turned remote and rock bottom mortgage interest rates, mid-late pandemic was a rare window of opportunity and many recognized that.

Yes, though many are now stuck with a deteriorating situation in a place with not a lot of actual career options.

Many people who moved moved somewhere in the orbit of a large city. Less true in the Bay Area but a 60-90 minute radius of a large city usually has some relatively attractive real estate pricing. And many offices are out that way anyway.

But it does make driving in for evening events less attractive. I used to do it more but, for the most part, really cut back on driving in after work for social events, etc.

Re: Why Aren't People Going to Local and Regional In-Person Events Anymore?

#64

Post by bonoboTP »

kridsdale1 wrote: post #56
bonoboTP wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea what you even mean. Education system in what sense? What do you mean by "progress"? What do you mean by "there"? Do you mean teachers somehow making sure that kids socialize in ways that aren't "hallway-track-y"? I genuinely can't decipher this comment.

Sorry. I meant compared to 25 years ago when I was in school, there are now tons of programs and special statuses and institutional accommodations that students can be granted to level the playing field based on things like diagnosed anxiety. In my day, I’d be called a little bitch and to put up with it.

This is a huge topic in itself but I think it is a net negative now. You can't change human nature. Of course bullying is horrible and help on that front is needed. But too much scaffolding and training wheels just make the transition to real life as much more painful. Setting up such expectations either leads to disappointment or a critical mass that also demands and succeeds in schoolifying life, with the shift in HR's role, or the grift of getting dubiously founded diagnoses to get extra exam time at universities etc.

But I know this is a big controversy in our time.

Re: Why Aren't People Going to Local and Regional In-Person Events Anymore?

#65

Post by ghaff »

Apreche wrote: post #26

I have seen some events doing very well and some doing very poorly. There are some factors not mentioned here. The biggest is cost. Travel, especially lodging, is very expensive right now in major cities, especially in the US. People just can’t afford hundreds per night. If an event has a larger population density within reach of walking, driving, and public transportation then more people turn up. Another is industr…

Though conferences have ebbed and flowed since before I was in the industry which was... a while ago. COMDEX used to be about a 100K person conference. The big Unix conferences are long gone of course. I know one long-running mid-sized conference that I tended to speak at and just couldn't reboot itself after COVID.

Re: Why Aren't People Going to Local and Regional In-Person Events Anymore?

#66

Post by ProllyInfamous »

cjbgkagh wrote: post #51

Just got back from an In-Person conference, as a vendor the cost was $8K, up from $6K for the same thing last year so a 30% YoY increase. The $6K last year already felt like we were being gouged. I may end up cutting back and going every second year. For 3 days if we rented a 30" screen and a stand it would have cost $2.2K and $350 respectively - I brought my own monitor and stand. Other vendors buy monitors each yea…

I was just going to write:

>>"because everybody is BROKE?!?!"

...but I didn't want to offend anybody with `whining` [I'm an average net-worth, for my age, US blue collar worker].

----

Here are my whines of thought:

I think the thing many of my brothers (three multi-millionaires, I am not) fail to see at the moment is that the "bottom majority" is having an increasingly "really bad time" existance. Myself, I have zero dependants, and zero desire to reproduce in this world. e.g. I have savings, but no healthcare (why?) and plenty of debt.

When I start seeing "struggling majority" grow from simple 51% to increasingly-closer-to "bottom 90%" lately... I start getting really concerned. I don't giveAF about almost anything, but whatever this majority's percentage: they're not wrong (life is getting too difficult for majority).

¢¢

Re: Why Aren't People Going to Local and Regional In-Person Events Anymore?

#67

Post by ghaff »

prasadjoglekar wrote: post #30
nerdjon wrote: post #7

As mentioned in the article, I think the single biggest reason was that Covid largely showed us that it is not strictly necessary to physically be together for everything. Conferences, announcements, etc all happened virtually and things were largely fine. Sure things like networking were lost (and the associated drinking), and while that was valuable was not necessarily the marketed reason for the events. We see the…

Almost no one in my field goes to conferences to "learn" anything. Panels don't say anything controversial it's all a giant marketing presentation. Two or three years in you hear the same shit again and again and zone out. What people do go to conferences for is networking and meeting people. It's often the only time some folks are in the same spot for a face to face dialog. That is 100% not replicable online.

Panels are (mostly) useless unless you have a good moderator and panelists a little controversial. Crowded breakout rooms (or keynotes with 10,000 of your closest friends), I'd mostly rather watch the video or a good stream--though I may not take the time. As mentioned somewhere upthread, conferences can also have value in somewhat focusing your attention for a few days.

Re: Why Aren't People Going to Local and Regional In-Person Events Anymore?

#68

Post by ghaff »

nerdjon wrote: post #20
bilsbie wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary it actually showed me the value of person.

It did for me too, I still travel to some things. But it did show me that a lot of things were unnecessary to travel too and were just fine virtually. It isnt go back to how it was before or all virtual, there is a middle ground of traveling and in person when it is actually valuable instead of just being yet another conference.

I still go to some events; I'm in a part-time role these days on my own as well. But I'm much more selective than 10 years or so when I was constantly putting out speaking proposals and shooting off to conferences pretty casually.

Re: Why Aren't People Going to Local and Regional In-Person Events Anymore?

#69

Post by cosmic_cheese »

ghaff wrote: post #63
lazide wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, though many are now stuck with a deteriorating situation in a place with not a lot of actual career options.

Many people who moved moved somewhere in the orbit of a large city. Less true in the Bay Area but a 60-90 minute radius of a large city usually has some relatively attractive real estate pricing. And many offices are out that way anyway. But it does make driving in for evening events less attractive. I used to do it more but, for the most part, really cut back on driving in after work for social events, etc.

Yep, this is what I did. I made a point of not going too far out for exactly that reason. I wasn’t able to save as much money as some did, but CoL was still halved which opened immense breathing room with little risk.

Re: Why Aren't People Going to Local and Regional In-Person Events Anymore?

#70

Post by rwmj »

Apreche wrote: post #26

I have seen some events doing very well and some doing very poorly. There are some factors not mentioned here. The biggest is cost. Travel, especially lodging, is very expensive right now in major cities, especially in the US. People just can’t afford hundreds per night. If an event has a larger population density within reach of walking, driving, and public transportation then more people turn up. Another is industr…

I'm going to KVM Forum next week, and it's going to cost €1100 for 3 nights(!) Most is the cost of the hotel (€600). Europe doesn't do Japanese-style business hotels with single rooms with a compact bathroom and low prices, so you end up booking a big double room for each person.
Post reply on HN