Disclaimer:This is about a local conference they are still trying to do in my home town of Sioux Falls, SD.
A few years ago I was living in downtown Omaha, NE and busting my ass on my company and heard about the South Dakota Techknowlogy Summit which was to be this big attempt to bring a technology convention/conference to my hometown of Sioux Falls, SD. I remember going to one when I was in –believe it or not – eighth grade called E-Tech which quickly disappeared and this was the first time I heard of another attempt at a technology conference ANYWAY. What happened when I attended that year?
I attended a few sessions that interested me and I documented them on ClearVision Media’s website which I think – to this day – was a fair assessment. In fact, I think it was rather kind to believe the organizers were actually looking to make the best event they could. Unfortunately the following year (last year) I find out their true intentions.
I contacted Kara Flanagan from New Horizons Computer Learning Centers of South Dakota whose job was to basically plan the sessions and speakers. She said she interested in having me speak but also pitched me on booth as well. I told her I would consider rocking a booth but that I really had nothing to promote as my web development company was always overbooked and I (at that time) did not have SweetGeekTV or other web properties to really promote there. MOVING ON, What’s the point?
We talked several more times with Kara telling me they would love to have me speak but also always pushing the booth even though I have said on multiple accounts that I had no real use for a booth – so I finally told her I was going to pass on the booth that year (last year) and would seriously consider doing it the next year (this year). That same conversation she told me that there was no room for me to speak then because they were only allowing companies with booths and sponsorships to speak.
I know everyone wants to make money but I’d like to think that making the best-coolest-conference where people want to go not just to miss work but to make it where they REALLY want to go because it’s awesome would turn out to be far more rewarding (in everyway including monetarily).
It really bummed me out that Kara (or the organizers) would just put sponsor spokespeople on the panels and not really try to make the conference the best it could really be, but I guess that was the reason why just a year earlier I just felt like I was being given sales pitches and promotional plugs. I talked to one of the top marketing minds in my home town and he said he wasn’t surprised and things like that happen all the time. I was just sad it had to happen to what I thought could be a real kick ass conference.
So this year now that my company has several things that I’d love to promote more in my home state – I am sitting here writing about how I think the South Dakota Techknowlogy Summit is plainly a waste of time – and it’s killing me to say it. I’ll leave you with one last thought: how can a conference be huge and awesome when all it is is a bunch of sales people rapping to you?
