Future Conferences Get Longer and Shorter

Prediction One: In the future conferences become both longer and shorter.

The virtual genie is out of the bottle and we’ll never get her back in. For all of our complaints about virtual conferences, they’ve proven they’re just as effective as in-person events is for presentations: a terrible presenter can read his PowerPoint slides to a distributed audience of multi-tasking attendees just as “effectively” over Zoom as he can in a dim hotel ballroom.

If all of the content can be delivered just as effectively online, why must attendees receive it in a once-yearly fire hose of talks and panels delivered in one spot at one time?

So how do conferences get longer? Imagine if all that amazing curated content was delivered virtually throughout the year, in consumable doses, in multiple ways (videos, podcasts, presentations, white papers, etc.) so people can learn what they want when they want. What once was four days in Orlando might become a twelve-month mix of evergreen expertise and just-in-time updates to traditional conference attendees (as well as those who could never get approval to attend that boondoggle halfway across the world).

And how will conferences get shorter? Once the learning happens online, organizers and attendees can finally admit that the content was the excuse, but connection was the reason everyone wanted to be in-person in the first place. Now the “live” portion of the event is centered on networking, connection, and collaboration (the things that are much better in person than virtually), the five-day conference becomes two delightful days of thinking together and drinking together.