4 ms·

>> Conferences now feel more like a show and tell with blogpost level quality writing. Most non-academic conference talks I see could have been summarised easil

by LandR 7y ago

>> Conferences now feel more like a show and tell with blogpost level quality writing. Most non-academic conference talks I see could have been summarised easily in a blogpost and a few screenshots or at most a slide deck. Exactly why I stopped going to conferences. The quality of the speakers is mostly terrible. They choose a grand sounding topic then the talk turns out to be incredibly shallow and pointless. I often wonder how many of them could actually speak at depth, extemporaneously, about the subect of their talk or if their actual knowledge collides with the end of their slides. I think also it's just a way for the speakers to advertise the company they work for.

jcadam 7y ago
> The quality of the speakers is mostly terrible. They choose a grand sounding topic then the talk turns out to be incredibly shallow and pointless. Yea, I'd like to speak at a conference some day, maybe when I'm more experienced and feel like I have something worthy to contribute. That's not looking likely - I'm turning 40 soon and still don't feel like I've mastered any aspect of computer science and/or developed any new insight into software development to the degree I could get up at a large conference and act like an authority on anything. And then I go to conferences where I'm forced to sit through presentations that the speaker obviously threw together on the plane (while half-drunk) the day before. Terrible and shallow and pointless, indeed.
algorithmmonkey 7y ago
For quite a few, it is a _main_ goal for the speakers to either draw attention to their company's product or to provide an air of thought leadership on behalf of their company.
- rstuart4133 7y ago
  Of course it is. Any conference being paid for in one way of another by companies will do the companies bidding. He who holds the gold makes the rules, as they say. But trying going to a conference that isn't organised by a company, or as a venue for companies to show their products. They exist. They are usually associated with open source groups/meetups of some kind. In some ways they are very vanilla - no fancy food or hotels, nobody actually pays for that crap out of their own pocket. But the talks - the talks are from a different world. Nobody is there to talk about their company. It's engineers talking to other engineers. Some are serious, some are playful, some are seriously nuts, but all know they are talking to their peers and are not game to spout too much bullshit. If they don't believe it, it doesn't get said. It's like comparing the comments on HN to the journalistic output on a mass media site.
boris 7y ago
> I often wonder how many of them could actually speak at depth, extemporaneously, about the subect of their talk or if their actual knowledge collides with the end of their slides. Was not my experience at CppCon at least. In fact, the problem is usually that they are pretty pedestrian presenters and/or run out of time. But most clearly know what they are talking about. Maybe this is different at other conferences though.
- vaylian 7y ago
  I guess C++ is immune to hypes at this point. You can't bullshit your way through a topic where most of your audience probably has at least a decade of C++ experience under their belts.
rumanator 7y ago
> The quality of the speakers is mostly terrible. They choose a grand sounding topic then the talk turns out to be incredibly shallow and pointless. Indeed, but after the 20 minutes of inane drivel the speaker enjoys a lifetime with a CV attesting to the fact that he spoke at a conference about a grand sounding topic, thus he is a bona fide expert and reference on a grand sounding topic.
pathseeker 7y ago
Part of the issue is that companies now many use "developer advocates" as mouthpieces at the conferences. They are usually good at giving presentations, being social, being PC, etc but are generally lacking any real depth about the product they are presenting. At most tech conferences you are now getting presentations from a technical marketer on a circuit who has given the same presentation (or a variation of it) 10 times in the last month rather than the people who did the work.
adthomsen 7y ago
> The quality of the speakers is mostly terrible. I agree - mostly. I was at Visual Studio Live in Vegas a few years back and apart from Donovan Brown giving an absolutely mind-blowing presentation of Azure DevOps the quality of the sessions was so bad I felt it as an insult. At Anglebrackets I've had better luck. I went earlier this year and saw a presentation on Blazor given by one of the devs on the team.
lowercased 7y ago
I'm an expert in some things, beginner in others. I've done a few conference talks, and on topics where I'm an enthusiast, I've always made sure to title/label as "intro to ... foo" or "foo 101". The last thing I've wanted to do was to make someone feel they wasted their time at my talk, precisely because I've felt that way about so many others over the years.

by LandR 7y ago

jcadam 7y ago

> The quality of the speakers is mostly terrible. They choose a grand sounding topic then the talk turns out to be incredibly shallow and pointless. Yea, I'd like to speak at a conference some day, maybe when I'm more experienced and feel like I have something worthy to contribute. That's not looking likely - I'm turning 40 soon and still don't feel like I've mastered any aspect of computer science and/or developed any new insight into software development to the degree I could get up at a large conference and act like an authority on anything. And then I go to conferences where I'm forced to sit through presentations that the speaker obviously threw together on the plane (while half-drunk) the day before. Terrible and shallow and pointless, indeed.

algorithmmonkey 7y ago

For quite a few, it is a _main_ goal for the speakers to either draw attention to their company's product or to provide an air of thought leadership on behalf of their company.

rstuart4133 7y ago
Of course it is. Any conference being paid for in one way of another by companies will do the companies bidding. He who holds the gold makes the rules, as they say. But trying going to a conference that isn't organised by a company, or as a venue for companies to show their products. They exist. They are usually associated with open source groups/meetups of some kind. In some ways they are very vanilla - no fancy food or hotels, nobody actually pays for that crap out of their own pocket. But the talks - the talks are from a different world. Nobody is there to talk about their company. It's engineers talking to other engineers. Some are serious, some are playful, some are seriously nuts, but all know they are talking to their peers and are not game to spout too much bullshit. If they don't believe it, it doesn't get said. It's like comparing the comments on HN to the journalistic output on a mass media site.

boris 7y ago

> I often wonder how many of them could actually speak at depth, extemporaneously, about the subect of their talk or if their actual knowledge collides with the end of their slides. Was not my experience at CppCon at least. In fact, the problem is usually that they are pretty pedestrian presenters and/or run out of time. But most clearly know what they are talking about. Maybe this is different at other conferences though.

vaylian 7y ago
I guess C++ is immune to hypes at this point. You can't bullshit your way through a topic where most of your audience probably has at least a decade of C++ experience under their belts.

rumanator 7y ago

> The quality of the speakers is mostly terrible. They choose a grand sounding topic then the talk turns out to be incredibly shallow and pointless. Indeed, but after the 20 minutes of inane drivel the speaker enjoys a lifetime with a CV attesting to the fact that he spoke at a conference about a grand sounding topic, thus he is a bona fide expert and reference on a grand sounding topic.

pathseeker 7y ago

Part of the issue is that companies now many use "developer advocates" as mouthpieces at the conferences. They are usually good at giving presentations, being social, being PC, etc but are generally lacking any real depth about the product they are presenting. At most tech conferences you are now getting presentations from a technical marketer on a circuit who has given the same presentation (or a variation of it) 10 times in the last month rather than the people who did the work.

adthomsen 7y ago

> The quality of the speakers is mostly terrible. I agree - mostly. I was at Visual Studio Live in Vegas a few years back and apart from Donovan Brown giving an absolutely mind-blowing presentation of Azure DevOps the quality of the sessions was so bad I felt it as an insult. At Anglebrackets I've had better luck. I went earlier this year and saw a presentation on Blazor given by one of the devs on the team.

lowercased 7y ago

I'm an expert in some things, beginner in others. I've done a few conference talks, and on topics where I'm an enthusiast, I've always made sure to title/label as "intro to ... foo" or "foo 101". The last thing I've wanted to do was to make someone feel they wasted their time at my talk, precisely because I've felt that way about so many others over the years.