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Its all very well to bitch and moan about "tech industry controlling conference funding", but the reality is that conferences are expensive and the money needs

Its all very well to bitch and moan about "tech industry controlling conference funding", but the reality is that conferences are expensive and the money needs to come from somewhere. Speaking from experience. Even a decent sized "basic" conference (i.e. no fancy stage setups etc.) will still cost you an arm and a leg. You need to: - Pay the venue for the space - Pay the venue for the refreshments during breaks and meals (unless you are mean and don't feed people !) - Pay for a basic AV setup - Deal with registration - Pay for hotel rooms and travel for your team - Pay for various other things that soon add up (e.g. transport storage costs if you are shipping stuff there a few days before) So you might say, well, how about going 100% digital. Well, trust me, the good platforms know they are good and they charge accordingly. Ok you might say, "well, we'll charge registration fees". Well sure you might, and sure that might well cover 100% of your costs. But have you ever seen how registration goes for a conference ? It takes time for the numbers to ramp up. In the mean time, you need money in the bank to pay for stuff you need to pay for "now". And you need money in the bank as security for the contracts you'll be signing with the venues (if nobody turns up or fewer people than expected, the venue will still want some money off you). So, its then a question of where the money comes from. And like it or not, corporate sponsorship is typically the easiest way. The corporate structure "understands" what a conference is, so you won't get bogged down in discussions. The corporate way is also the easiest way to get nice big chunks of cash instead of having to beg tens or hundreds of different people.

deleted 5y ago
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ericmay 5y ago
Yep. I created a “hackathon” style event at a university for students pre-pandemic. The space was free and given by the university engineering college. For one day of 3 meals and t-shirts it was like $5,000. Partly because we had to go through the university catering service. And that was for about 60 students (we planned on I think around 90?). If we needed event space and the university charged us that would have been 3x at least. And this was run with nothing but volunteers. We had lots of corporate sponsors and honestly it was great. They mentored students, they set up career fair style booths and just had fun and shared good info about their companies. Without their partnership, frankly, a lot less would have been achieved. It was a win-win for everyone.
- Plasmoid 5y ago
  Oh god, University catering was the worst. They would happily charge fine dining prices for the most basic of meals, and would take forever to get back to you. I couldn't tell if we were getting the Fuck-Off rate or this was seriously what they charged everyone.
  - ericmay 5y ago
    Yea… we got the discount rate and I appreciate the thoughts from the university but it was just way too expensive. Oh and they “couldn’t leave food out” so all of this coffee, breakfast bagels, fruit, etc. that we could have had available all day was gone after meal time because of some rule they had. I’m sure there were good intentions or there was a good reason but universities are far too inflexible when it comes to such things.
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
I knew some people who ran a popular regional tech conference. You’re exactly right that it’s incredibly expensive to run anything like this at a traditional venue. As far as I could tell, the sponsors had zero additional asks. They paid money in exchange for the pre-determined advertising package to have their logo printed everywhere. At a certain level they got a booth where they could hand out swag and recruit. They didn’t direct the conference itself, though. Maybe it’s different at the mega-conferences, but locally there was no indication that the sponsors were trying to capture the conference. The financial risk was relatively serious. At first they tried to keep ticket prices as low as possible but ended up losing money after things like refunds (more then expected) and surprise expenses (also more then expected). Conferences are also a lightning rod for drama. No matter how much they stayed ahead of current trends, there was always someone trying to stir up conflict and drama over something related to the conference or the speakers or the topics. If they gained enough angry supporters it resulted in a wave of refund requests that could ruin the profitability. Ultimately they ended the conference. I wouldn’t be surprised if they lost more money than they brought in over the years. The actual benefit for them was in their careers. Being the organizer of a medium size tech conference is an easy way to make your resume look very impressive. One of them landed a series of impressive jobs and then was quietly let go from most of them because being a conference organizer doesn’t necessarily translate to being a good manager, but that’s a story for a different day. I’m sure he can still walk his resume into most companies and get it to the top of the pile based on his conference activities years ago.
- azinman2 5y ago
  > As far as I could tell, the sponsors had zero additional asks. They paid money in exchange for the pre-determined advertising package to have their logo printed everywhere. At a certain level they got a booth where they could hand out swag and recruit. They didn’t direct the conference itself, though. Maybe it’s different at the mega-conferences, but locally there was no indication that the sponsors were trying to capture the conference And that’s exactly right. This is needlessly alarmist. A lot of accusations without any kind of macro analysis on what consequences this all has. It and also further doesn’t provide context of this versus government funding in academia, along with reasonable alternatives. It also doesn’t recognize the growth these fields have had, and how the landscape has changed with the scale.
ghaff 5y ago
Furthermore, most of the people attending are being paid by their employers to do so. The number of tech-related events I would attend on my own dime and vacation could be counted on one hand with fingers to spare.
deleted 5y ago
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vlovich123 5y ago
So there’s nothing wrong with pharma sponsored conferences for doctors right? Yes corporations understand conferences because there’s a benefit to being a sponsor/running one. One needn’t ignore conflicts of interests.
- SpicyLemonZest 5y ago
  Doctors are expected to make prescriptions based solely on the interests of their patients, and it’s a big deal if they don’t. There’s not really an analogous concern in software. By all means let’s be aware of the incentives, but if Google wants to give a bunch of developers a good time as part of a strategy to get them using Kubernetes, I don’t see an issue with that.
  - cto_of_antifa 5y ago
  - vlovich123 5y ago
    Expectation doesn't always match reality & there's plenty of studies that show that trade shows DO impact the recommendations they make to their patients. Doctor's aren't a special class of human that has figured out how to avoid the biases that can be exploited in every other human.
- traceroute66 5y ago
  > Yes corporations understand conferences because there’s a benefit to being a sponsor/running one. One needn’t ignore conflicts of interests. Well, there is kind of the point that they will only sponsor relevant events, there's not much point sponsoring an event outside their industry or target market. Also in terms of regulated markets such as healthcare and finance there may be regulatory restrictions on marketing to consumers. Hence it would be easier to sponsor to an industry conference because you would be marketing to industry professionals, and in that context regulatory restrictions on marketing are typically more relaxed because it is implied that the professionals should be wise enough to know when things are suitable. As for the specific case of doctors. As has already been said, they have a strict obligation to their patients first, a fact that is no doubt hammered into them during their many years at medical school.
tootie 5y ago
Also, conferences are basically job fairs and service markets. Of course companies pay for them, they exist for their interests.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

ericmay 5y ago

Yep. I created a “hackathon” style event at a university for students pre-pandemic. The space was free and given by the university engineering college. For one day of 3 meals and t-shirts it was like $5,000. Partly because we had to go through the university catering service. And that was for about 60 students (we planned on I think around 90?). If we needed event space and the university charged us that would have been 3x at least. And this was run with nothing but volunteers. We had lots of corporate sponsors and honestly it was great. They mentored students, they set up career fair style booths and just had fun and shared good info about their companies. Without their partnership, frankly, a lot less would have been achieved. It was a win-win for everyone.

Plasmoid 5y ago
Oh god, University catering was the worst. They would happily charge fine dining prices for the most basic of meals, and would take forever to get back to you. I couldn't tell if we were getting the Fuck-Off rate or this was seriously what they charged everyone.
- ericmay 5y ago
  Yea… we got the discount rate and I appreciate the thoughts from the university but it was just way too expensive. Oh and they “couldn’t leave food out” so all of this coffee, breakfast bagels, fruit, etc. that we could have had available all day was gone after meal time because of some rule they had. I’m sure there were good intentions or there was a good reason but universities are far too inflexible when it comes to such things.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

I knew some people who ran a popular regional tech conference. You’re exactly right that it’s incredibly expensive to run anything like this at a traditional venue. As far as I could tell, the sponsors had zero additional asks. They paid money in exchange for the pre-determined advertising package to have their logo printed everywhere. At a certain level they got a booth where they could hand out swag and recruit. They didn’t direct the conference itself, though. Maybe it’s different at the mega-conferences, but locally there was no indication that the sponsors were trying to capture the conference. The financial risk was relatively serious. At first they tried to keep ticket prices as low as possible but ended up losing money after things like refunds (more then expected) and surprise expenses (also more then expected). Conferences are also a lightning rod for drama. No matter how much they stayed ahead of current trends, there was always someone trying to stir up conflict and drama over something related to the conference or the speakers or the topics. If they gained enough angry supporters it resulted in a wave of refund requests that could ruin the profitability. Ultimately they ended the conference. I wouldn’t be surprised if they lost more money than they brought in over the years. The actual benefit for them was in their careers. Being the organizer of a medium size tech conference is an easy way to make your resume look very impressive. One of them landed a series of impressive jobs and then was quietly let go from most of them because being a conference organizer doesn’t necessarily translate to being a good manager, but that’s a story for a different day. I’m sure he can still walk his resume into most companies and get it to the top of the pile based on his conference activities years ago.

azinman2 5y ago
> As far as I could tell, the sponsors had zero additional asks. They paid money in exchange for the pre-determined advertising package to have their logo printed everywhere. At a certain level they got a booth where they could hand out swag and recruit. They didn’t direct the conference itself, though. Maybe it’s different at the mega-conferences, but locally there was no indication that the sponsors were trying to capture the conference And that’s exactly right. This is needlessly alarmist. A lot of accusations without any kind of macro analysis on what consequences this all has. It and also further doesn’t provide context of this versus government funding in academia, along with reasonable alternatives. It also doesn’t recognize the growth these fields have had, and how the landscape has changed with the scale.

ghaff 5y ago

Furthermore, most of the people attending are being paid by their employers to do so. The number of tech-related events I would attend on my own dime and vacation could be counted on one hand with fingers to spare.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

vlovich123 5y ago

So there’s nothing wrong with pharma sponsored conferences for doctors right? Yes corporations understand conferences because there’s a benefit to being a sponsor/running one. One needn’t ignore conflicts of interests.

SpicyLemonZest 5y ago
Doctors are expected to make prescriptions based solely on the interests of their patients, and it’s a big deal if they don’t. There’s not really an analogous concern in software. By all means let’s be aware of the incentives, but if Google wants to give a bunch of developers a good time as part of a strategy to get them using Kubernetes, I don’t see an issue with that.
- cto_of_antifa 5y ago
- vlovich123 5y ago
  Expectation doesn't always match reality & there's plenty of studies that show that trade shows DO impact the recommendations they make to their patients. Doctor's aren't a special class of human that has figured out how to avoid the biases that can be exploited in every other human.
traceroute66 5y ago
> Yes corporations understand conferences because there’s a benefit to being a sponsor/running one. One needn’t ignore conflicts of interests. Well, there is kind of the point that they will only sponsor relevant events, there's not much point sponsoring an event outside their industry or target market. Also in terms of regulated markets such as healthcare and finance there may be regulatory restrictions on marketing to consumers. Hence it would be easier to sponsor to an industry conference because you would be marketing to industry professionals, and in that context regulatory restrictions on marketing are typically more relaxed because it is implied that the professionals should be wise enough to know when things are suitable. As for the specific case of doctors. As has already been said, they have a strict obligation to their patients first, a fact that is no doubt hammered into them during their many years at medical school.

tootie 5y ago

Also, conferences are basically job fairs and service markets. Of course companies pay for them, they exist for their interests.