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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 ve

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.

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.