Conferences and Corridors

Today was the annual dConstruct conference. Instead of being at the afterparty, I'm in Suffolk. Why?

Let's step back first. I attended Interesting earlier this year, and it was a wonderfully organised single-track conference - personally I enjoyed pretty much every talk of the day, so it wasn't a hardship at all to sit through them. However, because everyone was in their seats for much of the scheduled six and a half hours, there wasn't much room for a social aspect. Sure, there was lunch, and a post-event pub, but the former is only so long and the latter was so full that it inevitably splintered. (It's also easy to get sat with a group and not mingle when you're at a pub.)

In contrast, I wasn't able to make it to OpenTech, but I know it had multiple tracks, and this constant turnover makes it easier to meet other people, but it also makes it more acceptable to ignore the speakers altogether and instead socialise. (Indeed, if I understood Twitter right, there was a fair bit of that going on.) However, the presence of an event also makes it much more likely that you'll see a mix of folk, as they wander in and out of talks.

This is hardly a new observation - indeed, the phenomenon of the "corridor track" is commonplace enough to have a name - but the point when it comes to dConstruct is that I'd rather avoid single-track conferences, because they don't easily enable that socialising. I accept that partly this is due to me - I'm very much a developer, and found the 2007 programme of talks a bit too design-led (apparently 2006 was the year I should have attended) - yet I also think it's a handy rule of thumb, if you're lucky enough to have a choice in such matters, that the social side of such a conference will be lacking. Meanwhile, I accept that dConstruct's pre- and post-event parties do help, but for me, they're not enough - especially if you come down on the day and leave early in the evening. The upshot is that I'll try and attend events elsewhere.

(I was inspired to write up what's been a common real-life rant by a tweet from Phil Gyford, who asked "Are there any conferences that don't have talks?". I suppose one could mention the BarCamp format, but, informal as they are, they do still have talks.)