Why Most Design Conferences Suck
I’m going to headbutt the next workshop facilitator who asks me to design my own wallet
I’ve been going to design, tech, and design-tech conferences for over 10 years. And yet, over 10 years of conference-going I learnt precious little. Basically, I’m done with them. The content is usually 90% filler, talks are vague, and there’s no debate. The events are messily organised, the ticket prices are extortionate, and I feel like there’s no improvement year on year.
It got me wondering why conference standards were so low in a field that’s all about the user experience. I genuinely don’t want to offend anyone, and I know I’m probably going to burn a few bridges…. but design conferences seriously seriously suck and here are a few reasons why.
(BTW this conference rant first happened a podcast I host called the Product Breakfast Club — my co-host had some more “calm points” to make if you’re interested in hearing those)
The show is half-assed
I know from experience that it’s not easy to run even just smaller events for 100 people. But I still feel like conferences get away with a load of bullshit, over and over and over again, and they don’t seem to learn from their mistakes. Even if it’s the 10th edition, you get the feeling they’ve never done it before.
They don’t care if the lights aren’t working or the microphone is squeaky, if the air con is broken or the screen is off. The food is cold and there’s giant queues at the (broken) toilets, but it doesn’t matter as long as they’ve got the right names from Twitter presenting.
They are aware of these problems and always seem stressed about them, but next time it’s just as bad and they don’t sort them out.
I can’t imagine such a poor service anywhere else. I could get a flawless, spectacular show from Coldplay for $80. But design conferences let me down every single time — and I spend twenty times as much on my ticket! Chris Martin would never let you down like that…
Speakers treat it as brag-fests
As a speaker I’ve attended many pre- and post-conference dinners where people are constantly trying to one-up each other about their careers. I just want to be self-deprecating and joke about the absurdity of being a conference speaker, and their response is “Oh yeah? Well I’ve just repurposed my well-oiled presentation that I’ve given at SXSW hundreds of times and I’m kind of a Twitter celebrity”.
For many of these people the reason for speaking at a conference is so they can make themselves and each other look good. There really is no constructive debate going on: panelists are in agreement, there’s no serious content or any genuine learnings shared and it feels like people are trying to hide their trade secrets under vague buzzwords. I can’t count the amount of times that the word “EMPATHY” was the conclusion to a design talk…
There’s an atmosphere of “Isn’t this a great way to spread my brand and what people know about me? That I’m this person that’s really good to hire?” And I’m guilty as charged: the reason I used to speak at these conferences before was because I wanted people to know about me and AJ&Smart. But if you want to up your profile, this is not as effective as a lot of other things you can do.
Sure, there are 500 people in the room, but they go to learn, as well, and more often than not, they’re not in a position to hire. On the other side of the coin, if people think you’ve “made it”, they don’t realise that you’re just as insecure as they are, and that you’re super excited if someone says they liked your talk.
Networking sucks even if you’re an extrovert
Networking events are usually in a super loud bar, followed by a nightclub to guarantee that you have zero chance to actually talk to anyone. There was a conference I used to go to where networking started out quite well-designed and then it got progressively worse each year. You can tell they generally don’t think about making mingling easier, which would be the whole point of conferences.
I’m a relatively extroverted person but in a conference scenario I find it awkward talking to people because I don’t want them to think that I want something from them. In that setting everyone already thinks you do. There’s more to networking than people turning up and magically forging connections. Oh, and did I mention that I’m a pretty big deal on Twitter?
It’s trying to be everything for everyone
Many conferences try to lure in as wide an audience as possible, so they cater to a broad range of superficial interests. The result is that you can’t go deep on any subject. Instead of calling it a specific thing and targeting a specific audience, they make it generic so there’s seemingly something for everyone.
Others try to make it accessible with workshops. Unfortunately, usually it’s the same workshop: introduction to design thinking through building a wallet. Do you have any idea how many times I’ve built a wallet at these things? I’m gonna headbutt somebody if I have to do it again.
What my ideal conference would look like
You can probably tell I’m in no hurry to attend a conference any time soon. That said, I heard of a pretty good one called Epicurrence where you all go on a retreat — now that looks cool. If I were to do a conference, it would be heavily inspired by that.
Here’s how I’d run my dream conference: it would be called the Practical Product Conference and it would be very clearly about products and practical advice. It would probably be just a 2-day thing, with day 1 dedicated to talks and day 2 to workshops.
And here’s the thing: it wouldn’t be about selling tickets with the big names. We would only have maximum 3 speakers, which would enable us to dive as deep into a subject as possible. We’d host very long Q&As, because I find (both as an audience member and as a speaker) that Q&A’s are the single most useful part of a talk. The more people ask questions, the more people are willing to open up and follow their lead. You connect with the audience on another level, and people are relieved to see that others are struggling with the same issues.
All of these things help to forge connections, but I wouldn’t expect that to happen by magic, either: I’d put a lot of effort into connecting people and designing networking events.
Sometimes I get excited about maybe setting it up for real, but then I look into the economics and i’m like “Fuck no!”. The only way to profit from a conference is by doing it the way that all the crappy conferences do it. Oh well..
Are there any conferences I should check out?
I know this article is a bit ranty and angry, but it comes from a good place… I think. Anyway, are there any conferences you’ve been to that you would recommend to a cynic like myself?
The End.
P.S. EMPATHY.
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