#notallconferences

Conferences are draining. Speaker content, side conversations, intros and meet ups, after-parties, networking. Each channel competing for your attention, drawing your energy, balanced out somewhere on a scale ranging between meaningful and tolerable.

More and more I have less and less interest in focusing energy into the tolerable aspects of conferences. Life changes and nothing seems to shift so clearly as the type of fuel you burn, the things that fill you up. The after parties and drinks, karaoke and more drinks. They don’t fill me up.

I don’t have to go too far back to find a younger version of me looking forward to whatever we-all-fall-down party was coming up later that week. I went to college. Today, though, that kind of thing seems like the ‘other’ lever. The one the self-administering monkey keeps pulling even though it’s killing him. The party lever.

I’ll still pull the lever now and then, if this analogy even makes sense. Smaller doses for sure. But, time in the gym, a spin on the bikes, a week in the mountain maybe, that’s the kind of thing I look forward to. More meaningful time spent with a smaller circle of humans.

The consolation here is that the web attracts really cool people. That and surprisingly good content keep my event anticipation high enough to want to keep at it for the professional kick. Despite the personal drain. Despite the lack of collegiate conditioning.

I think there’s room for a conference model with less personal drain, though. Fewer drinks maybe. Somewhere that still allows the side conversations and meet-up, intros and networking, but allows it to occur somewhere other than at the bar. In the mountains maybe.

I’m not standing here with a flame thrower. None of this is meant as industry-wide damnation. I’m thinking along the lines of in addition to, not instead of. On the whole, conferences still end up in the black for me, and I’m sure the average event-goer ranks after-parties much higher than I do. But there are others in our field who rank networking over drinks far lower even than tolerable. It’s important to consider.

I’m surprised the model doesn’t already exist. And maybe it does.

I asked twitter the question, “Has anyone ever been to a web conference where drinking wasn’t considered part of the event?” Exaggerated for effect.

A handful of young, white guys came to alcohol’s defense, but nobody was able to point to a lighter touch event. One that didn’t seem to celebrate the networking over drinks. One that didn’t have the party lever.

Again, I’m not judging anyone’s love of keg beer or well drinks, karaoke or body shots. I’m mining for something that doesn’t require four days away from work, the gym, my smallest and favorite circle of humans. Something that doesn’t encourage three consecutive nights of drinking for the sake of networking. Something worth anticipating. Without also dreading.

Is it out there?