DConf 2019: Shepherd's Pie Edition

[Nicholas Wilson]

On Sunday, 23 December 2018 at 08:08:59 UTC, Joakim wrote:
> On Sunday, 23 December 2018 at 06:54:26 UTC, Russel Winder 
> wrote:
>> Others have cited Rust and Go. I shall cite Python, Ruby, 
>> Groovy, Java, Kotlin, Clojure, Haskell, all of which have 
>> thriving programming language oriented conferences all over 
>> the world. Then there are the Linux conferences, GStreamer 
>> conferences, conference all about specific technologies rather 
>> than programming languages. And of course there is ACCU. There 
>> is much more evidence that the more or less traditional 
>> conference format serves a purpose for people, and are 
>> remaining very successful. Many of these conferences make good 
>> profits, so are commercially viable.
>
> That's all well and good, but none of this addresses the key 
> points of whether there are less tech conferences being done 
> and whether they make sense in this day and age. There are 
> still people riding in horse and carriage, that doesn't mean 
> it's still a good idea. :)

You say that like some superior technology exists to replace the 
conference.  Yes, DConf may benefit from tutorials, workshops, 
BoFs, whatever, but the value it brings to the community is very 
real.

>> Thus I reject the fundamental premise of your position that 
>> the conference format is dying off. It isn't. The proof is 
>> there.
>
> Yes, the proof is there: the conference is dying.

Hardly. IME there are two kinds of conferences (or maybe they 
form a spectrum, whatever) academic and industrial. Academic is 
going nowhere, research needs presenting, organisation of 
collaboration needs to happen. Industrial, there is project 
coordination, employment prospectus, business opportunities, why 
do you think companies sponsor conferences? They get their moneys 
worth out of it.

Perhaps you as an individual believe that they are not cost 
effective for you, fine. But consider that the foundation 
reimburses speakers and I personally would be very interested to 
hear what you have been doing with Andoird/ARM and I'm sure many 
others would as well, the question becomes: is it worth your time?