Marco Arment:
Having attended (and sometimes spoken at) many of these conferences over the years, I can’t deny the feeling I’ve had in the last couple of years that the era of the small Apple-ish developer-ish conference is mostly or entirely behind us.
And:
It’s getting increasingly difficult for organizers to sell tickets, in part because it’s hard to get big-name speakers without the budget to pay them much (which would significantly drive up ticket costs, which exacerbates other problems), but also because conferences now have much bigger competition in connecting people to their colleagues or audiences.
Marco digs into the why’s of this change. Good read.
I think Apple is onto something with its retail strategy under Angela.
Apple long since realized the inefficiency and futility of conferences, but also solved retail by developing its own unique style. Now, under Angela’s and Jony’s guidance, they’ve further refined retail to give it much of the appeal of conferences in that the new “Apple (location name)s” are more destinations and meeting places than they are stores, as such.
“they’ve further refined retail to give it much of the appeal of conferences”
I couldn’t disagree more. Conferences (the good ones, at least) are more about the people attending, the conversations you have with fellow attendees, the knowledge you gain from speakers, etc. None of which I’ve ever experienced in an Apple Retail Store.
Same here. I miss the old conference days. Getting to know new products, speak with the people who created them. Getting to know new companies and the employees.
Settle down. While you’re cheerleading Apple, you’re also conflating the core purposes of two entirely different venues.
As Shawn put it, as a working designer, I’d attend conferences in the hopes of learning new things from a variety of presenters, seeing demonstrations of a wide variety of new products/services, and mixing with fellow designers to exchange experiences.
I go to an Apple retail store to play with one or two products and get hardware fixed.
These two don’t overlap very much, and never have.
As always with Marco, I come out of the article with more “what a fucking moron” than anything else.
None of these conditions are new.
Apparently, conferences have never existed.
Luckily, there’s people out there who know how to do one anyway.
It’s New to Him.™
It’s funny. I really don’t have any problem with Marco writing whatever the hell he wants. Hell, by Sturgeon’s Revelation some of it is bound to be good. But the way the usual suspects trip over themselves to inhale and compliment his farts? Argh. So depressing.
Agreed. There’s absolutely no criticism allowed of or by any of The Usual Suspects.
You’re speaking about the past. I’m speaking about the future. Big difference.
Again, boasting (as you’re wont to do) about the past. And what of the cost of such trips and the ROI? To say nothing of the infrequency of such events. Pretty sad, I’d say. Online webinars and YouTube/Vimeo vids are better resources for learning/training, and available on demand 24/7.
“boasting (as you’re wont to do)”
Is it “boasting” when you do it, or is that just stating personal facts? Pot, meet kettle.
I’m glad you make good use out of online services. It’ll mean fewer people will be forced to listen to your bombast and non-sequiturs in person.
I’m sorry but that makes no sense. Could you clarify?
Leave the pointless name calling out of this discussion please. Make your points without attacking each other or don’t participate. Thank you.
what names?
the thing is Marco is nothing but criticism. he’s the king of the court… Marco Arment’s Techie Echo Chamber of Doom, Worry, and Concern ™. his link-buddy circle all buy into it and treat it like something other than concern trolling. perhaps you dudes don’t see it since your part of the echo chamber and link buds for traffic, but we see it plain as day.
I imagine for most Apple-related professionals local connection are far more valuable than national ones. Apple being able to host local developer groups in all the major cities seems far more valuable than any Macworld or WWDC conference.
Concern trolling is the perfect phrase for it.
And Shawn is most definitely not one of The Usual Suspects. 🙂