What is the purpose of a conference?
Do? Learn? Inspire? Encourage?
The past two weeks have provided opportunities to attend regional conferences, which are considerably different from the other conferences (SMX, SES, An Event Apart, and Web Design World) which regularly dot my travel schedule.
Most recently I was fortunate to attend the 2nd Annual Create West Virginia Conference held at Snowshoe Mountain, West Virginia. The conference focused on what Mythology Marketing’s Jeff James refers to as the pillars of creative communities, which will allow the “creative class” to thrive and lead in the “new economy”.
Available tracts included Business, Place, Resources, Strategy, Education, Diversity and Technology. By all accounts the attendance was up significantly from last year’s inaugural conference and there was no shortage of sessions from which attendees could choose.
A number of high quality keynotes were provided; unfortunately I was only able to take in the following three:
Considering a number of factors including the economy and the apathy amongst the general population in relation to the primary topics, the turnout, the list of speakers and presenters and the overall quality of programming should be commended. Kudos to Jeff James and Skip Lineberg.
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Scanning the social media streams and blogosphere for references to the conference, and live streams provided sparse results.
The poor cell reception and Wi-Fi coverage at Snowshoe Mountain (I am told cell service is limited due to restrictions imposed by the Greenbank Observatory), coupled with the apparent low-level of technology adoption, can be blamed.
I had no problems connecting wirelessly in the sessions in which I attended, and in the main expo hall, and tried to provide a steady stream of Tweets. However, I saw a limited number of folks that were connected during sessions.
I believe that Jason Keeling was blogging (nice meeting you and chatting, albeit briefly!) and I am certain that conference organizers Jeff James and Skip Lineberg will be blogging re-caps of the events. Considering the conference is just in its second year, and that micro-blogging is just reaching its tipping point (and in our area…. general blogging is just being adopted) I think you could expect a greater “streaming” presence next year.
Just my two cents: I would suggest (and volunteer to help with) incorporating live blogging, micro-blogging and live streaming with Qik, Ustream or Kyte. Utilizing available media outlets, all in concert (and with a collective agreement on such things as hash tags) would create buzz, expand coverage beyond just West Virginia and encourage more to embrace technology which can serve to further facilitate the adoption of tools which can help fuel the creative economy.
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I saw a small number of tweets in regards to the conference which insinuated that those attending were less interested in creating things than they were in having a conference.
In a way, I think they are right, but the view is a bit close-minded in my opinion. I see this type of conference as more of a call to action to facilitate and inspire, than to actually create.
Personally, I am more interested in ways in which my business can be a part of the movement to facilitate creative jobs and be involved, and benefit at the same time from the larger whole. If I had attended the conference and found sessions on how to draw, how to paint, how to write etc….it would not have provided me with the information needed to try to facilitate creativity from myself, my family, my community, my state…
After all, isn’t expecting lessons on creativity counter-intuitive? If you are creative….you WILL create things no matter what. If you are already creating, would it not be in your best interest to open the eyes of others that may help facilitate an economy with a higher value on creativity?
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What are you or your community members doing to facility a creative economy?
