In the past several weeks I have had the joy of attending several conferences: Seattle Mind Camp, a meeting of local technophiles, the Social Computing Sympsium, which brings together leading academics, practitioners, and pundits to discuss social technologies, and ISCRAM, an academic conference for researchers focusing on information systems for crisis management.
These conferences adopted very distinct formats. Both Seattle Mind Camp and the Symposium adopted an Open Space style, which is very discussion-oriented, enabling participants to generate their own discussion topics, in hopes of leading to the emergence of cutting edge themes. ISCRAM, on the other hand, has a very traditional academic style, with paper proceedings and presentations.
As an event organizer (I organized the first two Social Computing Symposiums, workshops, group meetings) these distinct styles really raise the question: why do people go to conferences? Common themes are a) developing collaborative relationships with like-minded people, b) the exchange and development of ideas as a community, and c) learning from each other to accelerate advances in the field as people build on each other’s work. More implicit goals are a) social support from like-minded people, b) having fun conversations over wine with conference buddies who are willing to talk to you about something that would make your friends at home yawn in boredom, and c) exploring career opportunites.
At Seattle Mind Camp I really valued the increased prospect of potential collaborations (informal or formal) because people were co-located. At the Symposium, I felt like I was at a party with old pals, because I had a lot of history with my colleagues there. However, I was left feeling hungry for more of an awareness of their latest work. I had a vague feeling that I had already had many of the conversations, somehow they did not achieve a lot of depth. Now, here at ISCRAM, I find myself really enjoying the depth of knowledge I am developing for an area of research to which I have not had a lot of exposure. It reminds me that yes I do value the sheer new knowledge that one can acquire from an in depth presentation of a research project. I know this sentiment is not too popular in some crowds, but I say bring on extended paper presentations, powerpoint and all!
Obviously, the ideal conference has a mix. Throw in a keynote talk from a mucky muck everyone wants to meet, a few carefully selected presentations showing new innovative work, a few sessions where people discuss whatever they deem interesting, and many opportunities to drink wine and get sloppily philosophical.
