Comments on: Why You Should Attend Two Conferences a Year

By: ronsman

ronsman — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:00:10 +0000

@ wil:

Nup, Miles is spot-on. I work for myself, by myself in a regional setting – no regular work chat other than via the net. I’m self-educated in web stuff, all from books and self-contained home-based training material.

All good, but it wasn’t until I started going to at least one conference a year that the whole thing turned into a business for me. At a technical level, I derived more context in one two-day conference than in the whole previous year’s learning.

Listening to the presenters, talking to the presenters, talking to other attendees – there is no subsititute. When a Dave Shea or a Jeremy Keith explains a technique to me on the spot, it makes a lot more sense than the best written description in any book, including their own.

Like Miles, I also get real work out of the conferences. I’ve been going to Web Directions since it was Essentials and I have made money out of what I learned and who I talked to at every one of them.

I love the books (God bless Sitepoint and tuck her in safely at night), and they go a long way to explaining my craft, but it’s the conferences that help put what I learn into a practical context, and help me grow my business.

I set myself a professional development budget each year, and split that between ivesting in books and tutorials, and in going to a couple of conferences a year. It pays off.

By: mattymcg

mattymcg — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:23:11 +0000

Here's another one for the list: OzeWAI OZeWAI is an annual conference that concentrates on Web accessibility. The tenth anniversary conference will be 21 - 23 January 2009 at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. OZeWAI is relatively small so that people can meet one another and get to grips with issues. It has consistently had high quality international and national keynote speakers. It is a friendly conference with a strong government and university mix. The OSDC is also probably one worth including.

By: wil

wil — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:53:23 +0000

Not to say that good conferences don’t provide the gravitas you attribute to them Miles but the statement that “you’ll learn more from attending one conference than all the books and blog posts you can read in one month” strikes me as being untrue. Or at least inaccurate.
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I think self education from books, tutorials and (especially) professional training material is extremely hard to beat. The difficulty with them however is that in order to sustain that education you need enthusiasm for what you’re pursuing. Which hits on the real advantage of conferences as you mentioned in your second point; the getting involved, getting your feet wet and becoming *active*
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Thanks for the article, it’s reminded me why I need to get out more … perhaps to the next Web Directions South :)

By: Magnus

Magnus — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:06:46 +0000

Really good article with great tips!
I find it to be quite hard to find good conferances that I’m able to attend, beeing from Sweden and working with interface development and user experience. For me the perfect one would be Future of Web Design in New York. Wich my employer didn’t agree with due to the cost of airplane tickets and staying at a hotel.