- I enjoyed reading Ben's essay this morning about his thoughts regarding online conferences and how things in this regard pan out going forward. I have to admit that I've been thinking quite a lot about this. As someone who spends time on the road at events (more so earlier as a VC), I have been asking myself where do we go from here? Simply taking events online and doing everything via video just ain't happening. But for me, it is not about the events specifically. I am much more interested in changing things for the better having now been forced to.

As much as I'd like to support doing everything virtually, all the things that had me going to events don't happen via video. I've been attending conferences for 20 years primarily for everything that happens in the hallways between the sessions, at the private dinners, in the bars late at night and outside the venue event. I've even had extremely fruitful business relationships start by sharing a ride to the airport in a cab or bumping into someone at the hotel we were both staying at. I can almost guarantee that the least value from events for me happened while sitting and listening to the millionth panel or "fireside chat". Sure there were interesting topics at times and I really did enjoy them but to be honest, I was usually only there by chance as I found the topic interesting and I needed to sit for a while and work on my laptop (or just nap). Likewise, everyone around me was on their phone or laptop. Is this the best way to do this?

Conversely, the most productive aspect of conferences for me have always been the private dinners. I always tell entrepreneurs and basically anyone going to events that the most important thing is to get the invites to the right dinners. This is where you will meet the most interesting people and if you network properly, the quality of events you'll get invited to gets better and better as time goes by. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and everyone there knows that they are invited to meet the best of what the event's attendance list has to offer. Rarely are these events "just for the fun of it". Everyone knows why there are there, why they were invited and what they have to offer. 

Yet, things have changed. I myself am far less interested in travelling as much as I used to. I'm just old but I also find it all so inefficient. As good as dinners or events are, it still feels so random. Yes you can plan ahead but oftentimes, the serendipity has so much going against it. After having spent a ton of money on flights, hotels and cabs, you would wish there was a better, more targeted way....at least I do. I don't mind seeing all the presentations on my own schedule via video. This is an easy part. I even feel that a lot of these panels and chats could easily be done remotely via video and each person on the panel could just push it out via their channels. No need for a conference or a specific date. But....how do you get all the other things optimized? 

My vision would be that you take a sprinkle of video.....a pinch of Tinder.....a little LinkedIn....and the real world. For some reason, I find the whole idea of conferences somehow outdated. Why would I stand at a booth to get info when I can get far more from the company's website. If I have questions, I can easily book a session with someone who will answer all my questions. Far easier! Yet, when it comes to meeting people, I believe you need something a bit like Tinder for dating. Let me quickly figure out whom I want to meet. You would need a LinkedIn aspect to see who they are professionally but the Tinder aspect lets them show what they want and what they are looking for. Once you match people up, you bring them together. Either it is one on one where the two just decide where to meet and talk. Or you create smaller events that are far more selective. You basically take the private dinners and make that the driver of "events". Make the people coming together be so targeted that they may even be willing to pay. I'd far rather pay a couple hundred Euro for the selection process to get me in the room with the right people versus for an event where I go to hardly any of the actual event offerings. Make the "cost" cover bringing people together, picking the venue an taking care of the logistics so I can focus on business. 

This is just a quick riff on what I believe makes sense. I know there are already such "events" happening. There is a US VC event called Lobby I believe where the whole concept of it is to get people to Hawaii and there is no conference....it is just an event that mirrors the interactions of meeting in the lobby of the event venue. Technology is available to make this even more selective. And yes, I know a ton of  variations on this have already been tried but it may have simply been too early and business people were just so used to conferences. What comes of this? I believe right now it is a bit too early. We are stuck in the Covid-19 phase. People aren't yet travelling. I somehow fear we may just return to events as they always were, which I would find disappointing. Or I am wrong and we are already on our way to a whole new way of "conferencing"? I sure hope so.