Convention Seminars

[Lee]

It just sturck me after speaking to a couple of people who have been to three or four of the most recent seminars that the speakers on these panels are still 'sharing' the same information that they 'shared' three or four years ago.

Surely the whole point of these panels is to give webmasters 'new' information and not the same stuff they can find for free on any decent message forum?

Does anyone else think that sharing the same recycled information is next to useless? Especially when you consider that many of these panel speakers are supposed to be the leaders in their field?

Regards,

Lee

[AusCoding Allan]

I agree Lee, the problem is that of the three industries I've worked in (including this one which I'm still relatively new to) it happens in all seminars. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate people providing knowledge and it is great to hear other people's views on the industry - particularly for a newbie such as myself but I think the lack of cooperation within most industries for fear of loss of that "competitive edge" is detrimental to the whole industry. Got a project your working on - great, got something that will revolutionise the industry - share.

If everyone works together then we are sure to acheive more. It goes like the old saying two heads are better than one

[LavenderLounge]

The information seems the same because you see the same faces on the panels each time.

[Lee]

Originally posted by LavenderLounge
The information seems the same because you see the same faces on the panels each time.

Thats a valid point to although, that in itself should mean that there was new information to be given out surely?

Especially if the speakers had been doing the seminars for several years unless they just talk the talk of course, in which case, why are they on the panels at all? :eek:

Regards,

Lee

[mansites-craig]

Hey Lee,
I have been to my share of events and been on both sides of the panels. The panels are usually an open fourm, and we joke that we get asked the same questions every time.

If the moderators were given a list of tough questions to ask the panel, you would get a whole different event. Not putting any blame on the moderators, as they host several seminars a day and can't possibly be experts in every field to ask the questions, it would help if someone like you, me, or anyone else on this board loaded them with questions before hand.

Pick the seminars that you care about for the upcoming Florida show, and I am sure the pre-selected moderators would love your questions.
I would just feel sorry for some of the panelists who may/may not be ready for the direct questions, but that is the price of being up there.

[Hammer]

I agree with Craig. I spoke on two panels this weekend, one of which was the gay crossire seminar. In all of the seminars the panelists took 5 minutes or so to say their piece and then the rest of the hour was spent in a Q & A format. The webmasters in the audience had a chance to ask anything they wanted, and in my case, I am more than willing to share my knowledge, but if someone claims they got old information or no information, then they are the ones to blame, not the panelists or the moderators.

[Lee]

If the moderators were given a list of tough questions to ask the panel, you would get a whole different event. Not putting any blame on the moderators, as they host several seminars a day and can't possibly be experts in every field to ask the questions, it would help if someone like you, me, or anyone else on this board loaded them with questions before hand.

I agree with you on that although to some extent i also disagree with you

I honestly dont think the emphasis should be put on the moderators of such panels to ask the questions in fact, from what i recall i have only attended a couple of seminars where audience participation wasnt high however, of those seminars i attended where the audience was asking questions it did seem like the same old questions were being asked by the same audience members

I think it would be a great idea for us to suggest a list of questions that need to be asked on the panels especially the gay panel in Florida if they are having one this year.

Pick the seminars that you care about for the upcoming Florida show, and I am sure the pre-selected moderators would love your questions.

I would just feel sorry for some of the panelists who may/may not be ready for the direct questions, but that is the price of being up there.

Yep i agree with you whole heartedly on this however, in all honesty that is often harder than it may initially sound especially when you consider for the most part seminar topics and speakers are not published until the week prior to the show

In fact i just checked out the Seminars Page on the Internext site and there is no information at all currently displayed

Regards,

Lee

[Lee]

Originally posted by Hammer
but if someone claims they got old information or no information, then they are the ones to blame, not the panelists or the moderators.

No offence Hammer but thats BS.

The only person to blame for a webmaster being given old or no information is the person answering the question posed.

I dont care whether it is a question on gay traffic, search engines, billing processors or hair colors, the panelists on these seminars should be the ones telling webmasters what is happening NOW in the industry not what was happening last year, or even the year before that or the year before that.

Regards,

Lee

[mansites-craig]

I bet we can call AVN/Internext tomorrow, find out who is the moderator/panelists, and I am also willing to bet we know the moderator personally.

We then put together some good/thoughtful/tough questions together, and we have a better seminar. I know I am not on the panel as we didn't do a booth this year, so at the very least I know we can ask the questions ourselves.

[Lee]

Good stuff ill shoot an email across to Tom Hymes with a link to this thread too and hopefully we can get some additional input from him :groovy:

Regards,

Lee

[RainGurl]

I'd say it is true that we tend to see the same people over and over again on the same panels. In fact, unless there is a new point of view on a panel of interest, I usually skip them.

This topic came up quite a bit at cybernet. The panels at cybernet seemed to be heavily occupied by sponsors, rather than "experts."

In addition, panelists frequently seem to get sidetracked from the topic at hand, which transforms the entire seminar into something it wasn't meant to be.

On the other hand, panelists are faced with a couple of problems. There are usually quite a few newbies in the audience that are looking for the basics. Those types of questions have to be answered every time. Also, many thing just can't be said in an open forum, i.e. trade secrets or anything else you wouldn't want to be quoted as saying in the local paper or on dateline.

I think the industy has been around long enough that maybe it is time for some "advanced" panels or even smaller "think tank" type sessions on certain topics.

[dirtygeek]

Ya know, the ones that i have seen where pretty much the same people, talking about the same thing. I don't think that is all the person's sitting on the pannel that aren't informed or talking about old info. I think that part of it is the fact that a lot of these webmasters, expecially the new ones learn the buzz words first and that's what they talk about when they goto one of these things.

However, things do change and these people are on the pannel to teach and inform people that things change and that just because it worked for them does not mean that it will work for you. (The webmaster.)

So maybe it's both the pannel members and the peoeple asking the question that are to blame for miss information or getting old information. I mean everyone can hang out here all day and kick it with all the pimp's arround here.

[Hammer]

Originally posted by Lee
No offence Hammer but thats BS.

The only person to blame for a webmaster being given old or no information is the person answering the question posed.

No offense taken and of course I can only speak for myself, but I am always happy to share what I know with others, so let me revise my original answer to be that if anyone attends a seminar where I'm on the panel and feels they didn't get valid information, they didn't ask the right questions or I couldn't get the microphone away from the guy next to me. Actually, that's not very likely so I guess I'd have to say they just didn't ask the right question.

[BDBionic]

Whoa there... conventions have seminars?! :eek:

I thought it was just parties :wtf:

Seriously, though, I think that what we do see is a fair amount of... nepotism... almost... in the selection of panelists. Same crop of folk over and over who most likely have a close working and personal relationship with whoever it is that selected the panel.

On one hand it's hard to fault anyone for that. If someone's a trusted and close relation, they have enough faith in them and a solid enough reputation that it's a safe bet to put them on the panel as opposed to someone you're not all too familiar with and whose credentials and willingness and ability to share aren't really known.

So it's almost a "pick your poison" scenario.

Further, as some have mentioned, you get a fair number of people who've not attended a great many of these seminars and so really don't know that the question they're asking is one that's been asked a million times before and don't at all know what an answer to it might be. And so it's more than reasonable that they be given the chance to learn.

Ultimately it has to all come down to the moderator, though, who should come with some prestocked questions they don't remember as having been beaten in to the ground in the past and prod original, interesting and informative answers out of the speakers.

It shouldn't be too much to ask of the moderators because as someone affiliated with the organizers of the event that itself touts the seminars as some of their highest selling points, it's up to them to go out of their way to make sure the program will be something worth attending.

[Lee]

No offense taken and of course I can only speak for myself, but I am always happy to share what I know with others,

I know you are dude and it is admirable that you are willing to help so many new webmasters

However, the problem when it comes to seminars is just that, a lot of time, obviously i cant speak for the seminar you were on as i wasnt there, the panelists talk to the individuals asking questions as if they were still new webmasters which, for the most part, they arent.

Seminars like that are of no value to anyone attending them as only a few of the audience members actually get to 'learn' something new.

Heck even the seminar that Gary was on at Phoenix pretty much had the same people answering the same questions with the same style of 'humor' to actual information. Thinking about it a little more, one of the questions that does stick out in my mind that gets asked at almost every panel is 'which sponsors convert best on gay traffic' and well, as you would expect all the panelists do is promote their own shit

There is simply no way that question could be answered, we all have different traffic sources, we all have different marketing techniques and ultimately, just because i can convert on a sponsor, that doesnt mean everyone else will be able to.

Again without offense, i simply wouldnt attend a panel that you were on because i wanted to learn something, i would attend because i wanted to speak to you about something afterwards

Would be good to get some more feedback in this thread as to what people actually do look for in a seminar too

Regards,

Lee