http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/new-report-how-marketers-feel-about-conferences

Marketing conferences elicit a lot of feelings and opinions. Some people attend as many as they can, hopping from session to session, listening to keynotes, hanging out at the after-party ice luge. Others can't stand conferences, or can't seem to justify the time or money.

As we've watched the list of marketing conferences grow every year, we've thought more and more about these special events in our professional lives. What makes them tick? Why do people flock to them? What factors get top conferences to the top? And how can organizers improve what they offer?

To answer these questions, we surveyed more than 300 marketing professionals who have at some point donned a name tag lanyard.

SUMMARY: Small conferences Rule

Ha!  I still remember that bar!

"You see that barrel over there? That barrel is older than your country."  <grin>
-nffc

Women are less interested in networking opportunities than men? Wut? 

As a scholar, I went to several conferences with under 50 attendees and some with thousands and nearly 100 sessions going at once. I always had more fun, met more people and learned more at the smaller conferences.

Quote from: ergophobe on June 07, 2017, 11:13:27 PM
I always had more fun, met more people and learned more at the smaller conferences.

Yup. More of a direct connection, better sharing, greater sense of trust, less risk, more time to connect with each person, etc.

Isn't this a bit like the hip indy music scene?

By the time the band is well known by the masses the music no longer represents the "real" struggles of the world?

Same sort of deal to the people who are attracted to different types of events. People interested in smaller events which are not heavily promoted are more likely to know their stuff & have a deeper connection to the event theme. Whereas the larger events are far more likely to have a far higher percent of pure hacks, hanger ons, leeches & people soaking up vacation days away from the office.

I remember back in the day when going to conferences (even the ones where tickets were a grand or more each) something like 80%+ of the people were affiliates, indy players, etc. ... then by the time 2012 rolled around it was the exact opposite, over 80% of the attendees were in-house at big companies & such.

I think one way to go back in time to when the industry was better / more genuine is to go to the smaller events.

Perhaps the other way to do that would be to stake out new channels and topics, though a lot of the social stuff has been more fleeting than search & it seems all the big platforms are now pushing more aggressively for walled gardens.

Same is true in the Affiliate space.

I like Missy Ward but the Summits are just TOO BIG

Business-wise, Corecon 2017 in Wilmington was decent, but too small.  **BUT** it was about as big as it could get without becoming a massive time-suck for the coordinator. When you get above 12-16 attendees, logistics for space -particularly meals- spin out of control.

<added>
>PubConference.com

Still mine. I need to transfer it to a younger man for continuous cold storage.

Quotemassive time-suck for the coordinator.

As I recall we had 3 COORDINATOR MFs in 2001

I think NFFC should be the young man to carry that domain FORWARD

Added:

With the success of the FIRST PubConference so widely known, a gathering of 125 SEO MFs will be hard to do today - imo
There would have to be some "REQUIREMENTS"

>young man

My thought as well.