Are Special Events In a Bubble?
Over the past few years there has been a rapidly emerging industry around events catering to the technology space. When the first bubble burst, the industry was left with a big void. No more lavish parties that were partially to blame for the Web 1.0 hype. As industry professionals young and old have begun to adopt social technologies it has become easier than ever to promote an event and attract hundreds and occasionally thousands of people.
The Internet Helps Connect People Offline
Following the collapse of the bubble, many were left to reflect what had happened and what should be done differently this time around. There was also a fear present that the internet was going to pull people apart and create disjointed communities instead of bringing people together. Around this time (2002) Meetup.com was founded and there was a resurgence in locally oriented events (there were other sites that were used as well, Meetup.com was one of the primary sites at the time).
It was surprising for many people that the internet would actually be used as a way to help people connect offline. Around the same time, a new type of media began to emerge: blogs. If you view the Wikipedia article on blogs as an accurate source of the history of blogs, 2002 was the year that blogs began to attract mainstream attention. This is due to “coverage for their role in breaking, shaping, and spinning news stories”.
The mainstream press began to realize that many blogs were relevant and could be used as a tool for spreading information. This would ultimately be a turning point for many of the mainstream media outlets but that’s for another article. What’s important is that soon enough there was the emergence of extremely powerful blogs that would soon begin leveraging that power to help congregate people.
A New Wave of Events Arrives
Prior to the rise of new media, there were a large number of event focused organizations that were used to spread information within industries. For example there was (and remain to be) a plethora of trade organizations that helped people stay in the loop on what’s taking place in an industry and help connect the people in those industries. The new media organizations (primarily blogs in the tech industry) are replacing what were once referred to as “trade organizations”.
I would argue that many of the popular blogs are becoming a new type of trade organizations. They help people stay up to date on what’s going on in the industry and they are also helping people connect offline through events. There is also another reason that the influential blogs get involved in events: they have a much higher margin.
While well read blogs can attract high advertising rates (typically measured by “Cost per Thousand Impressions” or CPM), it is still hard to run a large media company based solely on website ad revenue today. Just look at the large news organizations (Washington Post, New York Times, etc), they are all struggling to survive in the current environment. Many even wonder if they will survive (see Adage Special Report on Newspapers Future).
As a result of the challenges facing these new media companies, we are witnessing blogs large and small enter the events business.
Tension Emerges
Over the past year, technology events hosted by both blogs as well as strictly events production companies have become ubiquitous. Some events, like SXSW and CES, now attract thousands of attendees, while other events are targeted toward hundreds. The events also range from happy hour networking events like Tech Cocktail to Twiistup to full scale conferences like SNAP Summit, Graphing Social Patterns and our own Social Ad Summit.
Each type of event has different goals and targets a different group of people but within a short period of time there was the emergence of technology events hosted in cities around the world. Why has this happened? I would argue that there are three primary factors contributing to this boom:
- Social Technology – If it weren’t for social technology, event promoters would have to rely on traditional techniques to attract attendees to events. Now thanks to Facebook, Meetup, Upcoming.org and other online event services, it has become easier than ever before for individuals to set up an event in minutes.
- Increase in Self-Promoters – Generation Y and the tail-end of Generation X have realized the power of self-promotion. Whether it’s the books or blogs we read, seeing self-promoters become national celebrities who also attract wealth has encouraged many to become ruthless self-promoters. Call them narcissistic, call them egoists, call them conceited. Whatever you call them, we now live in a world filled with them. Perhaps the absolute number hasn’t increased, it’s just that social technology has made this group more apparent.
- Sound Business Model – Events make money! Yes, event promotion can generate significant revenue. Whether local networking events or large conferences, all have their own model of generating money.
These three things have combined to create a boom in events. Whether it’s an unconference or a “real conference”, a happy hour or a networking event, everywhere you look now there is an event. This is beginning to generate some tension among the ranks on a local level as well as a national level. Just yesterday we saw this result in Mike Arrington’s public lashing of DEMO for false accusations.
On a local level we are seeing the emergence of competing events. While I was in New York City this weekend I learned that there is now two Facebook Developer events: one is officially “sanctioned” by Facebook, the other is a spin-off. Both attract a lot of people.
Bubble’s Growing, Will it Burst?
As the tension emerges, the only question that remains is what’s the end result? Will we have thousands of competing events locally and nationally? Probably. Will they all experience windfall profits? Probably not. In my opinion, all this means is that we have a healthy market. The people are the ones that will decide who succeeds, not the event promoters.
My guess is that we are going to start seeing a large number of event promoters that begin to overextend themselves. This will result in a loss of money for some and occasionally a loss of hope. There’s risk involved in business, so if you plan on hosting that next event, just keep in mind that there’s no guarantee about anything.
One thing that’s perfectly clear: the internet is not going to isolate humans, it’s going to bring us together, online as well as offline.
