I did not go to the SHRM conference in NOLA but it’s ad nauseam coverage by bloggers and tweeters got me thinking. Are these big national and state conferences really necessary anymore?

There are limitless webinars targeting every aspect of every topic one may need or want. Most of them are free or very affordable added to the fact that you can ‘attend’ with no travel or conference expense and no time out of the office make them the best bet for education right now.  There are a plethora of podcasts, lunch-and-learns at local attorneys or consultant offices, one day seminars for a fraction of the total cost of a national or state conferences, monthly educational meetings of local associations, e-zines, e-newsletters, magazines, blogs, etc.  I can pinpoint what I need, buy what I can afford and attend when and where it’s convenient for me and my employer.  Alternatively, at a conference, I’d have to pick and choose from the topics/sessions they had to offer.  I don’t know about everyone else but I know I have just settled on sessions to attend something because I felt guilty going to the café and skipping.   I just don’t believe National or State conferences are as relevant as they once were.

What about the ‘green’ aspect of these events too? Sure they are all trying to be green and that is commendable but, come on, you have hundreds or thousands of people traveling, printing, drinking, eating, etc….the green expense is huge. Using webinars or even local one day events must be much more ecologically friendly.

Okay, so what do you miss if you don’t attend a big conference? Some would say the networking.  I think it’s awfully hard to get in meaningful networking with 15,000 people in attendance or even 7,000 as was at SHRM last week. The smaller venue is much better for mingling, mixing and developing relationships.  I am not a social butterfly either so I may be off base….but I think more people are like me than are not (don’t we all think that?).

What else do you miss? The vendors!  I have been a vendor at conferences and the majority of people that come by are there for the goodies or to get their card stamped or some other foolish ‘fun’ thing and not to have a meaningful conversation about our products or services. I don’t blame them.  If they don’t need what we have to offer, why would they spend the time? I understand completely. As an attendee, yes, the swag was always fun to take home to the kids or the office. But I have to say that when I need a vendor I can research on the internet and find pretty much anything and everything in the world I could ever want….except for the personal relationships with them. That is a loss but is that worth the time and expense to justify a conference attendance? I think not.

It’s interesting that some of these techie-type bloggers/tweeters on the cutting edge of communications are really pushing this out-dated mode of information delivery. I’ve even seen some bloggers chastising others for not attending conferences and drawing the conclusion that if one didn’t attend the conference they weren’t staying abreast of their industry and not taking their personal development seriously. Huh?  That’s a leap.

In the interest of full disclosure, my partner, Barry Brown, speaks at national and state events regularly and we have been vendors as well. I’m not trying to shoot him/us or any other speaker/vendor in the foot. I just believe there are more economical and ecological means of staying abreast of trends in one’s industry than attending conferences.