I had a conference last week and still I am stunned about some opinions shared there. The average age of the attendants was 31, which made me an antique feature. Me, and about five other people who had passed the age of 40 some time ago. But as the conference progressed it became clear that age had nothing to do with antiquity this time.
Attending conferences of any kind are not exactly my favorite pastime. I always find it hard to find the people I can relate too, have discussions with or just feel comfortable with. Most of the time I feel uneasy because the tension of my fellow attendants is so clear to spot. They probably all have the same reluctance as I have, which makes it easier to set up conversations, but on the other hand it does annoy me that the eyes of almost everybody are flying through the room, just in order to spot the real important people to at least leave your v-card with.
But sometimes themes seem that good that I cannot do anything else but pay the awfully high attendance fees and go there. So there we were. The vibrant people all of whom are into business development, marketing and communications, brands and design. As the day progressed I felt more and more in place. To be honest I really enjoyed myself, was learning some new insights and saw some others confirmed. I already made up a list with new literature to read, new websites to visit and new theories to explore as we entered the last phase of the conference: a forum discussion about social media. I loved it. The forum was precisely in balance. Some critics, some advocates and one guru. The chairman had a lot to do and at a certain point in time, it looked like the forum had forgotten they were in front of an audience. They were all fired up. Some of the audience started to leave though. At first, I didn’t realize that, but as soon as two or three dared to pack their things and leave, many others followed. But why? Well, we found out later. During the networking aftermath, they were very explicit about their reasons and these reasons did not differ very much from each other.
A young man told me he had to attend this particular conference because of his boss. “He is totally into twittering, social media, seo and all that. So we must learn about it too. I do have a profile on Hyves and that is enough for me. I do not need all those other network sites.” He was joined by two other men who all agreed. “What do all these networks do for you?’, one of them added. “Nothing, as far as I am concerned. Today was a total waste of time and money.” I tried to make them look at things from a business perspective instead of their individual approach, but they did not shared my point: “Marketing and branding is not going to happen on those network sites, ” one of them explained. “There are some people that want us to believe that it can be true, but looking at the real data it is obvious that there is no new revolution. It is still the same: try to get attention by standing out, making them visit your website and sell”, they all agreed. “That’s why that forum discussion was one big joke: some old men having found new toys to play with.”
I am still stunned.
Marie-José Jamin
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