It seems that there are conferences every other day and week focusing on all topics in high tech, and low and behold – I feel that there aren’t enough. Yep, I don’t think there are enough conferences going on that actually help companies and individuals succeed or network for that matter.
The majority of conferences I have attended were overcrowded and lacked intimacy. They were high on content but short on practicality and results. What I mean by that is that you have speakers upon speakers or companies presenting and the audience just takes it in, it’s one big information dump. To make things more complicated, for one to network effectively they need to know other people attending, be an extravert and, frankly, count on luck to guide them to the people they should be talking with. And, if going through the crowds and reading random name tags isn’t challenging enough, you rarely get to speak to someone for more that 5-10 minutes. It’s actually even rarer to have a specific and substantive conversation.
So given all these problems I have decided to produce a conference that is informative and productive for all participants. Productivity is essential to a successful event as participants want practical results for their time and money. This will be achieved by offering real dialogue, candor and networking opportunities that are are required for in-depth discussion and true relationship building. Participants, whether they are startups, executives or investors shouldn’t find themselves listening to rehashed panel discussions, working the wrong people in the room and generally putting invaluable time to insignificant use. My goal is to change this by creating a different structure in which there will be speakers and presentations coupled with roundtable discussions and one on one meetings, all foster a more sincere and refreshing dialogue.
This is why I have decided to produce PluggedIn, an exclusive deal making gathering for digital media executives. PluggedIn is bringing together handpicked founders, gatekeepers and investors to candidly interact in a laid back setting and unlock the full value of doing business together.
PluggedIn is a full day event scheduled to take place on January 12th at Sy Syms School of Business in midtown Manhattan. More information will be coming as I am still lining up startups to present and sponsors. If you would like to learn more about it you can go to PluggedinNYC.
