June 2, 2018
Editor Dave
“The tech industry has reached a maximum saturation point for conferences, summits and forums,” writes CNN’s senior media reporter, sharing his general disillusionment after Recode’s recent Code Conference:But even at their best, these events fail to generate truly significant news because executives have been media-trained to the point of impenetrability… [S]peakers like Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek have mastered the art — there should be a German word for it — of speaking for 30+ minutes without saying much of consequence or going beyond their comfort zone… [I]n two days, nothing was said on stage that fundamentally changed the existing narrative for any of these companies… Business executives are more strategic and more cautious than ever in how they speak publicly. The business media needs to be equally strategic in pushing them to say more.
He argues that the best things about conferences happen offstage, when attendees network and talk among themselves. Is that your experience, Slashdot readers?
Share your own thoughts in the comments. Are tech conferences overrated?
