Do not believe that the more speakers the cooler the conference
If you think that IT-community consists only of introverts, who will silently listen to the reports and run away to program, then you know your target audience badly. As practice shows, many specialists attend the events not so much for the speakers and lectures, as for the informal program and networking.
As an option, make an event, where there will be a lot of discussions and different activities. You can attract partners for the entertainment program, because IT community is a desired audience for many brands.
In the pursuit of a busy program, many organizers drive themselves into rigid frameworks, which is not good for the conference. Were you ever at the events with a kaleidoscope of speakers, where everyone has 15 minutes to speak and a couple of minutes for questions? At the most interesting part of the speaker always runs out of time, and if the room is intrigued by the report, and people begin to ask interesting questions – time to full-fledged answers is catastrophically short. That’s okay, the organizer thinks, but look how rich our program is.
Want the scale – make more scenes. Are you afraid that the speakers’ reports will turn into a boring lecture, like at the university? Don’t be afraid, IT students are not timid students – they will be bored, they will listen to someone else. But if there is a discussion, you can’t imagine how much more useful the event will be! Insights, facts, and interesting memories will flow. No rehearsed and crammed with numbers presentation can compare to an honest discussion “without cuts”.
Do not think that the top speakers will be confused by your informal approach. They are people too, and many of them are willing to share their observations without slides, clickers and timers: the more informal the environment, the more interesting the cases.
