I think you may be over critical of large events. They certainly do contribute a disproportionate amount of profit to an event business, however a large event can serve to build and embed a brand much more powerfully to a much greater audience than niche events. You view events as principally networking tools and as a publisher you likely see your ability to deliver content/knowledge as more central to your mission. However AI/ML is giving event organisers (and publishers) the luxury of neuro plasticity i.e. the time we used to spend in R&D can now largely be done by robots and the time we have saved can be spent using our creativity to deliver meaningful immersive experiences that stimulate the hypothalamus at many different levels of human need other than knowledge and network. Ultimately a large event can serve to allow a community to articulate its common purpose and share a "glastonbury" moment of euphoria or self-realisation that you'll talk to your grandkids about. The brand of that event will be tattooed to your amygdala!
Lectern-free a great idea, though for some it's probably a security blanket. That suggestion reminded me of covering a John Kasich talk at Drew [https://drew.edu/stories/2019/04/17/john-kasich-at-drew-power-comes-from-the-bottom-up/]; he walked away from the lectern to get closer to the crowd. The value of mingling I learned at all those Adweek dinners with agency CEOs. Cindy Gallop is also a proponent: she proposed that the 4As make the conference = cocktail hour. Needless to say, O. Burch Drake didn't bite.
I think you may be over critical of large events. They certainly do contribute a disproportionate amount of profit to an event business, however a large event can serve to build and embed a brand much more powerfully to a much greater audience than niche events. You view events as principally networking tools and as a publisher you likely see your ability to deliver content/knowledge as more central to your mission. However AI/ML is giving event organisers (and publishers) the luxury of neuro plasticity i.e. the time we used to spend in R&D can now largely be done by robots and the time we have saved can be spent using our creativity to deliver meaningful immersive experiences that stimulate the hypothalamus at many different levels of human need other than knowledge and network. Ultimately a large event can serve to allow a community to articulate its common purpose and share a "glastonbury" moment of euphoria or self-realisation that you'll talk to your grandkids about. The brand of that event will be tattooed to your amygdala!
Lectern-free a great idea, though for some it's probably a security blanket. That suggestion reminded me of covering a John Kasich talk at Drew [https://drew.edu/stories/2019/04/17/john-kasich-at-drew-power-comes-from-the-bottom-up/]; he walked away from the lectern to get closer to the crowd. The value of mingling I learned at all those Adweek dinners with agency CEOs. Cindy Gallop is also a proponent: she proposed that the 4As make the conference = cocktail hour. Needless to say, O. Burch Drake didn't bite.