TFT12 virtual ITSM conference

As the dust settles on the TFT12 virtual global ITSM conference, what can we take from it and what does it mean for the future?

If you missed it, TFT12 was Tomorrow's Future Today, the inspiration of Chris Dancy and executed by a team centred on SDI in the UK. 24 sessions over 24 hours, streamed live on YouTube and strewn all over social media. Speakers chosen by popular vote. Free to attend, consume, keep. Another one scheduled for June 2013. Some thoughts:

The challenge: I have come away from physical conferences with the slides, audio and/or video of sessions I missed, with fine intentions of consuming them later. It almost never happens (for me). How much of this one will I ever watch? (I missed almost all of it due to work and sleep)

The answer: Unlike most other conferences, this stuff is in the public domain, accessible via Google. When I need something on a topic later, I have some hope of finding the presentations, if the meta data for them is good enough [hint to conference organisers and speakers]

Challenge: I don't watch video. If I go to a website and all they offer is video and no text, I leave.

Answer: I'm an old fart. The newer generations can't read as fast as me, and they think video is a valuable use of their time.

Challenge: physical conferences take you away from distractions, from the day-to-day (well they did before mobile and smart phones, which diminish but luckily don't destroy the effect). Physical conferences immerse you in a topic. And they generate serendipity as you interact with a thousand people for days on end.

Answer: virtual conferences won't replace physical ones. They offer another channel for knowledge, another layer to our world. Evolution not revolution.

Challenge: physical conferences offer more choice and quantity of material. One person commented that "TFT had provided more value than any other conference". I think that is a bit hyperbolic. We were mostly talking heads on this TFT12 conference: pundits. The ratio of practitioners was low. I get enormous value from itSMF and Pink conferences that bring out the real world chosen from a dozen parallel session streams.

Answer: that will change. These virtual conferences will proliferate. They'll be like blogs, podcasts and webinars: there will soon be so many of them that consumers will drown in content and providers will scrabble for an audience.

Well done Chris: we can only guess at the future.

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