Yesterday was the first Future of Web Design conference in London. I didn't go - it breaks my "no more than 20 pounds/dollars/euros" rule - but there are some interesting reactions from people who did. 
Nick Dunn thought that yesterday's Future of Web Design conference in London was disappointing.
In the comments, there are a few interesting remarks too:
"It felt like there were the obligatory pitches by sponsors Adobe and Microsoft trying to push their products and then the showreel presentations by AKQA and Big Spaceship. As impressive as this was, I was there to learn about the future of web design."
I think I may have heard that before.
LBnuke thought the Web 2.0 Expo was boring:
"I was very disappointed in the Web 2.0 Expo yesterday at Moscone Center in SF. I wasn¹t expecting much since everything I was interested in was part of the conference and not the expo, but I thought it would at least be fun and interesting. It was not."
"Walking around and hearing sales pitches was boring me, and I am almost never bored."
I have a feeling that there are a lot more bored people at conferences, but we've become terribly self-censoring and not speaking out.
If we don't shout out how much we think conferences suck, they'll continue to suck. If you are bored to tears at a conference, say something. Yes, people will read it. But if enough people say something about dull conferences, they might stop happening.
For instance, I have heard from various sources that ETech wasn't that interesting this year. If that is the case, people should be blogging about it. That's what we've got blogging for. Cut back on the self-censorship, please. We might actually be able to have the conversations that the conference organisers keep telling us we'll be having if we take our hands out of our mouths and speak.
We also cannot justify bad content at conferences on the basis of the 'coridoor content'. Yes, the most interesting people you meet at conferences are in the coridoors. That's a failure of the conference organiser - those people ought to be on stage, in the audience, asking interesting questions.
This is why I like BarCamp and one of the reasons I'm looking forward to HackDay. Everyone who attends has to do something - give a talk, moderate a session or - in the case of HackDay - hack! Conferences where you spend all day in a chair or crouched out in the coridoor are so Web 1.0.
Yes, the marketers and VCs cringe when they see us sitting round in a circle playing Werewolf. Fuck 'em. Without the hackers and creative people, they wouldn't have anything to market or capitalise.
We need to have a proper conversation about conferences. This is something that Dave Winer has been trying to do for years, and what led to the unconference movement. We need to work out what the point is of conferences.
