Technical conferences go virtual and look like Netflix content on demand
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The changing face of major technology conferences came in the form of a speech broadcast live on my computer screen Tuesday morning.
In this document, Microsoft Corp.
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CEO Satya Nadella described her vision of “empowering each developer.” His 20-minute speech was followed by a series of pre-recorded live tutorials on coding, cloud computing, and other wacky topics from Microsoft campus TV studios, supported by clever graphics and pre-recorded videos, all day and night. And everything was free, with easy access to 509 sessions and documentation. Two-day conference looked like on-demand content Netflix Inc.
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A week earlier, Nvidia Corp.
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CEO Jensen Huang delivered a two-hour keynote address on GTC Digital in nine 12-minute segments, on topics ranging from autonomous vehicles to artificial intelligence. The presentation, recorded in Huang’s kitchen, drew 4 million views. This year, 57,000 developers have registered to participate; Last year, 10,000 people physically attended the conference in San José, California.
This is the new world of technology conferences in the COVID-19 era. They have become completely digital, like Build and GTC Digital, and they may never be the same. In the absence of a vaccine, the days of thousands of people are spent in the ballrooms of hotels and convention centers like cattle, sharing taxis and eating in tight places.
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However, far from paralyzing the technology industry, virtual broadcasts could lead to the democratization of what was once an exclusive and expensive privilege for technology promoters and agitators. In the new climate, consumers have free access to valuable technical content whenever they want.
“This will definitely change the orientation of technology conferences. You can practically identify attendees online and keep track of what they are seeing, “Paddy Cosgrave, CEO of the company hosting the Web Summit and Collision conferences, told MarketWatch on Monday. The show, originally scheduled from 22-25 June in Toronto will continue as a fully digital event on these days.
“If the program is pure content and not a network, like an F8 or a Build, you can sell it virtually,” he said. “F8, AWS and Build are like infomercials that sell to existing customers.”
“It was certainly a better experience: free, no red-eye flying, no hotel room fees and better access to the Microsoft team”, Laron Walker, CEO of Mantisedu Inc., an educational materials partner Microsoft based in Atlanta, he told MarketWatch in a telephone interview. “Last year, I paid several thousand dollars to attend, and if I was late for a session, I couldn’t rewind it. This year, it could. “
Walker, 41, said he could watch the sessions anytime, take a break to take notes, and then pass them on to colleagues. He was also able to connect with Build speakers via LinkedIn and via email as he had more information about them through their presentations. “It made me look at technical conferences in a whole new light,” he said.
Developer conferences are as much an annual ritual in the tech industry as Apple Inc.
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Giant products are launched and presented such as the CES and the Mobile World Congress. Together, they defined the story for the developers, and ultimately the consumers, for the next year or two.
May is usually the epicenter of these meetings. Prior to COVID-19, executives, analysts, business partners and the press had scheduled travel times to attend Microsoft Build (May 19-21, in Seattle), Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company.
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I / O Summit (May 12-14, Mountain View, California) and Facebook Inc.
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F8 (May 5-6, in San José).
Two of these shows have been abandoned, while a third will be deeply restructured. For example:
Apple: “We deliver WWDC 2020 in June in an innovative way to millions of developers worldwide, bringing the entire developer community together with new experience,” said Phil Schiller, senior vice president of global marketing for Apple. declaration May 5. “We look forward to sharing more details on WWDC20 with everyone as we approach this exciting event” on June 22. The event is free for all developers.
Facebook: The company, which has committed not to host events for more than 50 people until June 2021, “is still working on what F8 is and, overall, what FB events / conferences will be about. beyond June 2021, “a company spokesperson told MarketWatch.
Google: Google completely canceled I / O and declined to comment on the program next year. However, the program will continue for Google Cloud Next ‘20, with more than 200 sessions over nine weeks, from July 14 to September 8, a Google Cloud spokesperson told MarketWatch.
Amazon: The AWS Insights online conference will offer a free half-day “educational immersion” tutorial on the capabilities of media technology on May 28.
The evolution of developer conferences was inevitable in the era of streaming services, on-demand content and videoconferencing at the speed of light. A developer in Spain, for example, can monitor cloud computing solutions on a channel, while another in Brazil sees an opening speech filed at around the same time. If it sounds strangely like a viewing experience on Netflix or Walt Disney Co.
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Disney + is the goal, she and others say.
Microsoft was already “rethinking the image” on how to connect more with developers to improve engagement, accessibility, resources and content before COVID-19, which accelerated their plan, Charlotte Yarkoni , vice president of enterprise cloud and artificial intelligence at Microsoft, he told MarketWatch in a telephone interview.
“People don’t like to watch something that forces you to sit for four hours; they prefer content when they choose to watch in any time zone, “said Yarkoni, who called demand and interest for the first day of Build” unprecedented. “She said interest in The weeks leading up to the two-day conference indicated that Build was going to suffer a coup. Traffic for Microsoft Learn, a learning platform for technical content commonly used by developers, increased by 272% in April Year over year, he said, and Microsoft now has more than 72 million monthly active users of its technical documentation and learning sites.
Perhaps, suggests another technological framework, the preponderance of consumers using Zoom Video Communications Inc.
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It conditioned them to digest technical information online.
“B2B conferences like ours depend on people who meet in person”, Okta Inc.
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CEO Todd McKinnon told MarketWatch in a telephone interview. But his perception changed after this year’s edition of Okta Live, a fully digital program in early April, garnered record attendance. He is now considering moving definitively to a hybrid model of personal and digital assistants next year and beyond.
“We had tons of leads and off-list engagement in a fully digital format,” said McKinnon after 20,000 participants, up from 6,000 a year ago.
Nutanix Inc.
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The global .NEXT digital experience would take place from June 30 to July 2 in Chicago. It should now be online in September.
“COVID-19 forced Nutanix to think outside the box,” said Ben Gibson, marketing director of Nutanix Inc., in an email to MarketWatch. “Consumers can expect the same great content from our traditional events in person, but at the time that works best for them, in the comfort of their home office.”
Before rejecting the concept of the classic tech conference, even with the best of intentions and a treasure trove of content, there is no better way to network than in person, explains Cosgrave of Collision. “Larger conferences for networks: dinners, cocktails, parties,” he said. “The breakdown of networks is the usefulness of conferences. Speakers and signs are an excuse to go. “
“At the end of the day, we hope to return to Toronto in person next year,” he said.