Ask IH: Are conference parties a thing outside GDC?
I would be interested to hear whether in the Software and IT industry it is normal to have conference parties and, if so, whether you have found them useful or not and, more in general, your experience and opinion about them. Would you recommend them? Are they easy to find/advertised well?
Context: I used to work in the Games industry and have attended GDC (Games Developer Conference) in San Francisco various times. During GDC it is normal for companies to organise parties and you have many parties to choose per night. There you can meet other developers, investors and publishers. I have found that, most of the time, these parties are the place where you make the most meaningful networking connections, compared to the actual conference. However, they were super difficult to find due to poor advertisement! I have now moved to work in the Software Industry and will have to attend some software conferences and I am curious as to what the culture is in this industry regarding conference parties.
Thanks!
I can't talk about software and IT conferences, but I know that two big digital commerce/marketing conferences in germany, called Online Marketing Rockstars and dmexco are having big parties.
Definitely a thing, though all of the non-GDC conference parties I've been to have been rather less...intense. There's something in the game industry culture, or at least game developers at GDC, that leads to some seriously heavy drinking that I find really tiring. The parties at Microconf or Pocketgamer are way less intense but no less valuable!
Most of the conferences I attend host their own parties after every conference day. Great way to get to talk to speakers and just connect to new people. One of my favorite even has an open bar for the duration of the event!
Good to hear! How did you find what parties are on? Is there an official page for the event?
Yes, it usually is advertised either on the schedule, conference website or they give you [beer or venue] tickets when you pickup your badge. I've never seen a conference where nothing was planned after the talks. Please note that I'm not from the Valley, so I can only speak about events going on around Montreal or hacking related.
Yes, totally a thing, across the board, and not just in the various tentacles of the tech industry. Be sure to host parties in locations that are not very loud and that have lots of options other than booze if you want the best attendance.
The parties are usually better than the confs because most confs are organized badly, but that's a topic for another day. (And this is me speaking with my conf organizer hat on.)