Conferences R Us!

David Weinberger praises Doc's coverage of the Esther Dyson's PC Forum Conference, as well as Dan Gillmor's too. I agree, they are awesome! Only better was David's own coverage of the TED Conference. Blogs and conferences definately go together.

It reminds me of a Gartner Group event I went to in Disneyworld. It ended up being such a pain in the ass to schlep from my Faux Mexican Hacienda to the conference center, past the costumed phony Mexicans (Disney employees) and furry Disney characters, (Minnie in those shoes!), I finally logged on to their site, sat in my room in my sweats eating chips, drinking soda and watching the whole thing via live webcast.

I definately have conference burnout, since I used to work for Len Kleinrock's TTI Vanguard Conference Series. To be fair, being there in person is very valuable -- see John Perry Barlow's quotation on their home page. "A five-minute conversation with the right person can be more enlightening than five hours online. The most powerful search engines out there are other people."

I know pressing the flesh and making contact is important, but sometimes, even an extroverted person like me would rather visit virtually. Thanks Doc, David and Dan.