I’ve been accused, by a couple people, of becoming a “professaional conference-goer.” I should point out that the people who say this are people that I met at conferences, and I generally only see them when I’m at a conference, so perhaps they have a slightly skewed view of how I spend my time.
But the fact remains that I do go to a lot of conferences. I prefer to think of myself as a conference enthusiast, though, not an aspiring professional. Most of the conferences I go to are in the realm of tech, internet, digital culture, digital arts, or popular arts. I include film festivals too, because, well, I love them. Some are more professionally oriented, and some are more social. In both cases, though, my goal is the same: to meet interesting people and to be inspired.
Here are some the conferences and film festivals that I’ve been to so far in 2009:
- Sundance (January)
- ROFLthing-NYC (January)
- IA Summit & Content Strategy Consortium (March)
- Enterprise Data World (April)
- Notacon (April)
- Tribeca Film Festival (April/May)
And here are several that I’m planning to go to, or thinking about going to later this year:
- Web 3.0 (May)
- Semantic Technology Conference (June)
- Open Video Conference (June)
- Toorcamp (July)
- Defcon (July/August)
- MIMA Summit (October)
- Web 2.0 Expo (November)
I know, you’re probably thinking, “There are whole months in there with no conference plans at all.” But it’s early, yet, and there are a lot of interesting things going on out there.
Meaningful Data 
Conferences are excellent networking, marketing, and professional developoment opportunities, all rolled into a few intense days. Perfect for adrenalin junkies. (Moi, you’re looking at moi?) Seriously, though, there’s an entire social circle I know just from conferences. When they speak, I learn a lot; a couple of them have ended up working with me, or the other way around.
Since I don’t see anything there for December, how about 26c3? It’s the week between Christmas and New Year’s, which sets you up perfectly for spending New Year’s Eve in Berlin, which is an experience that shouldn’t be missed in this lifetime.
There’s also Roboexotica, which will be at the end of November. I’ll be spending all of December in Vienna, and can put you up if you’d like to come for Roboexotica, and will definitely be there for 26c3 if you come out for that.
Also: I love conferences. I have better, more intense conversations there than I do in the rest of my life. Maybe one of the things I should try to do is get there to be more of those long, intense, out-of-time conversations? Or maybe just going to lots of conventions is good. 🙂
Oh yes, I’d love to go to 26c3! I’d love to go to Roboexotica too, but I don’t think I can go to Europe twice in such a short time span. I’d rather go once and stay longer. Maybe I can come visit you in Vienna before going to Berlin for 26c3!