In my Content Industry Outlook post, I talked about the challenges facing the conference industry. Conferences, or boondoggles, as many are perceived, are often the first items to face the knife when budgets are cut.
About a week ago, I received an email promoting a conference I sometimes attend. The conference, held in the spring, was offering a free Kindle to the first 30 registrants. A week later, I received another email "only 10 Kindles left". I don't know how many registrants they typically get in the first weeks of promotion, but I'd guess that it's a lot more than twenty.
Another conference I had planned to attend was O'Reilly Media's Money:Tech conference, planned for late January. This was to be the second year of the event and the program looked very interesting. Last week, however, O'Reilly sent out word that the Money:Tech conference would be cancelled.
Unfortunately, I don't think these are isolated incidents. Until companies start to feel confident in the economy, budgets will be tight and conferences, training and travel will all be cut back. At the same time, sponsors and exhibitors, whose fees typically cover the bulk of the conference expense, will be reducing their participation.
The conference industry has grown at a rapid pace in recent years, particularly in the financial services and tech industries. It looks as though 2009 will see the ranks of conference providers thinned.
