October 1998, Vol. 9, No. 10
Spin city
A weary industry asks, 'Are there too many publishing conferences?'
As in the political arena, a certain amount of energy is expended in the publishing technology biz to cover up a dirty little secret: There are too many conferences.
This is not to say that worthwhile activities do not occur at many of these gabfests. In fact, there are probably more important things being said today than ever before.
It’s just that we have a newspaper, or magazine -- or newsletter -- to get out the door. How can we spend all this time at conferences and still have time to do our jobs?
Fall is the traditional time for confabs -- trade shows, seminars, users groups, affinity groups all vie for our time. I could have spent the month of September on the road, attending meeting after meeting.
But when I'm traveling, who is back in the office, editing copy and thinking up funny headlines? Nobody. Which is why we're seeing depressed attendance -- or at least attendees who are depressed -- at these sessions.
Whether they're staying away or they're just unhappy with the content, audiences and potential audiences speak in one voice:
There are too many of these.
For the trade show warrior, it may be enough to chat with the salespeople; for the everyday attendee, it becomes of a question of, "If I went to NEXPO [or Seybold], why should I do anything else?"
Nonetheless, there were some interesting meetings last month; a few we have deigned to cover:
In addition, he finds more PDF workflow bits and pieces as well as more digital asset management tools.
Despite the plethora of small items, Powell suggests that the revolution in publishing technology is over. We're now at a point of refinement and small, evolutionary changes, he says.
Many presenters and attendees were called away to participate in producing their news organizations' treatment of the infamous Starr Report, leaving the meeting in a sheepish manner.
Nonetheless, Brier zeroed in on the real story at the Society of News Design: It is now a forum for recruiting college students into news organizations. Everywhere we go, people complain about the lack of high-quality job prospects and the SND annual meeting has apparently evolved into a job fair. Which isn't necessarily bad.
Despite a compelling agenda and a small, table-top trade show, attendance at the APSU meeting was befitting more of a small congressional hearing than a national conference. Once the mightiest of the users groups (when it was known as the Atex Newspaper Users Group), APSU is having difficulty refocusing itself as a broader coalition of users of generic hardware and newspaper-specific software.
Who would have ever thought that last spring’s System Integrators Systems Users Group would have been almost twice as large as the annual APSU meeting?
Again, good things were being said; unfortunately, they were aired to small rooms with few people.
Just like the ABC-TV situation comedy, watching the organizers of these meetings "spin" the why of low attendance is an amusing way to spend some time.
Not fruitful, but amusing.
-- David M. Cole
See also Hellbox.
Photo: Copyright © 1997, ABC-TV