Conferring

New York: Somewhere along the way, everyone’s vision of what is supposed to be happening at conferences changes. In the past few years, I have enjoyed the ‘conferring with’ conferences the most, like Reboot and Lift. But even getting together with your pals can get, well, unrewarding.

Because of conflicts with actually building stuff — the theme for 2008, perhaps — I missed this year’s Lift. I don’t know about Reboot yet, but I may take a pass this year on that too, just to let that land go fallow for a time.

Here’s what I know about so far for 2008:

1. SXSW — A first for me, and I have no program duties. I am just there to let it wash over me. I am trying to meet with various partners, but it’s pretty loose.
2. Etech/Graphing Social Patterns — Likely head down for a day, but just to see some people. I am cool on Etech, since the one I attended a few years back was so awful.
3. Next 08 — I was asked to speak in Hamburg at Next 08, and I am planning to go, partly because I haven’t attended earlier shows. Don’t know what I am going to talk about, but it’s likely to be about social application trends.
4. Going Solo — I am speaking at Stephanie Booth’s conference on 16 May in Lausanne, probably on something nasty like ‘When To Fire A Client’ or ‘Getting What You Are Worth’. (Disclosure: I am an advisor and have a financial interest.)
5. Enterprise 2.0 — I am helping the folks at CMP on an Enterprise 2.0 Launchpad, about which I hope to publish more next week.
6. Web 2.0 Expo — I did two last year, but no plans for this year. Anyone who would like me to conduct a ‘Building Social Applications’ workshop should contact me directly: I am interested in doing them in a smaller, more focused context, such as within the context of a large company, or a small product team. But if it doesn’t happen that way, ok. I think that once Workstreamr is in beta, I will plan a one day event about it’s design, but I will do that independently.
7. d.construct — I tried to go last year, and had to bail. I’d like to go this year.
8. Web 2.0 Summit — Yes. The annual hijira.
9. <update 2:48pm>Ivan Pope reminded me that I am going to be at WidgetWeb 15/16 June in New York. Haven’t figured out what I am going to speak about: more to follow.</update>

I got an email from someone unknown to me — Karin Englund — who I think was put onto me by Bill Liao of Xing. Some nebulous group of folks are forming a conceptual movement called New World Bank, and are planning a get together in northern Scandinavia in April (there’s still snow there in April!). I don’t know if I will go — 2008 is the year of building things, after all — but it’s interesting.

nweworldbank.com, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

Other recommendations?