Berlin simply sucks!?
Usually, I don’t write entries in english language. But sometimes it just feels neccessary to do so. For three days now, I’ve been attending the so called “Web 2.0 Expo” in Berlin. This is the city I love, the city I live in. And I really had a lot of respect for the company O’Reilly before this three days. As a journalist, I’m used to conferences. And many of them are more or less bad organised, lacking attendees the organizers told us they’d be there.
Today I was pretty upset by a question the two moderators of the keynotes raised: they were asking the audience - after apologizing for not everything to be working as perfect as it should have - where the next Web2.0Expo in Europe should take place.
I can give you a hint for the right answer: the Farøer Islands! Nobody likes to live there, it’s full of sheeps and rain. The rain doesn’t make a difference to Berlin at the beginning of November. And the sheeps don’t do either - at least for those, who paid for the conference “Web2.0Expo”, they will feel like sheeps now, I’m pretty sure.
It’s my very personal impression, but I was press and speaker myself and I’m sorry to say that, this conference was nothing but a big misunderstanding. An US company thought it would be quite nice to put it’s feet into the european conference business. And they thought it would be best done in a city internationally known as “place to go to”. Berlin is one of the most lively (and I think lovely, too) cities these days. But it’s a city which you really gotta know before you start planning a conference there.
I really don’t want to put blame on somebody, but I think it was a very bad choice to go to the Berlin Exhibition Centre (”Berlin Messe”). And everyone used to Berlin knows that quite well. There are many other places you can use for a conference of this size (Estrel Hotel, BCC, ..). But the location is not the only thing they simply failed at: even though a venue might be the wrong one, you are in charge of make it a comfortable place, a place the attendees like to go to. But the organizers CMP and O’Reilly were unable to make the conference a success. No corners for having a good talk, bad food, a so weird schedule scheme that they had to hand out printed day timetables, technical problems, the phenomenon of “forking” the conference into many different parts (did you see the exhibition hall? I passed through twice a day, but it was far away from the workshops, keynotes and sessions - the whole venue could have been a nice geocaching game, but wasn’t, since no treasures were to be found -, the web2open somewhere in between)…
You can’t simply take a conference from the US, put it into an airplane and hope that the european web scene will be happy with it. During Tim O’Reillys keynote, they even had those super embarassing us talk show typical cheerleaders in the front rows. This was a good proof for not understanding europe and especially the germans at all, even though they obviously noticed and stopped that soon. Many of the discussion formats were not in-depth, they were only scratching a little bit on the surface. I feel really sorry for those guys who attended at the session I was speaking in, cause I was so disappointed by the whole conference that I couldn’t motivate myself very much to give my best.
But back on topic: the two moderators of the keynote today. They asked where this conference should take place next time. And a lot of people voted for Amsterdam and Barcelona. Probably it’s just Berlins fault, that Web2.0Expo was not a good conference at all. Do it somewhere else, next time. Without me, without many of those I asked. The name O’Reilly is now having a new connotation in the german scene: not able to organize a conference, but talking a lot of bubble blah. They did not “unite the european web scene”, they just showed that having a good name is not enough at all. And I’m really sorry that they don’t apologize to those who paid for it at their company blog.
I really have to thank the women at the bar providing me coffee during the conference, some very nice people I met there and also to Lucie-Ann Radimsky who did a great job as press contact, I think. But for everyone at O’Reilly and CMP: try again. I’m sorry.
(and sorry for my bad english, thanks for the patience)
[Update: Really worth reading it is the list “10 rules how to attend an O’Reilly Web 2.0 Expo conference”]
22 sagten etwas
I agree, although I like a little bit the minimalist style of the event (1 sandwich, half a litre water and an apple - a real one:-( for launch), people sitting on the ground; I have seen that during my uni-years last time.
But it was a surprise for me - coming from Hungary, and working at a Eurpean company with branches even at Budapest, Beograd, Bucarest, Kiev not only at Vienna and Munich - that Prague was not a favorite option for the voters.
I see, that Berlin and Barcelona are lovely cities, but I am sure, that etc. Prague and Bucarest has much more potential for new portals, than in west-european countries. I would like to gain more experience at a conference with local lecturers e.g. at Prague.
And I definitely will not go to Amsterdam.
[…] die Konferenz von O’Reilly neigt sich nun dem Ende zu, am Donnerstag Mittag ist Schluss.Um es kurz und bündig zu machen: es war die schlechteste Konferenz, die ich bisher je besucht hatte. Organisatorisch wie auch inhaltlich. Aber Falk Lueke (Journalist bei der Zeit) beschreibt das etwas ausführlicher, woran es leider gehapert hat, denn an den Teilnehmern selbst lag es mit Sicherheit nicht: Berlin simply sucks!? […]
[…] 2007 Die Tim O’Reilly’s Berlin Web 2.0 Expo enttäuschte offenbar auf der ganzen Linie. Vielleicht sollten wir einfach nicht so sehr auf die USA und auf das Silicon Valley schielen. […]
I think you’re a bit unfair to the Faroe Islands, after all they’ve just been voted as the top island holiday destination:
In German Der Spiegel reports
Or in English the original in National Geographic.
Not sure if all the Web 2.0 geeks will appreciate it though.
Was war die Web2.0Expo…
Ich habe ja unten schon geschrieben, dass diese Konferenz jetzt nicht wirklich die beste war. Einige Punkte waren schon so schlecht, dass sie jeder Beschreibung spotten. Aber trotzdem ziehe ich für mich ein shr positives Fazit. Denn zwei Punkte hat …
[…] meint zumindest Falk. Naja - nicht so […]
Actually I think Prague is a very good idea for having something in the eastern sphere! Though Spain for that reason makes a lot of sense too, as especially the Spanish scene is quite ‘unknown’ outside.
I’m sure if I’d paid the 900eur and had to suffer the conditions you describe I’d feel the same way, but as I didn’t and could only go to the keynotes and exhibition, and in any event I have had but limited time. After having gone to lots and lots of conferences, I simply assumed that 90% of it was of no direct or at least immediate relevance to me, so I just made a bee-line to the three talks that did and was not disappointed.
First, I went to Tim O’Reilly’s talk just to hear the man’s voice and so hopefully figure out where he is at: not really my stuff, but ok, limited goal, adequate return. My main interest was in thinking about users, and so I went to the Kathy Sierra and Jesse James Garrett talks and was completely satisfied. Did you get stuck going to talks that you did not have a great interest in in the first place, or is the problem that your favorite speakers were no longer so inspiring?
To be sure, I knew their work well, and what they offered was what you find on their websites and books, but getting to hear them was to hear that stuff put together in that special way that solid, well-rehearsed talks allow. I then researched them and the many names and websites and ideas they and their websites referred to, and since I’m working on this stuff it was a fine review, outline for my next steps, and so for me very productive. My expectations and purposes were limited, and as soon as they were filled I simply got on the s-bahn and moved on.
Also, I’d fiddled with Zoho before, but having the chance to talk to one of the developer from India, and what I learned was valuable: Great app, smart guys: I’ll be able to use this. I then went to look at Microsoft Sharepoint for comparable technologies, and the very nice guy there exposed for me all the ugly stupid dumb things that I’ve seen before with Microsoft and saw again: yuk! So, I got some good insight and had a great comparison and walked away knowing what to do next. I walked by all the other stands and said, no, no, no …. no problem walking right out of there at all.
I totally agree with the very legitimate question of conference organization and comforts: many other places would have been better scaled and more comfortable.
I think the substantive question is: Did the conference lack focus, or is there a larger criticism here, or are we bitching about the weather (please treat this sympathetically, but we in Berlin are critical to the same degree that many of my fellow Americans are evangelical zealots always seeing the bright side of things …. my favorite joke: When the Wessie fails the exam he hangs his head in shame, when the Ossie fails he blames the teacher, when the American fails he tries harder)
Or is this a question of specialists wishing to see a higher percentage of like-minded folks? Creative programmer and developer types naturally repulsed by the business people in suits? Or was it O’Reilly’s criticizing our web2.0 idealism and talking honestly about the brutal competitive, motives, and effects of business? Like I think most of you, the security issues of what he talked about (cf. heisse.de) scare the shit out of me: are we waking up to find our web 2.0 baby has warts?
I have to laugh here, because the joke was on me: In my last job I was seduced, promised pie in the sky, and a week after I was hired my bossed laughed, saying, “now you’re my prisoner”; throughout my time that was indeed how I was treated, and when I left he laughed again, saying, “we never did get to the issues of users and quality that you wanted to do, did we? ha, ha, ha!” How might we realistically amend that list “10 rules how to attend an O’Reilly Web 2.0 Expo conference”?
Richtig in der Session, an der Du mitgewirkt hast, Falk, wurde nicht das Beste gegeben. Es haperte bereits am Englischen beim Moderator. Die Tiefe der vorgetragenen Daten war nicht adäquat verglichen mit dem, was doch einige hervorragende Speaker präsentiert haben. Die Präsentationen waren nicht abgestimmt und die Auswertung nicht vorbereitet. Gerade die lokalen Repräsentanten waren zu einem guten Teil nicht gerade aus der ersten Reihe. Im Wesentlichen kann ich Dir aber nur zustimmen: der zahlende Teilnehmer wäre mit 2 Tagen ausgekommen und Nahrungsangebot und Umgebungscharme waren traurig.
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Agree with your sentiments…I have mixed thoughts about the expo which I attended and sat on a panel Tuesday. Firstly it didn’t seem fresh or new…many of the speakers and content are all ready well known bi-products of the web 2.0 hyperboil and much of it was a direct repeat of the San Francisco event earlier this year which I also attended. Looking at the price of the tickets at around 1000 Euros I felt that the paying audience (I was lucky with a free ticket) were not getting value for money. The facilities were not that well organised, the lunch was damn awful and the staff from the Messe quite rude…telling me off for putting an empty lunch bag on a table. I also feel events like this should be made accessible to people who could really benefit from the content, e.g. students and small businesses rather than marketing and PR professionals and corporate workers. Most people commented on how the content did not really teach anything new rather than reinforce what they already knew. On the positive side I realise that the value of the event for most people is the networking potential, I saw a few startups trying desperately to get an audience with VC types and investors. I hope they were successful. I see that ‘web 2.0′ is becoming tired and having seen the previous bubble implode hope that we don’t end up with a backlash to all the hype and arm-waving. I think it might be time to get real, stop hyping and get on with the business of actually creating great products that users love…whether it’s using the latest technological paradigms is irrelevant and building hype only (self) serves the interest of the professional speakers, corporates and PR people. As they say a good product, service or idea should speak for itself.
Über eure eigene Session kann ich nicht viel sagen, ich hab nur den (in der Tat etwas demotivierten) Schlussteil mitbekommen. Ich war nur am Mittwoch da und konnte mich auch nicht begeistern, aber nach meinem Empfinden lags zu einem großen Teil an dem deprimierenden Ort. Trotz allem hatte ich das Gefühl, dass in den Sessions mehr rüberkam als z.B. bei next10years. Findet ihr nicht?
Herbert
Thanks to all of you for the feedback, and thanks to Jennifer Pahlka, who wrote an answer on the Web2ExpoBerlin-blog.
Armin, I never been to the Farøers and I’ll probably never do so. And I’m really sorry for being unfair, but in need of a quite good example I only had Tristan da Cunha as a real alternative in mind.
Nicole, I really like Prague and of course I’d like to go there for an interesting, well organised conference. Spain maybe too, but I was really astonished by the fact our beloved moderators looked like putting the blame of many things not being right on Berlin instead of thinking of “their” (the organizers) own faults.
Karen and Wortwart: As mentioned before, I really feel sorry about that. I hope that I’ll have a chance to correct the not so good image, some day.
I think that Bruces question is the right one: what can we learn from the quite ironic “10 rules”? What does it tell us about Web2.0ExpoBerlin?
Some things I always try to remember: many of those who showed up there do very interesting work and of course it’s great to network with people from all over Europe and overseas, too. For example I met a guy who wants to start some kind of Ohmynews in the hard realitiy of Pakistan, now. That’s pretty cool I think, just like many other people had to tell me interesting things.
Maybe sometimes I’m quite ignorant to think that most of the stuff presented was neither new nor innovative, so I left most of the sessions after a few minutes to check back later (and left again, if it still was on a very basic or inadequate level). And maybe there is kind of huge gap between the quality of speakers for those who are new to their concepts and those who are used to it.
But I think, many sessions suffered that either they were not made for the audience present in the rooms or they were presented in an inappropriate way. It’s probably an effect caused by the “catch all” strategy: if you want to have something good for all, you might end up with the opposite.
Of course some sessions were good for some attendees, and I was told that I missed the good ones, for sure. Maybe it’s true and I just didn’t get it that I should not try to find good sessions by the schedule but by random choice.
At least, I’m satisfied that those who were organizing the event at least had a look at what I wrote about it now. And maybe we’ll see a much more satisfying Web2.0Expo (or maybe Gopher3.0?) next year - in Prague, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Berlin or.. Torshavn?
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[…] I can give you a hint for the right answer: the Farøer Islands! Nobody likes to live there, it’s full of sheeps and rain. The rain doesn’t make a difference to Berlin at the beginning of November. And the sheeps don’t do either - at least for those, who paid for the conference “Web2.0Expo”, they will feel like sheeps now, I’m pretty sure. Falk Lueke of “Die Zeit” on his private blog […]
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