Independent Tech: Dave Thomas on GOTO Conferences, Vendor Influence, and Community Values
Independent Tech: Dave Thomas on GOTO Conferences, Vendor Influence, and Community Values
The Interviewer
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
The Guest
Dave Thomas
Founder of Bedarra and YOW! Conference, GOTO Conference organizer
The Conversation
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
Hi, I'm Mike. I'm sitting here with Dave Thomas with the GOTO conferences and user group series. He's here in Chicago to do some scouting—I can't say any more. But we wanted to take a moment and give Dave a chance to talk about the GOTO group and what exactly you guys are looking to do.
Dave Thomas
Founder of Bedarra and YOW! Conference, GOTO Conference organizer
What are conspiracies? Yeah, what is the great conspiracy, the GOTO? So, quite a few years ago in Denmark, a small company, Trifork, couldn't afford to send all their really talented people to the top U.S. conferences. So, when they started, of course, all five of them went, but now it's a couple of hundred.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
Yeah, it's cheaper to have your own conference.
Dave Thomas
Founder of Bedarra and YOW! Conference, GOTO Conference organizer
They basically decided to have their own conference, and they realized that this was actually pretty expensive. And so, they said, 'Well, maybe we can share that with the community in Aarhus in Denmark,' which is a fairly small town, actually. For the last 15 years, what used to be called the JAOO conference was born. I got involved with them about seven years ago—I did a keynote, and that turned into a relationship.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
Did you know you were going to get married to the conference?
Dave Thomas
Founder of Bedarra and YOW! Conference, GOTO Conference organizer
No, I didn't! The big thing we liked about the conference is that it has a completely independent program committee, so the vendors can't screw with the content. In that sense, it's raw tech, wants to have the best speakers, and a very simple system for voting. Some people might have been to QCon, which is part of the series run by GOTO Conferences, as well as the YOW! conference in Australia, which I actually run.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
I think it's really interesting that you're working to avoid sponsorship entanglements—and I use that word purposely.
Dave Thomas
Founder of Bedarra and YOW! Conference, GOTO Conference organizer
Yeah, so the first time we do the conference in an area, the large traditional sponsors typically go, 'Hey, what do you mean you don't want Billy Bob?'
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
Yeah, exactly. 'We have this product, our chief evangelist wants to do that.'
Dave Thomas
Founder of Bedarra and YOW! Conference, GOTO Conference organizer
So it's usually kind of a rough time the first time out. But then they find out that the developers really vote with their feet. The idea behind the whole conference series is basically just to have great speakers that you typically wouldn't get in your community. Not that every community doesn't have great speakers—Chicago's not too shabby.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
No, you've got lots, and many are good friends of mine.
Dave Thomas
Founder of Bedarra and YOW! Conference, GOTO Conference organizer
But the idea is to make it a unique event so people can actually see the speakers and interact and network in their community. We now run it in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Aarhus, SKU Con in London, San Francisco, Seattle, Australia, and this year in Prague. If everything goes well, we'll be here in Chicago in 2013.
Dave Thomas
Founder of Bedarra and YOW! Conference, GOTO Conference organizer
We're just here looking at venues and looking to kick off with our first GOTO night. What we try and do is work with the user groups to see what speakers they want. The key thing is to complement. The user groups are really the people that drive things in the community.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
Do you go with the user groups because they tend to be the people that are more out there, engaging with technology and seeking information?
Dave Thomas
Founder of Bedarra and YOW! Conference, GOTO Conference organizer
Exactly. They're the people who are the advocates. They typically have a lot of the brighter people. They're the ones figuring out whether you should be using Ember.js or why you're using that old Backbone stuff. In internet minutes, they're really on top of it.
Dave Thomas
Founder of Bedarra and YOW! Conference, GOTO Conference organizer
The other thing is they're networkers. I appreciate you coming along on short notice and connecting with people. They really share the values. The other thing is they tend to be discerning customers. We're not really interested in trying to compete with other commercial events, nor with user group events. In general, if there's a user group event that we can help amplify, or we can take a local speaker and push them out to one of our conferences in another city, that's what works to complement it.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
That was an interesting thing. It looks like you go into an area and you start up a group, but in order to stay sponsor-free, you charge a fee. I had always assumed groups were free, but I learned that a large number of groups charge dues or fees.
Dave Thomas
Founder of Bedarra and YOW! Conference, GOTO Conference organizer
What we do is 'GOTO nights' really just to bring one of our speakers in. We charge, I think in Chicago, $5. The only reason for doing that is that we found it to be kind of impossible to control the numbers otherwise. If you talk to any of our Australian users, they'll tell you, 'I've always gotten $35 worth of beer and pizza for my $5.'
Dave Thomas
Founder of Bedarra and YOW! Conference, GOTO Conference organizer
I do know there's a 'religion' among user groups about fees. We just decide that from our point of view, we really can't manage the venue or the space in terms of headcount without it. If you ask people for something, they give you the headcount numbers. It's not intended to be an obstacle.
Critical Insights
durable
"GOTO Conferences (originally JAOO) were founded on the principle of providing developers with high-quality technical content independent of vendor influence or marketing agendas."
durable
"Sponsorship 'entanglements' are a major friction point for independent technical conferences; maintaining a peer-selected program committee is critical for developer trust."
durable
"Local user groups are the primary signal for technical trends and talent in any city; GOTO's strategy focuses on complementing rather than competing with these communities."
durable
"The use of nominal entry fees (e.g., $5 for GOTO nights) is a pragmatic management tool for predicting headcount and ensuring event quality (beer and pizza) rather than a profit-seeking membership model."
time bound
"A developer's technical preference shifts in 'internet minutes,' making consistent community engagement necessary for conferences to stay relevant (e.g., shifting from Backbone to Ember.js in 2012)."