ConferenceMash.com (Conference/Speaker/Session Review Site) - Need some feedback

[CLKeenan]

So I was attending the Web 2.0 conference in New York this past fall and I found that it was a complete crap shoot at choosing which conference session to attend.

They all sounded great on paper but I found half of the time either the speaker or content would suck, and sometimes both. To be fair, who would write in their bio that they have no energy or enthusiasm when presenting, the content is dry and outdated, and their presentations are more like self promos and sales pitches than learning sessions.

When I was there, I wished I had a 3rd party resource that would rate the conference, speakers, and sessions. If I liked a particular sessions topic, but knew nothing about the speaker, I could see if that particular speaker had good reviews. The opposite would hold true in the sense that I would rather attend a session that I didn't already have an interest in if that speaker was given phenomenal reviews. Good speaker/less interesting topic > bad speaker/more interesting topic in my mind.

Revenue model would be CPM advertising, sponsored listings for conferences and speakers, and CRM aspects for both conferences and speakers such as speaking engagements for speakers, being able to become a fan of a conference or speaker and then receive updates from them in a weekly digest (similar to LinkedIn updates), etc.

The domain name isn't specific to one industry. It could cover everything from health, web, real estate, finance/investing, etc. Promotion could be as simple as hiring people to pass out business flyers outside of big conference halls in the area (its hard to mistake conference attendees for tourists usually).

What are your thoughts? I'm assuming you guys have been to at least one conference before. Would you find this useful? There would definitely be a mobile version of the website for people who are already at the conference to quickly look up a speaker.

 

[dmnEPC]

You would need an "app" for that. I think its a cool idea. I have been to a ton of conferences across various industries. The problem is usually they find these speakers based on feedback and reputation. So most guys will have a positive rep going in, just based on industry networking.

Other times you get the Ballers or Hacks on the committee that get sucked into it because no one else will do it. This actually happens very often. A lot of times they don't have the experience or desire to be public speakers and if they flop they don't do it again so that negative review wont matter anyways.

I think its a good idea in theory', getting it to become the "Facebook" (dare I say) of conferences is really hard at least across industries, but I am sure could be done

 

[DomboCom]

I like the idea. Something I would have used. My thought it that the conferences themselves may not adopt/support because it would cause lower attendance for the shitty speakers. That could mean people leaving early or loss of revenue if they're getting commissions from stuff sold from the stage.

But not sure you would need their support anyway.

 

[CLKeenan]

I think the good conferences would have nothing to fear, it would be the shitty ones that could see this as an issue. In fact, the good ones would embrace the site. I'd imagine a glowing collaborative review from conference past conference attendees would speak volumes and could definitely be used as a selling tool for both the conferences themselves and also for employees of companies who are trying to get their manager to approve the expense to go (something I constantly deal with)