Community events need more support

I spoke at State of the Browser a few weeks ago in London, and I want to reflect on what an absolutely lovely community of people organize and attend that event. It is my second time speaking and third time attending. Thank you for once again making me feel welcome & allowing me to tell you how dismantling global capitalism relates to funding of open source software and the web platform. I absolutely love giving this talk so get in touch for 2025 if that would make a good addition to your conference line up.

Events as underlying displays of company wealth #

I've had the privilege to attend a few events this year from San Francisco to Croatia, either as a speaker or an attendee (Jhey was probably speaking), and I have a few observations.

There's a great divide in the budgets for corporate events vs community events. I attended Config 2024 and the display of wealth demonstrated through activities and freebies gave me pause. There was a festival-like atmosphere with DJs and food stalls that left me wondering what exactly this event cost.

I'm not here to dictate how brands spend their money, but as I look at other corporate, product focused events of huge scale in which celebrities are asked to speak and/or comedians are hired for comedy hour (yes at a tech conference), I can't help but ponder the excessive displays of wealth happening at these events while layoffs have happened at many if not all of these companies.

At the end of the day, these product focused conferences are one big marketing campaign and I leave feeling a bit overwhelmed and asking "what did I learn?"

Did I actually take anything away from any of the tracks? Well, no. Nothing actionable. I couldn't even get into any of the product management tracks at Config because they were booked full.

But more and more, I see web and design focused product companies throwing events, and less and less I see local, grassroots meetups & events. And this is disheartening for a number of reasons.

Supporting community events #

I look at what community events ask for in sponsorships, and often, merely a fraction of the budget spent on these large events could help support local community events.

In a world after COVID lockdowns, local events are a whisper of what they used to be.