Go to on-premise conferences again!

The year is coming to an end in a couple of hours.

Today is New Year’s Eve and I am sitting here in my holidays at the Baltic Sea, reading and evaluating some abstracts for the APEX Connect 2023 in Berlin, while waiting for the "big" party.

From what I have seen right now, I can say that this is going to be a fantastic conference with great content. There are a lot more abstracts to evaluate and I am looking forward to, as well as to the conference itself.

But let me have a short view on what's behind us in 2022:

After two years of COVID without any event or conference in-person, the year 2022 for me has become the post COVID year! Of course, I know that COVID is still there and we are still having people with a severe course of disease. We have learned, that COVID will not go. But even if we still have to be careful, we also have learned to live with COVID and we know it is not the big enemy anymore. And so, life has become a bit more normal in most situations again.

This should be true for conferences, too.

Though, more than two years of restrictions due to pandemic have left their marks. Many things have changed. Behavior has changed. Some of the changes are good. Some others are not. This may be depending on everyone’s personal point of view.

I have been speaking at 3 conferences in 2022. And to be honest: In the beginning I had mixed feelings.

I felt a bit unsure, about how I shall behave.

I remember, my first conference in 2022 was the APEX Alpe Adria in April in Maribor. And first of all: I met a lot friends again, which made me really happy. The funny thing was, I noticed most people had the same questions and the same feelings. Everyone felt a bit unsure. What kind of behavior is ok for the other one? Do they want to shake hands or not? Do they want to keep distance or not? And so on.

It also felt unreal to meet people in person again at a conference and I could see the same feeling in the faces of many others speakers and attendees.
In the end, it was a fantastic conference, where we learned to come closer again while respecting everyone’s needs.
And, oh boy, what a after conference party :-)

Just a couple of days later I traveled to Phantasialand with a lot of my colleagues, where the APEX Connect took place in 2022.

Of course, some of the questions we had, where the same as before the APEX Alpe Adria. But this time we came with the experience of 1 on-premise conference.

And we knew it is possible to survive :-)

Nevertheless, one could still feel the reservation, which was (and still is) totally ok after more than 2 years of isolation and remote only culture. Of course, being in the Phantasialand and riding several rollercoasters was a highlight. But has also been a great conference with professional content. Furthermore, everyone could feel safe during the event, since the location had a very good dimension for the number of attendees.

The evening event was perfect to talk and connect to other people, like we all know from the APEX Connect!

In September I have been to the DOAG Conference & Exhibition in Nuremberg. The conference usually takes place in November. Because no one could know, if all events will have to be cancelled again in winter time, they decided to have the conference in September. This was of course a good decision, since a big conference needs a lot time for preparation. I guess one downside was, that many people did not know about the postponement. And so, I remember many surprised faces when I told colleagues and customers, that I'll be going Nuremberg in September. I guess there could have been more attendees, if there were better communication. But in total this has also been a nice conference with a little different concept for the first conference day, where they introduced the theme day.

One overall feeling I had during the conferences this year is, that everything was a bit smaller. A bit less content, a bit less attendees, a bit less easiness (in the beginning).

But the good news is: Almost nothing has changed!

People want to learn.
People want to share knowledge.
People want to talk to each other in person and they want to connect.
People want to have fun.

On-premise conferences are a good option!

It was good to have these conferences this year. Thanks a lot to all organizers, speakers, helpers and attendees, who had the courage this year!

I totally enjoyed being at conferences this year again and meeting so many nice people.

Recently I submitted some abstracts to a couple of conferences in 2023. And I would like to encourage all people to go to the conferences in 2023.

If you want to learn, go to conferences.
If you want to get new ideas, go to conferences.
If you want to share your knowledge, go to conferences.
If you want to talk to experts, go to conferences.
If you want to meet old and new friends, go to conferences.
If you want to connect to other people, go to conferences.
If you want to [add something here], go to conferences :-)

Let 2023 be a great conference year!

I am pretty much looking forward to meet you all again at any place!

Happy New Year :-)