If you are reading this you are probably aware of what the Handheld Conference is – I have been harping on about it for the past couple of months to anybody who will listen. For those wondering what the hell Handheld is, read this older post.
When I first thought about bringing a mobile conference to Cardiff, I thought that convincing speakers to contribute would be the hardest part of organising the event. The first task for me was to draw up a list of who I would like to see, I figured that if I wanted to see these people speak in Cardiff, others would too. I was surprised & delighted that most on the list agreed to speak. I think this goes to show what a great industry we all work in – an industry with a true sense of community and a willingness to help, teach and inspire others.
I have been overwhelmed by the reaction to Handheld, the initial allocation of 120 tickets sold out in less than 48 hours and I have received messages of support from some of the greatest in our industry.
What I find interesting about looking at the list of those attending is the amount of travelling people will be doing. There are people travelling from the US, Singapore, Finland, Germany & France. The majority of attendees are obviously travelling from UK cities : (in order of numbers attending) London, Bristol, Manchester, Bath.
The biggest surprise for me when analysing this data is that there are more people attending the conference from outside of the UK than there are from Cardiff. This to me is very strange as Cardiff has a thriving web & software development community. I am thinking that maybe the culture is slightly different here in Wales, we have very few conferences round these parts. The bigger creative hubs such as London and Bristol have an established diary of these kind of events and designers and developers are comfortable with the conference model.
I have often wondered why until this year, Cardiff hasn’t had any real major web/mobile conferences. Aside from the fabulous Port80 event earlier this year, South Walians have had to travel over the bridge to attend any industry conference of worth. I can only think of 2 possible reasons for the lack of interest from local web/digital agencies. Maybe experiences of previous local events hasn’t been good, or maybe they would prefer the adventure of travelling across the bridge. Don’t get me wrong, a number of Cardiff agencies have bought tickets, but this number is dwarfed by the number of agencies from over the bridge. I would be interested to hear peoples thoughts on this so have left comments open on this post.
Finally, after speaking with the venue I have managed to convince them to change things around a little (even remove a wall) so that we can fit a few more people into the conference. Therefore, a limited number of tickets have gone back on sale at www.handheldconf.com. The venue have also been very supportive of the conference and have thrown away the health & safety rule book to allow me to add a few surprises to the day…
I’d love to attend, but can’t justify the ticket price. I attended the Port80 event and loved it, but the ticket price was 1/3rd of this event. I think this is probably a contributory factor. Agencies in London/across the bridge probably have more of a budget for conference tickets than agencies this side of the bridge. Just finger-in-the-wind guessing…!
That could well be the reason Edward and I appreciate the comment. Joel did a great job with Port 80 but Cardiff has a lack of venues big enough for this kind of event with easy access for those travelling further afield AND good/cheap parking.
Costs have been kept to a minimum and the £139 is still a fraction of the cost of what people would expect to pay to see this calibre of speakers outside of Wales.
I concur that it represents good value for money, Craig, especially having read throught the speakers list
@edward – I ummed an ahhed about coming, but in the end – the cost of the event for me isn’t only thing to take into consideration. There’s hotels and meals I would have to factor in if coming from further afield along with the factor of leaving my family for a short time.
I agree that the actual event cost *is* expensive, given a first off 1 day event, with no listed schedule or even photos of the location at launch. It puts it right up there above the cost of New Adventures or even dConstruct. That means a fair amount of trust people have to have that it will live up to expectations.
I for one, hope it does and that we see lots more events closer to home.
Thanks for the reply Ian,
I suppose the difference between Handheld and other more web specific conferences is that all speakers have a particular knowledge and will be taking about deploying to mobile devices. In this respect it is a bit more specialist.
The event isn’t profit making (in fact, it is costing me a personal small fortune) but if this years event is a success, and I see no reason why it shouldn’t be, it can scale. The more it scales, the more I can drive down the cost and make it a more affordable conference.
I have already been looking at venues for next years event with a much bigger capacity – costs such as lighting and staging will remain the same but as more would be attending, ticket prices would be less.
Craig,
I guess one thing to consider is the parking problem – is it really a major issue?
We have an abundance of railway lines around the city – and other events seem to manage without them, based in major city centres the length of the uk.
There is plenty of parking around most of Cardiff – but it can be costly for a full day. Thankfully, the couple of car parks in Cardiff Bay are very reasonably priced, from just £3 per day and just 200m from venue.
It’s an interesting thought but in short I think the crux of the problem is indeed to do with Wales but in a slightly subtler way. Historically speaking the ability to host such an event has been made possible through support in two ways. This maybe in kind funding or it maybe through genuine money (which has historically come from government funding), if this is the case then generally due to the funding the event has had to be free, which has swayed the idea and concept of quality and once someone starts charging then it’s a shock.
The idea of free is also an issue within the idea of being busy. So if you are busy on the day and its a free event. what do you do? you do the work. The idea of investment into your company and the idea that £150 is a snip of gaining over 13 peoples years of thoughts distilled for you doesnt seem to come into that thinking unfortunately.
It’s interesting however that I am assuming you are paying for the speakers and if you have sold all tickets at around £130 then you should have £14,000 to play with after speakers costs however I imagine that really doesnt leave you with much. So it’s hard to really get all of the other stuff setup. The filming the tech and then the legacy of the event is the really key thing to events and is often forgotten.
I would ask if you think the CEMAS events that you were involved in/worked on. Whether they actually help or hinder the bigger events. I am actually unsure. Due to them being free once again you are degrading the quality. It is very similar in a way to free pitching but a different way around.
Bit of a ramble
Julian
Thanks for taking the time for that comment Julian -
I initially approached Welsh Government for support for the event but it soon became clear that they couldn’t really add value. My personal experience with Welsh Government funded events is that they fall short of the mark. I am sure there are many people who think that the backing of the Welsh Government would give the event more credibility, but I strongly disagree. I want the event to be dynamic and to be of relevance to the audience, funding from Welsh Government would mean surrendering creative control and ultimately sucking the life and personality out of the event. Government money has a horrible habit of stifling creativity.
I see your point about Government funded companies such as CEMAS providing free, or subsidised events. The problem with these organisations is that they are not commercially relevant and nobody seems to care about the quality of the event. In fact, I have recently decided to leave CEMAS for this very reason. I have left completely disillusioned about Government funded projects after seeing huge waste, to a point where as a tax payer I was offended at how my taxes were being wasted.
Handheld is a commercial venture, and unashamedly so. That doesn’t mean I will be pulling in a profit after this first event. The venue, speakers travel & accommodation, staging, lighting, catering, photographers… the shopping list is endless. My aim is to create a fantastic event which will hopefully become an annual event in the industries diary. I am also driven to prove that Cardiff can host an event which competes with other ‘named’ National conferences.
There is a wealth of talent in South Wales, but these Government funded events do not paint South Wales in the best light. I am hoping Handheld can change peoples perceptions a little, but ultimately, I want to create an event which people will love and be inspired by.
I was really annoyed with myself for missing Port 80 earlier in the year, so I wasn’t going to let myself miss another local web conference. I think its important to support local events. Of course handheld has its own appeal, and I’m really looking forward to it. Out of Interest, is there anybody out there travelling up from Swansea, and fancy lift sharing?
Hi Benjy,
I have started collating a Twitter list of all attendees (well, the people who provided Twitter details when registering). You may see somebody you know on the list and could always arrange to share a lift that way.
Would a train from Swansea be easier? Rumour has it that there might be free beer afterwards…
Great thought-provoking piece, Craig.
Rather like broadcasting in Wales, I wonder whether digital agencies here need custom from the state to survive and grow.
On a more promising note, am on a Cyfle archive mash-up programme at the moment, where we learn in the broadcaster’s archives and are coached by experienced pros there.
It’s a model for state funding I reckon with a sense of ‘You know what you’re doing…help these people…and go and get our agreed outcomes’
We’ve all paid to be on the programme but it is very heavily subsidized. And I think the paying helps we the participants value the experience.
Looking forward lots to handheld.
Matt Hamilton’s figures from the 2010 Plone conference in Bristol are worthwhile reading for anyone who’s interested in the financial side of conferences…
http://www.netsight.co.uk/blog/plone-conference-2010-the-numbers
@andydavies
Interesting, I agree with Philippa’s comment about paying for tickets, it does ensure you value the experience.
I wonder if the reason most people attending this conference are from further afield, is down to your twitter influence – maybe its much bigger geographically than you think?
I too, am looking forward to lots of Handheld, and I’ll be coming by train so won’t see much of the bridge…
It’s interesting and it seems that you have to overcome three major hurdles to convince the Welsh audience.
The first would be moving away from the ‘free is good’ mentality. There are some great, free events put on in Wales, some of which have WG funding. As you’d expect, there are also some poor events. My guess is that as soon as you put a price tag next to a conference, you have a lot more convincing to do. It becomes much more of a branding and marketing exercise to convince people that they should attend.
The second hurdle will relate to this being a ‘new’ event. Obviously it’s difficult to have an established track record/pedigree of high class event if it’s the first one. No doubt following a successful event, next years conference will have established more credibility so will grow and gain more interest from the local community.
The third hurdle I think is that this is still quite a niche, but growing, industry, especially in Wales. With Wales having a lot of small, multi-disciplinary agencies, the uptake may be slower as compared to a more generalist topic.
From what I can see you have done a great job so far in putting on this conference. Have you thought about putting out a questionnaire to ‘local’ agencies for some feedback?
Huw
I agree with you Huw, although I do think that the smaller multi-disciplinary agency would benefit more from this kind of an event than a larger more specialist agency.
I suppose the point I was trying to make is that Cardiff is trying hard to compete creatively with the likes of London & Bristol, but these agencies obviously have a different attitude towards conferences and time away from the coal face.
Tickets are now very limited and it seems a lot of Cardiff agencies may miss out on what is promising to be a fun, thought provoking and valuable event for a company. Some of these agencies may then even be sending staff off to other UK conferences at a much higher price. I may be slightly biased, but I honestly believe that the variety and quality of the Handheld speakers isn’t matched by any other conference happening this year in the UK.