<story><title>Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is back in its all-online format</title><url>https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/03/apples-worldwide-developers-conference-is-back-in-its-all-online-format/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>soapdog</author><text>I think I&amp;#x27;m the minority that really values in-person events. The best experiences for me didn&amp;#x27;t happened by watching the talks and sessions, but in casual conversations in the corridors and common areas. This is very hard to replicate with online events.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>breck</author><text>The knowledge and initial introductions in online events can lead to hugely positive outcomes in the future, so in terms of ROI I think online events are probably far superior, but when I think to my top 100 memorable experiences I&amp;#x27;ve had at events, not a single one of them took place online. Sure, I&amp;#x27;ve met plenty of people that I later became friends&amp;#x2F;collaborators with in person, but all the memorable stuff happens later in person.&lt;p&gt;Just a few recent off the top of my head:&lt;p&gt;- Paddleboard breakouts at East Meets West&lt;p&gt;- Asking Vinod a question about next-gen registers at Program Synthesis Conference&lt;p&gt;- Animated discussion about cpu design over beers post conference in SF&lt;p&gt;- Talking to a startup about IOT management on the roof of an Accel event&lt;p&gt;And some ones from 10+ years ago:&lt;p&gt;- When I was a college student sitting on a folding chair and chatting with a nice woman about the startups pitching at TechCrunch40 (turned out to be M Mayer)&lt;p&gt;- Drew pitching me on Dropbox before launch in Cambridge (boring, I thought)&lt;p&gt;- Nate pitching me AirBedAndBreakfast in Mountain View (loved the idea from the get go)&lt;p&gt;The only things that have come close to being memorable online were some recent Teamflow ice breaker type events we did at Our World in Data around the virtual campfire.</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is back in its all-online format</title><url>https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/03/apples-worldwide-developers-conference-is-back-in-its-all-online-format/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>soapdog</author><text>I think I&amp;#x27;m the minority that really values in-person events. The best experiences for me didn&amp;#x27;t happened by watching the talks and sessions, but in casual conversations in the corridors and common areas. This is very hard to replicate with online events.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>johannes1234321</author><text>As a presenter I prefer in-person events by far. Virtual events are so much speaking into the void with no feedback. Sometimes not even certainty whether connection or such might have been broken. Audience helps to see if jokes work and if audience keeps up or is getting bored as i go too slow. Also in a virtual event there is the risk of preproduction a talk, with artificial perfection.&lt;p&gt;As an participant for me the &amp;quot;hallway track&amp;quot; often is the most interesting, where I get into random discussions and run into people In otherwise rarely meet.</text></comment>