I think there were some good comments made in the post about conferences and communities
I agree that conferences are great places to pick up new ideas - however, the problem is that there is little time to reflect on issues raised but also come back to the author of the pieces.

I found that I took notes and a lot of the best thoughts either as you say hit me that night on a train or flight home or at 3:00 am. Also, it is increasingly difficult to sell to a boss attendance at events. (Speaking personally I had to be presenting - getting a reduction on the cost of attending and if it was overseas I had to be able to do some work for the region to justify the cost of my attendance).

In my area of KM work - I’ve seen the rise of the paid-for webinar replacing the conference, it is shorter in length but still has the defects of a conference. I noted your comment about conferences being entertainment - I think I’d rather watch a good concert or a theatre show in my local cinema than attend an industry conference. Taylor Swift, it ain’t though maybe conference organisers can have a halftime Superbowl show…..

Often in the presentations they tended to be on the ra ra side and didn’t set up what hadn’t worked and the challenges they faced which would have been of use for those looking to adapt the findings to use in their organisation.

There are a couple of reasons why I think communities may be better than conferences.

1. Brass tacks - it costs a lot to send X or Y to a conference not only in lost time, conference attendance, hotel, and travel costs - let’s say from a UK perspective £2500.00 +. It is a lot easier sell to say to a manager can I have say £150 to be part of an ongoing community to identify new ideas and discuss ideas that I have in a safe setting.

2. It’s an engaging process where it isn’t a chalk-and-talk lecture where you sit in a room being talked at. The best ones are David Gurteen’s knowledge cafe approach where its a 15-minute talk and then a discussion around a question for 15 minutes then a report back. (It has its flaws but it is still better than chalk and talk)

3. You have an opportunity to try out new ideas

4. Community members are often members of other communities so can bring those thoughts into the discussion or after a while of being a member might facilitate a meeting with another connection to help you out.

5. The big conferences tend to be too big and you can’t meet with the people you want to meet to have a chat whereas in a community you can have a chat with a member of the community outside if you want to.

6. Communities can regulate their size to remain effective (Dunbar's law of 150 people seems relevant. Though a community can be ‘split’ for example the reason that a person joins community X is around distributed work and wants to talk to colleagues in that area not only through a community chat but also via regular meetings (see my point above)

7. Communities now are more global in their outlook due to the rise of tools such as Zoom and Teams as all as opportunities to collaborate using Slack or Teams. This brings in different working cultures and approaches into the mix.

8. Communities do it for the ‘love’ and wanting to help their members development like the old Masonic guilds. Conferences by and large do it for the profit Though communities need to make sure that they invest in tools that support the community and pay for that through the community. A community not only needs people it needs tools to facilitate the community which need to be covered.

9. I don’t get a bad cold from a community where I often do from a conference (or these days potentially something worse)

10. If you are an organisation committed to environmental targets a community is more carbon neutral than a conference and less wasteful (how many conference goody bags do you still use)