Defrag Blog

It is no secret: there are a ton of “tech conferences” out there. The great majority of these are run by “media companies,” while a handful are run by “the independents.” By independents, I mean Chris and Ponzi Pirrillo (Gnomedex), Kevin Werbach (Supernova) and Ismael Ghalimi (Office 2.0) —and, of course, Defrag.

Not being a media company means a bunch of things, but one of the things that I really treasure is that I don’t have to be caught in the corporate game of “competing.” Companies think that way — “who do we compete with?” Threats, issues, problems. Independents (I’ve found), largely don’t. I’ve never felt that I compete with Ismael, even though we cover some of the same topics. At the end of the day, I trust that Defrag is sufficiently differentiated and unique (as is Supernova, Gnomedex and Office 2.0 from Defrag), and therefore, I’m actually over here *rooting* for their success. (sidenote: None of that is to say that folks inside of media companies don’t wish for people’s success - Steve Wylie at Enterprise 2.0 wished me success just the other day.)

When I hear that Supernova was awesome, I love it. When people report that Gnomedex was “amazing,” I say “good for them.” And, conversely, when I read that Ismael had a rough couple of days, I sympathize. To that end, let me say this, I’ve never been to Office 2.0 (though were it not for conflicting upcoming travel, I would be there this year), but I’m consistently amazed at Ismael pulling it off in the time-frame that he does. I prefer to have 6-7 months to organize a successful conference; Ismael prefers 60-90 days. Different strokes, right?

In any case, I applaud Ismael, and I’m pulling for him. If you can make it to Office 2.0, you should. How many times will you see a “media company” promote a “competitor?”

That’s why I love being an “independent.”

[You should, of course, also come to Defrag. Sorry, couldn't resist. ;-)]