New Web Conference: Frothy and no women

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The other day I was talking with a developer (who’ll remain unnamed cause he didn’t know I was gonna quote him) and he told me about all the froth he was seeing in the Web 2.0 space. He was wondering where the people were who were paying attention to business. Profits. Customers. He pointed to a lot of the events he’s been attending lately and said “they are frothy.”

One event, the New New Internet, is so frothy that a few people like Christopher Locke are even thinking it’s a parody. I had to look at it several times to realize this was a real conference, not something funny. As Dave says, they are excited about being excited. Frothy.

One other thing. I watched the video from that conference and I notice that there aren’t any women there. Frothy, without women. Oh, I’m SO excited! 🙂

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59 thoughts on “New Web Conference: Frothy and no women”

  1. OK…isn’t this actually what you do? you’ve been pretty much writing about people being excited about web 2.0…

    The obvious question is “whats the difference?”

    Booger

    Like

  2. OK…isn’t this actually what you do? you’ve been pretty much writing about people being excited about web 2.0…

    The obvious question is “whats the difference?”

    Booger

    Like

  3. Let me get this straight… you’re in a tiz over frothy geeks and the total absence of women?

    Have you been on the Internet too long? 🙂

    Like

  4. Let me get this straight… you’re in a tiz over frothy geeks and the total absence of women?

    Have you been on the Internet too long? 🙂

    Like

  11. So letmee get this straight, Tim’s Web 2.0 and Emerging Tech Conferences are the end all be all (and FOO when invited, noFoo or Barcamp when not), and Mix 06 was a must-attend event, you were handing out free tix to Mash-Uppers and promoing that like all out (Michael Platt was your God then), and you are always on the TechCrunch party lists, but this is one here, is somehow no good. I think your real definition of “frothy” be “they didn’t put me on the speaker list”. I bet if Dave was a keynoter, you’d be all over this…

    Of course it is totally-pure froth, but then so has been everything Web 2.0, hence selective froth belies ulterior motives. It’s so so easy to read in bloggerese. Not only is it frothy, it’s fraudy, arrogant, swarmy, and mash-up-feature-as-a-company brain-dead stupid.

    Tysons Corner, eh? That’s Spooksville, all those unmarked Offices, paid for by Langley, must be to angel-dust dazzle Government Service types, but boy what a total fake-up fall-pond swim. But to do Tyson’s you need a National Security angle…

    Like

  12. So letmee get this straight, Tim’s Web 2.0 and Emerging Tech Conferences are the end all be all (and FOO when invited, noFoo or Barcamp when not), and Mix 06 was a must-attend event, you were handing out free tix to Mash-Uppers and promoing that like all out (Michael Platt was your God then), and you are always on the TechCrunch party lists, but this is one here, is somehow no good. I think your real definition of “frothy” be “they didn’t put me on the speaker list”. I bet if Dave was a keynoter, you’d be all over this…

    Of course it is totally-pure froth, but then so has been everything Web 2.0, hence selective froth belies ulterior motives. It’s so so easy to read in bloggerese. Not only is it frothy, it’s fraudy, arrogant, swarmy, and mash-up-feature-as-a-company brain-dead stupid.

    Tysons Corner, eh? That’s Spooksville, all those unmarked Offices, paid for by Langley, must be to angel-dust dazzle Government Service types, but boy what a total fake-up fall-pond swim. But to do Tyson’s you need a National Security angle…

    Like

  13. Mix06 had hard-core technical content (I wasn’t a speaker there either). I called the latest TechCrunch party “a media event.” I noted that the one before that made me think that the bubble was back. OK, OK, I didn’t call it frothy, but it was.

    O’Reilly’s conferences always had hard-core technical content at them. This one makes fun of “getting deep without getting technical.” Not the same at all.

    Like

  14. Mix06 had hard-core technical content (I wasn’t a speaker there either). I called the latest TechCrunch party “a media event.” I noted that the one before that made me think that the bubble was back. OK, OK, I didn’t call it frothy, but it was.

    O’Reilly’s conferences always had hard-core technical content at them. This one makes fun of “getting deep without getting technical.” Not the same at all.

    Like

  15. It should be noted that TechCrunch’s parties were PARTIES. Parties are supposed to be “frothy.”

    Conferences, where attendees are paying money to attend, are not supposed to be frothy.

    Like

  16. It should be noted that TechCrunch’s parties were PARTIES. Parties are supposed to be “frothy.”

    Conferences, where attendees are paying money to attend, are not supposed to be frothy.

    Like

  17. I read where Arrington pocketed a cool 100,000 grand after expenses for his techcrunch party.

    Not bad. Kinda like studio 54 in the 70’s.

    Like

  18. I read where Arrington pocketed a cool 100,000 grand after expenses for his techcrunch party.

    Not bad. Kinda like studio 54 in the 70’s.

    Like

  19. Pingback: Naik’s News » New Web Conference: Frothy and no women

  26. “frothr.com”

    What’s wring with Arrington making money? Every person attending the party would do the same, if they could.

    Key word being, “if”.

    Like

  27. “frothr.com”

    What’s wring with Arrington making money? Every person attending the party would do the same, if they could.

    Key word being, “if”.

    Like

  28. Hugh, what might be wrong with making $50K on a party is that, for most of us, giving a party isn’t about making money. Nor is it about promoting ourselves or our businesses. Mostly, they’re just social events to spend some time enjoying the company of our friends.

    There ought to be a different word for these types of parties, which are offered to garner attention, broker attention, and make a little, well I guess it depends on what you think a “little” is, money on the side.

    As “if” you couldn’t figure that out.

    Like

  29. Hugh, what might be wrong with making $50K on a party is that, for most of us, giving a party isn’t about making money. Nor is it about promoting ourselves or our businesses. Mostly, they’re just social events to spend some time enjoying the company of our friends.

    There ought to be a different word for these types of parties, which are offered to garner attention, broker attention, and make a little, well I guess it depends on what you think a “little” is, money on the side.

    As “if” you couldn’t figure that out.

    Like

  30. nice article. there was something i also wonder about. where do people come from, i mean, where to people that attend to this sort of stuff actually come from. see ya, keep on writing!

    Like

  31. nice article. there was something i also wonder about. where do people come from, i mean, where to people that attend to this sort of stuff actually come from. see ya, keep on writing!

    Like

  34. So just “hard-core technical content” makes it all ok? That’s just froth geeked up, this conference is froth minus the geek. So to be Web 2.0 and ok, you have to have hard-core technical content about vaportware and it’s ok. No hard-core technical content, not ok. Right? Then this is froth FOR the masses.

    And it wasn’t a PARTY, it’s a networking event…you don’t party and pay big money, gettign exculsive invites with dim-bulb shallowheads like that. Ok, maybe you do. 😉

    So breaking it down…

    Web 2.0 + hard-core technical content = Ok.
    Web 2.0 – hard-core technical content – Bad.

    Like

  35. So just “hard-core technical content” makes it all ok? That’s just froth geeked up, this conference is froth minus the geek. So to be Web 2.0 and ok, you have to have hard-core technical content about vaportware and it’s ok. No hard-core technical content, not ok. Right? Then this is froth FOR the masses.

    And it wasn’t a PARTY, it’s a networking event…you don’t party and pay big money, gettign exculsive invites with dim-bulb shallowheads like that. Ok, maybe you do. 😉

    So breaking it down…

    Web 2.0 + hard-core technical content = Ok.
    Web 2.0 – hard-core technical content – Bad.

    Like

  38. Arrgh, WordPress over-aggressive spam dog-catcher…spell and grammar check above.

    Funny that your “froth” now has a qualifier definition, as meaning not sufficiently technical enough. Of course, even the geeky is froth. But always interesting in digesting the bloggeristic dicionary.

    froth (frôth, frth) n. – [Middle English, from Old Norse frodha.] — 1. Any Web 2.0 conference deemed ungeeky and not endorsed by Crazy Uncle Dave. 2. Any conference on blogs or Web 2.0 that somehow sees fit not to include me.

    And I don’t find anything wrong with the general principle of “getting deep without getting technical.” Those are called End User Conferences or Trade Shows. So I am guessing a Gnomdex Web 2.0 would be bad? 😉

    Like

  39. Arrgh, WordPress over-aggressive spam dog-catcher…spell and grammar check above.

    Funny that your “froth” now has a qualifier definition, as meaning not sufficiently technical enough. Of course, even the geeky is froth. But always interesting in digesting the bloggeristic dicionary.

    froth (frôth, frth) n. – [Middle English, from Old Norse frodha.] — 1. Any Web 2.0 conference deemed ungeeky and not endorsed by Crazy Uncle Dave. 2. Any conference on blogs or Web 2.0 that somehow sees fit not to include me.

    And I don’t find anything wrong with the general principle of “getting deep without getting technical.” Those are called End User Conferences or Trade Shows. So I am guessing a Gnomdex Web 2.0 would be bad? 😉

    Like

  42. “Mostly, they’re just social events to spend some time enjoying the company of our friends.”

    Well, I would argue that the party was a social event, Dave. Only, the agenda wasn’t about enjoying “the company of friends”. But I’ve never seperated “work” and “social” much, as any reader of my blog can tell.

    From what my spies tell me, pretty much everybody there had their own business agenda for attending. Which was made it interesting.

    Like

  43. “Mostly, they’re just social events to spend some time enjoying the company of our friends.”

    Well, I would argue that the party was a social event, Dave. Only, the agenda wasn’t about enjoying “the company of friends”. But I’ve never seperated “work” and “social” much, as any reader of my blog can tell.

    From what my spies tell me, pretty much everybody there had their own business agenda for attending. Which was made it interesting.

    Like

  44. Christopher: I disagree with you that all of the “new web” is frothy or doesn’t have business behind it.

    There are plenty of sites that are actually making real money. The problem is we aren’t talking enough about them. Instead we’re talking about the froth.

    I don’t see a single session at this “new internet” conference about business models and how to increase your revenues. How to increase adoption? How to get outside the Techcrunch/TechMeme/Digg bubble.

    And it doesn’t even have a session on how to properly make rounded corner graphics. Heheh.

    Frothy!

    Like

  45. Christopher: I disagree with you that all of the “new web” is frothy or doesn’t have business behind it.

    There are plenty of sites that are actually making real money. The problem is we aren’t talking enough about them. Instead we’re talking about the froth.

    I don’t see a single session at this “new internet” conference about business models and how to increase your revenues. How to increase adoption? How to get outside the Techcrunch/TechMeme/Digg bubble.

    And it doesn’t even have a session on how to properly make rounded corner graphics. Heheh.

    Frothy!

    Like

  48. englishcut.com was profitable from Q1. That’s because we were using the blog to sell established, expensive products. Secondly, we started it for next to nothing and kept are overheads insanely low… we still do, actually.

    The way to get outside the bubble is to sell non-bubble products in the first place.

    Like

  49. englishcut.com was profitable from Q1. That’s because we were using the blog to sell established, expensive products. Secondly, we started it for next to nothing and kept are overheads insanely low… we still do, actually.

    The way to get outside the bubble is to sell non-bubble products in the first place.

    Like

  50. A good business is a good business, nothing special about making it webby or labeling it Web 2.0, it’s just all a marketing/distributional method. And nothing new new about the new new…it’s just the natural evolutionary product cycle, the same since dawn of time, new to specalized community to commodity.

    The problem is we aren’t talking enough about them. Instead we’re talking about the froth.

    Well, agreed there. So talk about non-froth. 🙂

    Business and revenue models, at an internet conference?? Surely you jest. But you are on the right track…in wanting that. 🙂

    End Prog

    Like

  51. A good business is a good business, nothing special about making it webby or labeling it Web 2.0, it’s just all a marketing/distributional method. And nothing new new about the new new…it’s just the natural evolutionary product cycle, the same since dawn of time, new to specalized community to commodity.

    The problem is we aren’t talking enough about them. Instead we’re talking about the froth.

    Well, agreed there. So talk about non-froth. 🙂

    Business and revenue models, at an internet conference?? Surely you jest. But you are on the right track…in wanting that. 🙂

    End Prog

    Like

  52. Pingback: Dead2.0 » Chicks now welcome at Office 2.0 conference!

  53. So John points us to a picture of two women in bikinis surrounded by about ten guys and is trying to sell us on the fact that women were represented? Notice the women were leaving in the picture. For all we know that is a picture of a hotel pool. The geeks didn’t seem to make that big of an impression. As I mentioned above the women look as if they are about to make an exit.

    Like

  54. So John points us to a picture of two women in bikinis surrounded by about ten guys and is trying to sell us on the fact that women were represented? Notice the women were leaving in the picture. For all we know that is a picture of a hotel pool. The geeks didn’t seem to make that big of an impression. As I mentioned above the women look as if they are about to make an exit.

    Like

  55. Pingback: Bloggers vs. Other Media | JOBMATCHBOX

  56. Marco: mm interesting. Well it says it “lets you video chat“, but it still doesn’t specify
    whether you can actually HOST it.

    Like

  57. Marco: mm interesting. Well it says it “lets you video chat“, but it still doesn’t specify
    whether you can actually HOST it.

    Like

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