Remember when conferences were in the basements of hotels and featured lime cordial and mint imperials? And you had to go because they were the only way to get new knowledge from people who knew stuff but were three years away from finishing their book. The internet's killed them.
Now you can read everything you need to know almost before you need to know it.
So conferences are turning into something else, finding new reasons to exist. The Interesting model is one way to go - cheap, easy, informal, low-risk. Or there's the TED way; flashy, significant, expensive, you-had-to-be-there. And Dave is exploring another way with Do.
I used to berate Dave a bit for how expensive Do is; you can get rid of all the tents and stuff and do it for £20, I'd say. But I've realised I was missing the point a) the people who can afford the tickets are paying for the talks to be shared with the rest of the world. b) being there is important, together, away from everything else. The talks are important but they're also stimulus for the chat. And the music matters. And the tea and the mugs and the canoeing. And you can't do that for cheap.
Anyway. Do's happening again. I think there's still a couple of tickets left. It's not cheap but it's worth it.