Industry events need fewer big names and more people doing the work
Conference agendas are too often built around prestige rather than genuine usefulness. The best speakers are usually the ones with real, current experience.
The professional events scene is back. Let’s not waste the opportunity by doing the same tired things we always do.
The best speaker at your next industry event should be someone you’ve never heard of. Not the executive with 50,000 LinkedIn followers and a highlights reel, or the middle manager from a big brand delivering a “visionary” keynote that’s been through 13 design rounds.
This person is busier doing the work than promoting themselves, working at smaller companies moving faster with no comms team approvals, and on the tools. They’re hard to find through a LinkedIn or Google search because they don’t post online. But if you ask anyone in their field, “Who would you recommend for this topic?” their name is always mentioned.
Too many industry and professional events are still reheating 2022’s nachos. Major tech and marketing events roll out agendas packed with multiple speakers from the same flavour-of-the-month company, the same speakers who appear every year with the same keynote, and session titles that are an embarrassing mix of tired BuzzFeed-style clickbait and obvious AI slop.
