“I think of the conference as a product – not just as the event, because as a founder I have always been in the product manager role,” says today’s guest on the Produktwerker podcast Stefan Vosskötter, founder of the Digital People Summit, among other things .
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Conferences from the perspective of product development
From the participants’ perspective, a conference is probably primarily a learning product, a networking platform or a big party experience. But from the provider and organizer perspective, the focus is often more on the event character and the challenges of event management. But if a conference has been successful for years and defies the most diverse market or social conditions (e.g. a pandemic), then it helps to understand a conference as a product.
It is precisely from this perspective of product development that product worker Tim Klein looks at the development of a conference in the current podcast episode with his guest Stefan Vosskötter. How did the idea come about? What is the product vision, what is the competitive situation, which target groups do I address? These may still be the more common questions when organizing a conference. They can also be transferred to in-house conferences and events.
But the conversation between the two goes much further and illuminates the following questions:
What hypotheses were there at the beginning? What experiments did you carry out? Which of these were successful? Which ones failed or even crashed? What fundamental learnings have you learned over the years – especially during the remote time? What are the features of a conference product? What does the product’s roadmap look like? And how can a product be developed based on hypotheses? , whose iteration only ships once a year?
Looking at a conference from the perspective of product development certainly makes it possible to derive exciting ideas for your own product. So: just look or listen outside the box.
Related Links
Further reports on the development of unusual products can be found in these earlier episodes of the Produktwerker podcast:
If you have questions for Stefan Vosskötter or would like to get in touch with him, the best way to reach him is via his LinkedIn profile or by email. Information about the Digital People Summit and Stefan Vosskötter’s start-up activities can be found on the relevant websites.
The current edition of the podcast is also available on the Produktwerker blog: “Developing a conference as a product”.
(May)
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