2020 is the year of online. Online podcasts and online or virtual conferences have been big this year. Podcasting has been growing but the number of people that started them as well as the number of new mini conferences or conferences that went virtual is huge.

For those that never could get away from work or get budget approval hopefully they have caught a ton of sessions and great speakers this year. We also hope you realize that the year isn't over and there are more good conferences and talks ahead.

Here are two FREE events that Dave is talking at in the coming weeks:

Dec 2-3 - Small Business and Ecommerce Cyber WeekDave's Session on Dec 3 - Tired of Writing? Audio & Video Content Creation is the AnswerDec 8 - Webmaster Tools with Dave Rohrer @ SEMPDX

In Person Conference Prediction

Our predictions since we usually get some correct:

When do we think large (100+ of people) size digital marketing type conferences will again happen in the United States?

As far as the answers:

Matt: Oct/Nov of 2021 is what he is guessing but also his guess is for the larger conferences of 1000 or many 100s of people.Dave: sticking with the idea around 100, 200, or 500 people - still decent size conference. Dave is looking for some "normal" to happen in Summer (July-ish) timeframe.

Hopefully Dave is correct but we shall see.

Pros of Virtual Conferences

Lots of conferences have gone free this year.There is no travel cost, hotel costs, eating out costs and time away from the office.Are becoming more engaging - some virtual conferences are working hard to make networking better but also to make the talks more engaging and closer to being "there".Access to great speakers and content no matter where you are in the world.You can multitask - you might miss some tips but catching at least 25% of the great nuggets is still better than missing 100%.

Cons of Virtual Conferences

No swag for coworkers, kids, family or office.No T-shirts or sweatshirtsMeeting new people, prospects, clients, friends is tougher virtualMeetings with clients or friends where you can get away and have an in person meeting/catch up.Are people paying attention due to work, kids, and other distractions calling for your time?

Do you think in 2021 and into 2022 virtual conferences will continue? Will burnout from video meetings burn people out in the future or has it already? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook!

Full Transcript

Matt Siltala: [00:00:00] Welcome to another exciting episode of the business of digital podcast, featuring your host, Matt scintilla and Dave roar. Hey guys, excited to have you join us on another one of these business of digital podcast episodes. I'm grateful that, you know, I was thinking about this, Dave, I'm grateful that we've been able to do.

And I don't know whether, whether it's, uh, sorry. My, my thoughts are all over the place right now, but. I don't know, it's because of, uh, you know, the fact that we talked about this is going to be kind of a 20, 20, uh, looking over type episode, but like, I've been very grateful. We've been able to do, um, over three years of these, if you can believe it just that we've had this, uh, podcast going on for so long, but anyway,

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:46] how's it going?

I have the podcast because we can't travel this year. So people that do podcasts in person. Um, that are not family are probably at a disadvantage.

Matt Siltala: [00:00:58] Very true, very true. [00:01:00] But, um, just getting into, you know, like we were chatting and w as we always do, it's good to just get in and record. Cause we tend to chat, not recording about all the stuff we should be recording, but, uh, we're talking about virtual conferences and just 2020 in general and, and then beyond, and, and what's in the future.

And so, um, just give us your, your thoughts on this and, uh, where we go from here. First

Dave Rohrer: [00:01:24] let's make predictions because we all, eve