Team '22 - Would you attend in-person or digital event?

[Mirek]

Team '22 is closer than you think.. In April again we would have another opportunity to be part of a unique event. Yes! But this time after two years there is a chance to meet together again!

It is pretty exiting. But as we know mostly due to situation around not all can probably join.. For those that cannot of course there would be still a digital experience, which is also great.

So the main question is.. Would you like to be a part of a live event and you know it already or rather it would be not be possible and digital experience is only way to go? Or maybe simply you do not know yet mostly it depends on how the situation would evolve?

How do you think this event would look like?

[Curt Holley]

Much as I would love the opportunity to actually meet other community leaders and go to Team 22 (or the like), for me, being in New Zealand means this was always going to be a hard/expensive/time consuming effort. As even if held in Australia, as then many of the northern hemisphere folk, wouldn't be there, so....diminished returns.

All of that aside, it feels like going forward "Digital Experience" first and foremost as a strategy for such a global company as Atlassian would make sense for such events. 

Hybrid? For sure!!! and over time I can well imagine Atlassian helping facilitate and transform such events, with......(off the top of my head) Holographs, immersive VR, next level Whiteboard type tooling etc......all of which can eventually end up part of the Atlassian toolkit.

[Mirek]

Seeing other leaders is one of the best parts of the event! :) So even you are from New Zealand which you might think is far I think it is worth it..

[James Breunig]

I would love to be part of the live event and hope that it becomes open to more people.

Zoom meetings, live streams, chats, podcasts - all these digital communications tools are good.

But it's very hard to build relationships and find leads digitally compared to meeting in person with a large crowd type atmosphere.

As a speaker it's great to chat after speaking. You can go to lunch with those you meet. There are team building exercises that can be done. The atmosphere of an event really can't be created at home. It's the difference from watching a football game from home vs attending the game having a beer, eating a hotdog and cheering for the team. It's about participation in the conference vs watching or passively listening in the background.

For clients it's a way to meet with many vendors at once. You can see what other Atlassian Teams are doing. For those job seeking - it can be a way to see what the different employers are offering. Learning can certainly be done online, but participating is much more challenging from behind a screen.

[Mirek]

Yes, building relationship is very important. Humans are very social. We cannot be locked at home for a long time..

[Jimmy Seddon]

Great discussion topic @Mirek!

When Team 2022 was announced as going back to a live event at the end of Team 2021, I didn't want to believe or really think about it because I didn't want to get my hopes up for attending such an event if it wasn't likely going to happen.

As things have started getting closer and the event appears to still be happening, I have had discussions with my boss about attending the event.  I have full support and approval form my company to attend as long as the borders stay open for me to be able to travel to the US.

I was at the 2019 Summit and I 100% agree with @James Breunig's comparison about sporting events (Being there vs watching from home).

I have full intentions to attend in person as long as I'm able to get to the venue and to be able to do so safely.

I have enjoyed the virtual experience that we had for the Team 2020 & 2021 events though I found it impossible to have a good conversation with the marketplace & solutions partners.

Given that the digital Team 2022 is not happening at the same time as the In Person experience, I might try to attend both in some capacity.

[Curt Holley]

Very true....there is nothing like "Being there".

[Mirek]

Attending both is a good idea unless of course it would be the same content.

[Jimmy Seddon]

@Mirek agreed!  However, I submitted a talk for the 2022 Call for Speakers and one of the questions was if you were planning to attend in person or virtually.  I would like to think this increases the number of talks that are selected and the In person and virtual events would feature different speakers.

[Mirek]

Yes, if there was no "both" as an option to answer then it might sound that we would have different experience, but I guess that live talks would be recorded so probably we can watch them later too.. I hope so :)

[Leon Boye]

I think digital event, I know it is not the same as a live on,  a lot is miss.  I am not going if I don’t have to

[Fabrizio Galletti _Getconnected_]

I would love to partecipate live! My last partecipation was in Barcellona and long time has passed since these crazy nights :D

Is going to be complicated for me this year so probably i will stick with the online solution

[Michael Blake]

definitely in person - attending digitally does not afford me the proper time needed to attend the events.  When I am away from work, I can concentrate on the conference and not be disrupted by daily work.  While I check my work before and after the conference each day, I spend about 10 hours each day dedicated to the event.  In 2020 and 2021, the digital event only allowed me to dedicate 2-3 hours per day for the event.

[Mirek]

Yes I agree. The problem is also that even you have ability to watch later it is still hard to find time to listen to all. In person was also a lot better experience for me than digital especially if everything is recorded not live like on a real conference.

[Tom Hawkins]

Almost certainly digital only in reality, much as I'd love an in person alternative in theory! 

Thanks, Tom 

[deepali3031]

I Would love to be back for a live event. I totally agree with @James Breunig's comparison regarding being there vs watching from home. Participation is much more challenging from watching at home.

[Mirek]

Actually always keynotes were streamed live and this was great. Everyone who did not attend had a chance to get some experience from a live event. Not sure how the hybrid version would work, but would be nice to have the live stream from Vegas again.. 

[Kristin Lyons]

I would love an in person event but realistically I would only be able to attend if it was virtual for 2022.  Here's hoping for an in person 2023 event for me!

[Mirek]

Did you ever attended live event?

[Taranjeet Singh]

I would love to attend in-person Team '22 event but I know it is not possible for me for some reason and so, I will try to attend the virtual/digital one.

[Mirek]

Overall I am very happy that the in person event is planned and there would be opportunity to go.. I think that covid globally would not vanish.. it would be there with us for few more years.. imagine that we are already facing it for 2 years.. it looks like we have to learn to live with that.. Definitively this form would be for everyone that is vaccinated, so if you plan to go, you have to do more preparation than only flight / hotel / logistics..

[Michael Blake]

I have attended 3 of the Summit events (2 in San Jose, and 1 in Las Vegas - 2010, 2017, 2019).  Was all set to go for 2020 before it was cancelled.  I attended 2020 virtual but was not the same as being there in person.  I actually met the recruiter who found me my current position at the Summit - though we met as Community leaders.  Team '22 would be my first as a partner - hope they have a partner day like they had for Summit, the day before the event officially started for the users.

[Mirek]

I was also ready at starting blocks for 2020 but we know how it ended.. but still it was fun on a digital event and events team did a great job to give us the opportunity..

I am pretty sure that for Team 22' there is also something cool planned

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I want to attend in-person - mostly to get my count to 10, so I can stand up with @Susan Hauth _Jira Queen_  when we're asked!

I won't repeat all the good reasons that @Jimmy Seddon and @James Breunig mentioned in their first responses, I just agree with them ;-)

Online events do work, in some ways, better than real life, but they're very different to meeting people and definitely not so sociable.  My experiences of conferences over the last couple of years have justified what I guessed we would find - e-meetings work fine for 1:1 and small groups, but the large events don't much encourage that circulation you get when there's 5,000 of you in the same place.

[Michael Blake]

agree totally with Nic - large groups are definitely better in person - also, your workmates would frown on you for blasting the music that they do leading up to the opening session.  I have been able to collaborate directly with app creators instead of going through their help network.  All of them are really sharp.

[Jeremy Lynde]

Where is Team 22 actually being held. I know its in Las Vegas but what hotel/convention center is it at? I am planning to attend but want to find a hotel near by.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It's at the Venetian this year

[Mirek]

Due to pandemic there would be probably plenty of rooms and options around :)