Hey, friend!

I just got back from speaking at the inaugural Wire:Live conference, a lovely and small (maybe 100 attendees?) conference. The conference celebrated a technology called Livewire, and was held in the hometown of Livewire's creator, Caleb Porzio.

Caleb's family was there, he gave us recommendations for restaurants he and his wife like to eat at, the second day was just a hang-out-hack-on-stuff day and overall it felt like a delightful little family gathering and I had so much fun and it was so good.

I've long been a fan of conferences. I was loud about my desire to bring back Laracon US post COVID, and I've attended as many Laracons as I'm capable, sponsoring many along the way.

But I've always had a special love for a smaller, more intimate conference. Wire:Live definitely made me nostalgic for the early days of Laracon US, and I still have the fondest of memories of other smaller conferences I've attended like PeersConf.

I still often think about the first tech conference I ever attended, LessConf, because it was so formative for me, because I still enjoy many of those relationships, and because the organizers encouraged me to attend when $1000 (the cost included housing and food, so it was a great price) felt like money I couldn't afford to spend. Just like Wire:Live, that year's LessConf was in the hometown of one of the organizers, and it made it that much more special.

I'm excited to see that there's a market for conferences like this. I know some tech conferences are struggling right now, but I've always made the case that that isn't because they didn't get big, it's that they didn't get good. This conference was good. It was fun, it was well-run, it was at an enjoyable location, and–as much of a bummer as this is to say–it was thrown as a labor of love rather than a money-making operation. I'm not saying good conferences can't be profitable, but so far every conference organizer I've spoken to about their excellent conference has, afterward, said, "Yah, and we didn't lose nearly as much money as I expected!"

I hope the people with passion can throw beautiful small conferences and make money off them one day, but for now, I deeply appreciate their commitment and dedication to creating wonderful experiences for those of us who benefit so much from attending, speaking at, and sponsoring these conferences.

What Else?