The Text Analytics Summit needs to be replaced
I wasn’t asked to moderate a panel at the Text Analytics Summit because the guy running it — NOT Seth Grimes — didn’t feel “comfortable” with me doing so. (I wanted real discussion; Ezra evidently just wanted to buy off sponsors and partners with marketing-opportunity slots.) I also wasn’t given a press pass.* (Although uninterested in the sessions, I was interested in stopping by and meeting some newer vendors.)
*This is although I’ve spoken at four prior versions of the event, and responded to their request for free consulting as recently as this year.
OK, that might have been personal in some way — but Nick Patience tweets a very similar story. Even Seth himself tweets that
They have a business model that does not apply well to the IT conference space.
The Text Analytics Summit has been troubled for years, but evidently things have gotten worse.
This is more than an incidental problem. Interest in text data is exploding, and marketplace confusing about text analytic technology abounds. More clarity is needed, but too few folks have found an economic model for providing it. (The industry shares some of the blame for that.) I’m glad Seth is doing other conference work — notably on sentiment analysis — but yet more is needed.
If I get into the conference business — and it seems natural that I would — I’ll try to help fill the gap. But if somebody else beats me to the punch, more power to you, and please let me know how I can help.
| Categories: Text Analytics Summit | 3 Comments |