Re: outreach update - need help spreading the word...

I can vouch for the fact that attendance is lower due to a wealth of
information that is already available online, particularly from the WAI
group.  Companies that I deal with now have considerably more internal
expertise than say, a year ago.

2) Travel budgets have been slashed across the board.  All types of
conferences have been affected.

3) There are few accessibility evangelists, such as Jakob Nielson with
usability, that have a "name brand" which draws a crowd.  I've often heard
feedback that a lot of accessibility recommendations still don't have "real
world" applications, and that the business cases presented for it have still
not been fleshed out enough (except 508, of course).

4) Conferences are often used for networking, and a lot of times certain
ones tend to draw the same people and become redundant.



----- Original Message -----
From: "Shawn Lawton Henry" <shawn@uiaccess.com>
To: "'EOWG'" <w3c-wai-eo@w3.org>
Sent: Friday, September 27, 2002 11:29 AM
Subject: outreach update - need help spreading the word...


>
> The "Web Design that Works for Everyone" conference
> (http://www.adaptenv.org/webconference/index.php):
>
> 1. has a good line up (including our own Judy Brewer, and people from
> Macromedia & Adobe, WGBH & NCAM, and the design community, including the
> executive director of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA))
>
> and 2. is relatively cheap ($300 for 2 days (early registration discount
> through this coming Monday 30 Sept)).
>
> However, registration is very low.
>
> I am interested in the low attendance at such events. Certainly some of
> it is due to the economy - conference attendance is way down for most
> established conferences. However, I think there is something more going
> on with accessibility. I know of a few different workshop that have had
> to cancel in the last couple months because of low registration. Perhaps
> one factor is that people feel they can get what they need on the Web?
> I'm not sure what all is at issue. Interesting to speculate, anyway.
>
> - Shawn
>

Received on Friday, 27 September 2002 12:56:26 UTC