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Every year, the shows are more and more of an excuse to party, mixed with the same seminars we've seen for years, the same old convention floor (until the floor vanished) and the "same" new reps bullshitting about their great new programs that will vanish in six months.
Back in the day, the NatNet Suite was an actual "semi-quiet" venue for real webmasters (not big program owners, but actual webmasters) to meet and talk real "mid-level" business, problem-solving, ideas and partnership suggestions (not big names at the blackjack tables, self-inflated reps pitching pre-paid deals for join numbers most webmasters couldn't possibly hit, or "content producers" who talked a great game about deals they wanted to do and then vanished a week later or never produced crap.)
The NatNet Suite was where I met most of my good friends in the business - and we're still friends, even though most of them ended up doing other things when the salad days were over. It was also a place that was a controlled environment and a hell of a lot of fun, especially when Dokk was at the mike.
Today, I'm almost 54. I have ownership of my own niche. I don't want to party until I drop anymore, and people pushing people into pools or through windows don't amuse me anymore. I don't want to spend time bullshitting with dozens of people who say they can do great business with me and then vanish. I don't want to waste time with reps who've been in the business for three months who want to tell me they can make me 100% more than I'm making now. I don't want to hear the same seminars that I heard in 1999 (albeit with updated information that I already know.)
Most of my good friends are out of the business now, so I don't have a crew to hang with. And I don't want to spend hours at the Circle Bar talking to dozens of people, looking for semi-serious mid-level business people to be friends with. I used to very much enjoy Fay and Dave's shows, because they were small, intimate, and primarily attended by people like me. But those shows grew out of control and morphed into smaller versions of Internext.
Even so, when January came close every year, I always gave in and went anyway. And every year, it got less and less productive.
This year, I have a cat near death, a wife who's eight months pregnant, a friend who's dealing with illness and serious depression - and wasn't able to make the last-minute decision that "fuck it, I'll go anyway." And you know what? I don't miss it at all. Not anymore. What I miss is what it *used* to be.
I know I'll come off as an embittered old-timer who can't change with the times. So be it. The question was asked - and that's my answer. And I know there are others who agree.
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