Re: It can never succeed beyond the novelty stage
Where did you get the idea I enjoy traveling? Did you miss the part about not having attended any conferences for years? I find they are almost always a giant waste of time, being somewhere warm and/or with interesting things to do was the only benefit but isn't worth the other hassles post 9/11. If I'm going to deal with airports I'll take a REAL vacation where work is the last thing on my mind.
My point was that conferences will fight it tooth and nail, because the whole conference model goes away. If sales people aren't going to press the flesh, they aren't going to set up a booth to talk to a bunch of robots. And if they are using a robot themselves, they'll just set up a webcast and invite potential customers on their own schedule instead of a specific week someone else has selected. A guy who wants to do a presentation can similarly set up a webcast, what's the benefit of having it matched by a bunch of other guys doing the same with similar topics in a particular week?
If enough people feel like you do and want to attend conferences or trade shows robotically, you'll quickly find there are none left to attend.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
