Supernova 2007: Kevin Werbach Responds

Kevin Werbach, the organizer of Supernova 2007, took exception to my description of his conference as having a stellar crowd but a boring program. Since this is the kind of subjective impression on which people may differ, and since I didn't attend the conference's second day (with its dramatic fireworks over net neutrality – my loss), I told Kevin that I'd be happy let him respond on Epicenter. Below is his response, verbatim.

I don't think your coverage of Supernova 2007 was fair. Your assessment was apparently based on attending only one morning of a three-day conference, and even so, was significantly more negative than the many other blogs and news sites that have written about it.

I can't see how anyone could call the sessions with Clay Shirky, David Weinberger, Andrew Keen, KC Claffy, and the heated broadband policy debate with John Kneuer boring, to give just a few examples. And most of the conference was not presentations, but interactive discussions. Your readers should make their own evaluations, by checking out the summaries and video on our Conversation Hub site (www.conversationhub.com), or elsewhere.

For the record, there were more people at Supernova 2007 than last year, or for that matter, than we've ever had in six years of doing the event. You can verify this from the attendee lists. We moved to a new hotel, where the ballroom is bigger and has more outside networking space, which may have made the room feel less full. I don't focus on that; my goal is to give participants a great experience. The networking interactions, including those outside the ballroom, are a huge part of that. Even you acknowledged that Supernova draws a "stellar crowd." That doesn't happen year after year by accident; we must be doing something right.

And plenty of people paid to come to Supernova 2007. The conference has made a healthy profit every year, and it will again this time around. I'll admit to emphasizing the quality of participants, rather than jumping at every short-term revenue and seat-filling opportunity. I see that as a feature of Supernova, not a bug.

You're of course entitled to your opinion, and I take all feedback about Supernova to heart in planning the next one. I just don't want Epicenter readers to get an inaccurate impression from a skewed review of one portion of the conference.

-k-
Kevin Werbach
Department of Legal Studies & Business Ethics, The Wharton School
Organizer, Supernova conference