This week is the Monktoberfest, the most interesting conference I’ve ever attended, and one of my must-attend events each year in October. Not only are the talks thought-provoking and the attendees are awesome, but the location in Portland, ME and the food and events are top-notch. The ideas I get each year are a big inspiration, and it’s a long wait until next year each time.
Monktoberfest is a different kind of event: a two-day single-track conference. Everyone is in the same room, watching the same great talks. Topics are on how technology shapes humanity, and bring some data. That means the speakers come from an incredible array of different backgrounds, industries, and perspectives.
Watching the first talk by a regular speaker here, I wondered how the history of Monktoberfest got to where we are. Run by RedMonk – a technology analyst firm – the talks historically focused on the effects technology have on the business world, since that’s where their interests lie. But in the past two years, the focus on social effects and change from the pervasiveness of all sorts of technology is clear – and makes the thought-provoking even more important for us.
Sessions are never announced ahead of time; the next speaker and their topic is always a surprise we learn as soon as they walk on stage; no sooner. But Stephen O’Grady and the RedMonk team writeup their annual post-conference report, and a number of past videos are online, so you can follow along with the history.
- 2018 Monktoberfest – follow along with #Monktoberfest on Twitter – that’s the only way to see what’s happening without being in the room with us! Read Stephen’s post-conference wrap-up from 2018 or watch the 2018 videos.
- 2017 Video listing and the post-conference wrap-up.
- 2016 Video listing and the post-conference wrap-up.
- 2015 Video listing and the post-conference wrap-up.
- 2014 Video listing and the post-conference wrap-up.
- 2013 Video listing and the post-conference wrap-up.
- 2012 Video listing and the post-conference wrap-up.
- 2011 – a few individual slides are out there, but I haven’t found videos – but Stephen’s regular post-conference wrap-up explains it all. There were a few speaker interviews posted, including this one of Greg Avola on founding Untappd.
Anyone else have great Monktoberfest history out there?
