I may be completely wrong here, but sometimes I fail at recognizing the real ROI of such conferences, especially in terms of knowledge that I don't know yet. Also, having the speakers being some kind of rockstars (Peldi is been 'on tour' all summer so far, does he ever work on Balsamiq?) might create a huge gap between you and them, and this dosen't help creating solid connections in most of the cases.
I'm not sure if the 'you've got to spend money to make money' motto applies here, but again, I may be wrong. Any real-life experiences on this kind of events?
As the organizer of a similar conference myself, take my opinion with a grain of salt.
1. It depends of course. There are millions of conferences and networking events. Some are great, some are terrible. You not only pay a price to attend, you also pay in terms of your time.
2. I always say that networking events pay off with an horizon of about 6 months to a year. Every time I went to an event with a specific, short-term goal, I failed. But amazingly, I bumped into people that I actually wanted to get in touch with eventually. And it helped me later.
3. Another major thing that pays off is the "buzz". When you go to conferences, you hear all the latest stories before they get written anywhere. You are ahead of everyone who didn't show up. Sure, bloggers will cover this or that rumor, but being there and having heard it all gives you an edge. Whether that edge will eventually be valuable depends of course.
With all due respect, our conferences are completely opposite :)
Schnitzelconf is didactic. And I don't mean how to pitch to VCs. It's an entirely different worldview, not a networking event, and there will be no rumors. I doubt anyone will hear anything that is hot news. Just solid advice, business sense, war stories, and action steps.
So, let's review. Potential "rockstars" from companies with multiple employees & big revenue: Peldi, Tom P-W. Single founders who have stayed single and/or turned mom&pop (husband+wife team): Geoff, Garrett.
Not that there's a thing with G's or anything, but I think it's pretty clear from the get-go that I've (handpicked) a real mix of speakers, and only half are announced so far!
Additionally, if you want to get a perspective of how these "rockstar" guys act, think, and teach, they have essays online very clearly demonstrating that they do not think like rockstars, or talk like rockstars, but like everyday, thoughtful, smart, friendly people who want to help others succeed:
And before you go "OH, well, one of those is a year old and one is almost two" - be serious. These are personal values at stake here, and they don't change overnight. If they had, I wouldn't be inviting these guys to speak.
As for the ROI - well. I can't tell you what ROI you'll get because I can't tell if you're going to sit in the back and read HN comments, or pay attention and take notes. I can't tell if you'll stare at the speakers without working up the nerve to say hello, or if you'll buy them a beer and strike up a conversation. Those things are beyond my control as an organizer.
But I can tell you that there is a tremendous amount of POTENTIAL ROI. That's how we designed the conference.
EDIT: By the way, do you think the only valuable thing is "knowledge"? Cuz I bet you know what you have to do, but you're not doing it. That's not "knowledge" - all you need for "knowledge" is books. But it is something you can get from being around people who are doing exactly what you want to do, and hearing them tell war stories.
We have one speaker, who you've never heard of, who runs more than 3 SaaSes you've undoubtedly heard of. We have another who is just starting his SaaS journey now and I picked deliberately for his approachability. (But all others are living off their products.)
And then, of course, there's me - veteran procrastinator, one SaaS in the world, another couple in the oven, one ebook, multiple training courses, and a veteran speaker of many conferences and former committee member of OSCON.
Trust me - it's not possible that you've put more thought into questioning this type of event than I have.
