Once again, the Act-KM mailing list turns up an entertaining discussion. Over the past week, people have been discussing the relative merits of conference styles, primarily juxtaposing the heavily-promoted, big-name-speaker-driven events with smaller, usually-local events (unconferences).
One of the participants made the connection to rock and roll promotion. The big events are like arena rock: big stars draw large audiences to scripted shows with support acts to fill the gaps. And the small events are like punk rock: smaller venues, smaller audiences, with the opportunity for the attendees and the band to interact.
Does that make the promoters record labels?