The main reason for the confidentiality of FaffCon is because of the leave-your-ego-at-the-door/”keep it real” nature of the event. FaffCon is by no means about recapitulating things we’ve learned in other workshops and classes. It’s about sharing what’s working for each of us personally now, AND sharing openly what’s going wrong so others can help.

A lot of attendees ahare personal, vulnerable stories. If someone were to post something on Facebook like “Great tip! JS Gilbert said his income was down 50% last year because he didn’t realize that he had a -40dB rumble in his studio. He never heard it! After getting his hearing checked in a routine exam, he had a wax removal treatment and was prescribed a small, almost invisible hearing aid. Pro tip: if everyone hears the problem except you, maybe you should get your ears checked!” it would obviously have a chilling effect on the level of sharing next time.

Other people present information at FaffCon that is their intellectual property and for which they typically get paid a lot of money in a different context. So it’s disrespectful to share that, too.

Bottom line: We learned from FaffCon 1 that it’s hard for a lot of people to discern what is cool to share and what is not. So this time we took the What Happens in Vegas route. Overkill? Maybe. But it’s the safest route and I’d rather err on the side of draconian measures so we can continue to attract outstanding, generous talent and enjoy a high level of sharing.

The point of this “cone of silence ” is to encourage a more open exchange of ideas – even if the information is freely available from other sources. Perhaps we will put it into practice more effectively because of the forum – a forum that is not simply a one-way flow of information.

And yes, certainly, we can’t help but pass along specific tidbits to our personal private contacts as the situation arises.

But it seems as though the exchange of what people consider their personal “secrets” is much more freely done when we know that it isn’t being recorded and posted on YouTube.

Some participants may in fact HAVE posted some of their information/advice online prior to the conference, or may end up doing so at a later date.

A silly idea? I dunno – kind of makes it feel like we are part of a special group. Perhaps much like all the other special groups who don’t really have any secrets.

With FaffCon, partially because of the limited size and the way it is so completely participatory, I feel like I have a much larger take away than most conferences.