I hate conferences so I started my own. Here's the story... In 2010 I was sitting at a big circular table feeling nervous. You know the type — hotel banquet hall, cheesy gold chairs with greyhound bus pattern cushions. I was twenty-four but could've passed for seventeen, completely out of my element at my first tech conference in Vancouver. The guy sitting next to me, a prominent venture capitalist wearing a white button down shirt and a Patagonia vest turned to me. "What's your startup?" he asked. I explained that I didn't have a startup. That I had bootstrapped my business and that it was profitable. "Ah," he said with a withering look. "A lifestyle business…" Without another word, he turned his back on me to speak to the more interesting founder to his right, leaving me all alone, my cheeks flushed red, awkwardly sandwiched between two other conversations. I've never forgotten this feeling. How it felt to be dismissed and discarded based on an arbitrary status game. (Also: F that guy.) Unfortunately, my experience is likely familiar. When you go to most conferences, it's about status. What your badge says. Who you know. Whether you're a speaker. They're about sitting. Small talk. Glancing at badges. Bragging at the bar. Jerks like that VC. So, three years ago, I got fed up and decided to build the event I wish I could have attended all those years ago. I invited 150 of the most interesting people I know to my hometown, Victoria, BC, and put on a different sort of event. I called it ​Interesting People​. Most of the room was my awesome friends from all over the world, and about 30% was randoms to keep things interesting. I scrutinized every applicant, immediately crossing people off the list when I saw red flags. "Chief Innovation Officer" "Futurist" "Change Maker" "Catalyst" And the most dreaded of all: "Forbes 30 Under 30" My objective was simple: To fill the room with people who make me feel warm and gooey inside. That sounds weird, but you know what I mean right? Down to earn and low ego people who ask questions of others instead of hogging the mic. Once we had the right people, we went about flipping the usual conference format on its head: Crappy Conferences: ❌ Status to get in ❌ 80% listening ❌ Rubber chicken buffets ❌ Speakers fly in for two hours, give a talk, then jet ❌ Too many people to know anyone ❌ 50 LinkedIn contacts you'll never talk to again Interesting People: ✅ Aggressive douchebag filtering ✅ 80% of the time spent meeting people ✅ Unreal food ✅ No speakers — attendees ARE the content, and everyone stays the whole time ✅ Capped at 150 (​Dunbar's number​) ✅ You leave with 5 genuine friendships My friend ​@nickgraynews​ MCs the event with me, and he conducts like a maestro. He's the freaking master of running events. Instead of sticking to a tight schedule, he wings it. If an activity planned for an hour is only interesting for thirty minutes, he jumps ahead. He hand-picks specific groups for dinner and table conversations, putting people who have similar problems together and giving them prompts so nobody defaults to small talk. If someone is being a douche or hogging the mic, Nick's people radar instantly homes in on it and he works to neutralize the threat. His attention to detail is unbelievable. We also try to keep the content and attendees broad. Nobody wants to go to a circle jerk of tech bros talking about Openclaw (ok, maybe I do, but we don't learn much). Over the last few years, we've had scientists, comedians, writers, musicians, and even a magician. Folks like @MatthewDicks (champion storyteller), @hannibalburess (comedian), @foundmyfitness (scientist), @samreich (dropout), @jasonverners (INSANE magician), @thatbilloakley (head writer of the simpsons), @ScottDikkers (founder of the onion) and @danmanganmusic (musician), among many others. Plus some tech/business dorks like me thrown in to talk about Openclaw for good measure: @gregisenberg, @Patticus, @ShaanVP, @adamlisagor, @stephsmithio, @cyantist. So, important question: Are you interesting? Do you make people feel warm and gooey? Because we're doing it again this summer July 27-29 in Victoria. Maybe you should come. Ask some of the folks I mentioned about the event :-) I linked it in my last newsletter, you can find out how to get in there, or I'll link in a bit.

In fact, Matthew has inspired me so much that I’ve made a video about him, sharing 7 actionable steps you can take to achieve more in life 👇 youtube.com/watch?v=yxF9TGhW…