I don’t think that it really matters whether the speakers themselves know more than the attendees or not.
The truth is, did anyone expect to attend a conference and be given the “the magic bullet” to internet riches? I don’t think so.
For me I had a pretty good idea that I probably wouldnt learn a whole lot, and that has nothing to do with the knowledge of the speakers. It may have more to do people not being so willing to give away all their own hard earned knowledge for nothing. For instance, I enjoyed the SEO presentation but didnt have any illusions about learning how to beat the Google sandbox or anything like that. No one, is gonna give it up for free, and I mean no one.
There is an inherent flaw (for a lack of better words) with these types of conferences, and people should be aware of it. The “flaw” is that there are generally two types of people that attend these conferences.
1) The affiliates, who are competitors with one another
2) The exhibitors and speakers. They are there to either sell you on their program or promote a service that you may use
Both of these groups are in business to make money. They are not there to share every cutting edge idea or technique they have for a greater good that benefits everyone, that is not smart business.
So for me the conference is a great meet and great where you can meet the casino partners, learn a little here and there, and form some friendships and possible alliances. My expectations were realistic and therefore I thought the conference was worth the price of admission.
Yorkton (Marc), put on a very well organized show that met my expectations. The only suggestion I would have is to get as much feedback from affiliates as possible regarding the content of the presentations and go from there. This was probably done, but I thought it was worth mentioning anyways.
* Disclaimer – The views expressed here is my personal opinion only and may not mean $%&** to anyone, lol