Marc Thiele on beyond tellerrand

.net: What does the name mean, beyond tellerrand?
Marc Thiele: The name is a mix of the English word “beyond” and the German phrase “ber den Tellerrand schauen,” which means “Think outside the box”. It expresses the aim of everybody involved to look a bit further, look beyond the edge. It also reflects the global perspective of the event.

.net: This is the first year you’ve run beyond tellerrand but you've organised a German Flash conference for 11 years. Why did you see the need for a new conference?
Marc Thiele: Good question. Organising the events was always driven by my interest in the things the speakers are talking about on the event. So in a way it’s a bit selfish of me: I invite speakers – often friends – that I want to see, and invite other people to watch them.

.net: How did you come up with the programming?
MT: As mentioned before, I’m a bit selfish here. I first take a look at what I really like to see and collect a few names and talks. I visit a lot of other conferences, watch talks of other conferences online and so on. I mean, if you want to talk about books, you have to read a few books first, right?

Once I have a core of talks and speakers together, I take a look at what kind of topics are missing to create a “whole” image, if you know what I mean. It always is difficult to find the right balance between tech, how-to and inspiration. Also if you decide to also have tech talks, what kind should they be? Just JavaScript, also PHP? Talks about tools as well?

This time I decided to choose a wide mix of design, UX and development topics, spiced with typography. I hope the attendees are going to like it.

.net: How did you approach the gender split when it came to booking speakers?
MT: Honestly? I did not really plan anything. I’m happy to have so many great female speakers on board. This is rare on most of the events. But I don’t think that any of the organisers really avoid getting women on stage, do you? In the end it is the topics that count and it should make no difference whether they’re presented by a male or female speaker. I had conversations with other conference organisers where we spoke about exactly this issue. A few even got accused for being sexist, because they don’t want to get female speakers on stage. Honestly, this is ridiculous.

.net: How do you ensure you sell enough tickets and don't get into a similar situation as Inspire Conf?
MT: You never can ensure you sell enough tickets. I just hope I do. I am super-happy about the fact that the speakers don’t ask for a honorarium [an ex-gratia payment] in general. And you and I know that what they do IS the conference. Not me. Not the organisation on its own. This makes the fair ticket pricing (of 125 Euros including VAT and booking fees for Super Early Birds) possible. For this reason I can’t say it often enough: Thanks to all the great speakers!

.net: The organisers of Inspire Conf claimed the Dutch design community wasn't ready for a web design conference. How does the German scene differ?
MT: I think events like Fronteers, Mobilism or Kings of Code prove that the scene is ready. I have never been at one of the events mentioned, but I’ve heard so many good things. So maybe the scene is already having enough events and does not need another? Maybe it was just the wrong timing? Maybe the conference scene in general is tired and has enough events already? I don’t know actually.

I am not just targeting the German scene. I know that there is so much talent in Germany and right now 68 per cent of the tickets are being sold to Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but I hope to attract designers and developers from other countries as well.

.net: What are some of the highlights you look forward to most?
MT: I am super-excited. There is no special highlight: the whole thing is my highlight. I hope that when I say good-bye on 22 November, everything will have gone well and everybody will have had a great time (and didn’t give me a big BOOOOOOO on stage!).

Picture of Marc Thiele taken by John Davey.

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