Hey folks - Organiser of the conference here.

I am kinda in a wtf-state right now because until this very moment i only received off-the-charts positive feedback for our event - even from people who try to complain about everything (quote: 'the benches were a bit uncomfortable, but otherwise best event in the region in years').

So naturally i am kinda shocked that this is how google will remember our event. To make sure an other side is heard - here my 2c:

1) I agree with the OP that almost all startup events are a waste of time and money - imho you should only go to events if you have a very clear objective and be very pro-active about getting what you want.

But he is right about the fact that most startup events are useless PR stunts - but that's why we organised Foundertalks - it is meant to be different and until this moment i thought we succeeded

The main idea of the event is - everything is off-the-record, screened list of attendees (invited), no vip rooms, no vips, intentionally small audience. Btw the event had nothing to do with YC - just a lot of YC people were speakers.

The ticket price of 200 eur was only to cover costs - not for profit btw.

Main goal of the event: Being able to give real talks and answer audience questions honestly.

We even had attendees who sneaked into the event and afterwards wanted to give us the ticket price.

2) No juicy bits? Same as every other conference?

Sorry i don't believe this.

We had founders naming no-go VCs, talking about fallouts with previous founders in details, telling about things done in SF no one likes to admit. We had one speaker bordering the line of what he is legally allowed to tell. Obviously i can't name half of the stuff here but i am a bit confused right now to be honest.

Half of the speakers came to me just to verify that the audience is clear about the non-disclosure.

It's clear that people can't break their NDAs and it is clear that speakers won't share stuff that could break their business - but it was hundreds miles away from the PR bs you usually get fed in startup conferences.

3) Group mentoring sessions

we had 10 tables a 12-15 people. We couldn't do more tables because didn't have more international speakers. But honestly a 10:1 ratio of international speakers to attendees is more than enough.

I had off-the-charts positive feedback for those sessions.

I am sorry the OP didn't "get" what he was hoping for.

4) Speakers leaving early

I agree with you on this one - we heard it from 3 other attendees and this is definitely something we are going to improve for the next conference.

The main issue was that several speakers were really exhausted and wanted to leave earlier - they were constantly talking with attendees. Because of this we left 40 minutes earlier than planned (also the rest of the event took longer than expected).
Next time we will try to keep more energy buffer - maybe we can fly them in earlier to fight the jetlag.

TL;DR

I agree with the OP on the leaving early part but i CANNOT agree on the main premise that only stuff was shared that you would here on normal startup events - sorry i have been to a different event in this case.

In any case - thanks for the feedback - i am personally a bit sad that after all the (surprisingly) good feedback this one negative is in google.

Let's see how we can improve this at the next event.