Was the Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit worth it?

There has been a lot of buzz, both positive and negative, around Innovation Philadelphia’s Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit.
But now that the last keynote has ended and the folks at the convention center have begun cleaning up, a few questions remain. Was the GCECS event worth the ticket price? Did it attract needed attention to Philadelphia? Could the city have been better served by Innovation Philadelphia in other ways?
Lucky for you, dear reader, Technically Philly was invited to speak at the event’s “Creating a Culture of Entrepreneurial Journalism” session giving us the chance to roam the convention center and speak to attendees and ask: Was it worth it?

A volunteer told us that the conference had 600 signups and was hoping for some drop-ins. Judging by the panel attendance at our panel and in talking to other presenters, it seems that that number was spread thinly across both days, or may have been generous.
Each session room had a capacity for roughly 200 people, though every session we peeked in on averaged around 25 attendees, giving session rooms the same cavernous feeling that was present in the hallways. Even when the four simultaneous presentations ended, the hallways were hardly overflowing.
However, multiple presenters told us that despite the relatively sparse attendance, session dialogues were lively and informative, something we can second with the panel on which we were included. In our session about entrepreneurial journalism, nearly every attendee raised a hand to ask a question. The attendees were passionate. As presenters, it was refreshing to see that people are, in fact, concerned about journalism in Philadelphia and we walked away feeling as if the session was time well spent.

Judging the use of the word “global” in the event’s title, the space rented and the level of sponsorships, Innovation Philadelphia clearly had lofty ambitions for the event.
However, the Twitter buzz during the event was sparse, the hallways were barren and, despite having no shortage of promotion, the panels were struggling to fill their assigned rooms even 25 percent of the way.
The event hit the mark on quality content. But it seems that Innovation Philadelphia missed the target when it came to scale.
For reference: Sean Blanda attended the event from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 6th. He was the only represenitive of Technically Philly present.