Reasons I hate conferences, and suggestions for fixing them
muratbuffalo.blogspot.com
muratbuffalo.blogspot.com
> It is too much cramming
My approach has been to tailor my schedule to include the talks that will supercharge the problem I'm currently working on, or will be soon. For me this is more valuable; the trade off might be that you lose out on hearing about things in other areas you aren't working in, but I can skim through videos after they are posted online if something sounds interesting.
> Networking is hard
To me this is a big pro of being in person for the conference. These have tended to happen naturally for me and for others I have attended with at the various parties that happen at the end of each day. I guess it depends on why you are networking -- finding a new job, recruiting for your company, just making friends, having interesting conversations, or something else. For me networking is just a way to hear about problems other people are solving in different areas and to have some fun conversations. For others I've been with they were looking for a new job and it was really valuable for them (probably not what their company would want them to do haha).
> It doesn't have to be that way. It is possible to fix this cheaply with great return-on-investment. At HPTS, Pat Helland gives an orientation talk urging everyone to meet everyone.
Agree that this can be hard if you are an introvert, but not sure how saying "Alright, introverts, go talk to each other!" really helps, but apparently it did.
> Travel and stay logistics suck
Never experienced this with re:Invent. It was pretty easy to register and get a hotel/flight.
I like in person conferences so I'm probably bias; I think it's a nice way to get away from work and dedicate time to learning and meeting others. When I've done online conferences I usually end up working while the talks play in the background, or I get pulled into something because I'm "online" and miss talks. Is it worth the thousands of dollars you pay? Maybe.