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The valuable thing about conferences is the “hallway” chats and networking opportunities. If you just want to listen to talks then you can pretty much get that online, but running into other like minded people and grabbing a beer together is a fun experience.

I've been to plenty of conferences, and I agree with you. A talk seems a poor way to consume information compared to a blog or a video. Combine that with seeing multiple talks on the same day, you basically retain nothing.

The best you can do is note which talks seemed interesting and then do more research on the topic later on.

People say they're good for networking, but I find it has the same problem: you end up meeting a firehose of people for moments at a time, and it becomes near impossible to remember which to follow up.

Networking and selling yourself as consultant, book writer, library author,....