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Comment by flukus | Hacker News Reader

Need as in "do they offer worthwhile value", which I'm sure anyone not being overly pedantic would assume.

You don't gain anything by seeing a live talk that you wouldn't on YouTube for instance. It's weird that so many of us work from home but insist on traveling to see a stage show.

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The value of conferences isn't in sitting through talks. Depending on whether or not you need conferences depends on how much you value networking. If you want to network, then yes, conferences are hugely valuable.

Not just networking. Actually talking to the guy who wrote that interesting paper gives so much more than just watching the guy talk about his paper.

The talks are a side show. Conferences are about meeting people in your field (including those people who gave the talk) and talking face-to-face about all kinds of cool and interesting ideas.

>It's weird that so many of us work from home but insist on traveling to see a stage show.

Isn't the interpersonal connection and networking from meeting together at a conference what's really important? The added value of a conference isn't so much what is heard from a speaker but the interaction one is afforded while there.

If that's all you get out of conferences, you're correct.

There appear to be enough people disagreeing with you to imply that that is not the full value prop.

  "do they offer worthwhile value"

You merely rephrased "need", so I refer to my reply above, same response.

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