With this thread + yesterday's about WWDC being so "oversold" and people lamenting their desire to go back to the 500-person meetups of yore I thought I'd share a tip.

I've found it helpful to purposely target the smaller, industry-specific or location-specific conferences.

While you don't necessarily meet the "super angels" or luminary press figures, I almost always come away glad that I went.

Two recent examples was pitching our location startup at the Telecom Council's "Connected Car" start-up:

http://telecomcouncil.cvent.com/events/connected-car/event-s...

I think registration was $200 and it was maybe 300 people deeply connected into the telecom and auto industries.

Or the App Developer's Alliance in Los Angeles (regionally important to us):

http://www.appdevelopersalliance.org/

Again, great people, lots of indie devs, etc.

I could walk away from both being materially glad that we attended, and with a list of people that I connected with face-to-face and look forward to doing business with.