[ChrisMarshallNY]

I certainly agree about the "Hallway track." Nowadays, you can get more from a session by reviewing the video, than from being there in person.

However, making relationships, and maintaining them, is really important. This goes double for today's distributed teams; where people may seldom get a chance to meet.

Never been to an O'Reilly conference, but have attended many others.

Nowadays, most conferences are too damn big and polished for me. My favorite conference of all time, was MacHack, in the late 1980s. Really scruffy, scrappy, and energizing.