[mmcdermott]

I've had similar thoughts a few times over the years. "Let me lock myself in an office for a week with a pile of books and YouTube and I'll learn more than any conference" - and I say that as someone who kept a full day at conferences and took notes.

What I realized is that the learning was supposed to come from talking to other people working on similar problems, as opposed to an earth shattering realization from the presentation itself. I remember one year when I compared notes with a few people on authorization approaches because we were getting ready to overhaul our authorization systems, and I found the random discussions very helpful.

That said, I still dream about getting to do a stay-conference, analogous to a stay-cation, but for learning.

[alibarber]

Wise words from my PhD supervisor (paraphrased):

"The presentation is supposed to get them to want to read the paper and talk to you about it" - or basically, it's not a lecture.

[ghaff]

If you're only going to a conference to attend breakout sessions as if they were lectures, you probably should just stay home. It's one reason I think sessions should generally be shorter; they're to pique your interest in a topic, not be a comprehensive tutorial (unless they're actually structured that way).

I totally get that some people don't like the other aspects of conference-going and that's fine. They probably really are better off taking some days at home to read and watch videos.