[leoncrutchley]

Bottom line to a question like this is "it depends". Define yourself in advance what your hoped for return on investment is. eg new users, new investor leads, contacts, new hires, press, the story etc. And see how you perform against your benchmarks. I ran a small startup in London once that paid to pitch at Techcrunch startup alley in SF. Well it led indirectly to my startup getting acquired and moved from London to SF where i live now. So it was worth it, but that value didnt directly come from the conference. Had I not gone though, i'd not have made the contacts that led to this journey..good luck!