[davemel37]

From the title I assumed this post was arguing against attending conferences. It in fact argues for attending, just going in with a clear agenda and being prepared.

I agree on most points...and while I think being prepared and scheduling meetings in advance is a good idea... You should leave yourself open for serendipity.

Richard Wiseman did a study on what makes someone lucky or unlucky and randomness is a big variable.

he writes,"Many people who feel unlucky are creatures of habit and are so focused on a result that they fail to see everything else floating around them."

So it's a good idea to attend conferences and develop a strategy to randomnly meet people (I.e. introduce yourself to everyone wearing blue sneakers, or some other random and arbitrary idea.) You never know who you'll meet. You may just get lucky :)

I wrote about the study here... http://www.davidmelamed.com/2014/08/08/master-skill-lucky-co...

Edit: spelling, added quote from study and author of study.

[pm90]

Well, the author doesn't say that you shouldn't meet random people, just that you should have a plan to meet at least a few people that might be interesting.

[davemel37]

He does write, "You meet some people, you talk but the effect is close to none."

He is perhaps right from an immediate agenda perspective...but in my experience some of those relationships translate into much greater long term opportunities.

I have a theory that the strongest relationships we have are people we have interacted with in two separate places. (i.e. summer camp and than college.)

Same goes for conferences, some of the strongest relationships were built by two random people meeting up at two different conferences.