Academic conferences in a relevant field can be very interesting, and are often much cheaper than industry events. (You'll need to find some practical-enough co

Academic conferences in a relevant field can be very interesting, and are often much cheaper than industry events. (You'll need to find some practical-enough conferences, and you'll need to somehow pick up the required vocabulary and concepts.) Speaking for my own field, Real-World Cryptography should be mostly understandable (and entertaining) to a programmer and enthousiast cryptographer. (CHES and EUROCRYPT are also very interesting, but require a lot more background.) (Also consider e.g. ACM, Usenix, and any local interest/user groups.)