From a purely "stuff learned" perspective, conferences are a huge waste. You could furnish an entire team with several years worth of Pluralsight subscriptions

From a purely "stuff learned" perspective, conferences are a huge waste. You could furnish an entire team with several years worth of Pluralsight subscriptions for the cost of sending a couple of them to a conference in another state. Having said that I more or less make it a condition that my employer will send me to at least one relevant conference each year. IMO, the value of conferences is: - It's a work-related break from work (read; easy to justify). Most conferences are pretty fun to go to, assuming you don't just rock up for the talks and then hide in your hotel afterwards. - Networking. If you're at a conf, go and talk to people. It's amazing what you can get done just with a few conversations. - You WILL learn stuff, and not necessarily JUST what you came there to learn. I'm yet to come back from a conference without at least 4 or 5 new ideas. - You'll have the chance to talk to people who know a hell of a lot more about product/tech XYZ, and there's a good chance they're being paid to stand around and answer your questions. - If you want certs, exams are often cheaper at conferences and there's nearly always some cram/lab sessions being run beforehand. Ultimately, the value of a conference is somewhere between buying ping pong tables and Xboxs for the break room, and hiring a guest speaker for a few days - it's as much of a hearts and minds exercise as it is a learning and development one. EDIT: Formatting