Quite often it's not the deals that are made in conferences but the relationships (the "network" part). You hang out with a lot of people in the same industry a

Quite often it's not the deals that are made in conferences but the relationships (the "network" part). You hang out with a lot of people in the same industry as you, you get to know & be known by them. And invariably when you know dozens/hundreds of people in the same field somebody usually needs some work done & is more likely to give that work to somebody they met in person vs someone anonymous off of the internet. The "do good work" part is where you turn this into a snowball & get recommended around.