True. And yet some are really good and I wouldn't miss them. But I've been and spoken to many conferences this year and I have to admit it was hard to sit and

True. And yet some are really good and I wouldn't miss them. But I've been and spoken to many conferences this year and I have to admit it was hard to sit and listen to presentations. I wanted to meet people and exchange ideas instead. There's a couple of interesting formats: - network centric conference with few and great speeches in non sterile locations. See WRWS in a theater in Como for instance. - smaller ones with workshops. We co-organized one in Milan this year and we were given a 30 people room. It was packed with interested people all day for the simple reason that they chose to be there. Now we are playing with the idea to spend a weekend in some Tuscany villa where everyone sleeps and eats there during the conference in an effort to maximize networking and workshops over speeches. In short: it's diverse and evolving.