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At least in academia, people usually don't go to conferences to attend the talks - they are uploaded on youtube and you could watch them from home. People go be

• a3_nm 7y ago
  In my academic field (computer science), people go to conferences because you have to present in person the research that you publish there. The question of whether traveling to the conference is worthwhile at all is irrelevant. With conferences moving online, the question starts to have some importance and the answer isn't so clear.
• kilroy123 7y ago
  Exactly, so many people are missing the point that so many of these events can't just be online and then you call it a day. It's about building relationships and connections. Not just watching presentations.
• smoyer 7y ago
  I'm not disagreeing that there are networking opportunities ... I work for a university and have been going to a conference or two a year since I started here simply to meet up with people. I think we'll find a way to recoup some of that value remotely and I think that the business will accept that there is some loss in networking rather than pay for the trips. Throughout most of the '90s and '00s, I traveled between a week and two weeks a month for work. There was a huge decline in the "luxury" of flying around the world after 9/11 that's continued to get worse and worse since. Flying anywhere these days is simply a chore.