Are there not thousands of conferences each year? People giving talks at meet-ups, the yearly Apple developer conference draws thousands of people. All events t

Are there not thousands of conferences each year? People giving talks at meet-ups, the yearly Apple developer conference draws thousands of people. All events that people sign up for voluntarily to listen to someone else talk about code. As for viewing it; there are also many places where people participate in coding competitions or code golfs, where others judge and appreciate the code. Is that really so different from going to a concert or an art gallery?