Sure, technical conferences are another beast entirely (I also enjoy many things at linux.conf.au, including the accent that many of the speakers have for obvio

Sure, technical conferences are another beast entirely (I also enjoy many things at linux.conf.au, including the accent that many of the speakers have for obvious reasons). Although most conferences are about as shallow as TED talks. TED's been portrayed to me as some kind of a revelation, that's why I'm asking. Maybe they just got worse with time, like almost anything tends to do.