Big conferences suck in just about every area. Back when I was going to the joint math meetings (a couple few thousand math people), the dominant smell was adre

Big conferences suck in just about every area. Back when I was going to the joint math meetings (a couple few thousand math people), the dominant smell was adrenaline, as departments tried to streamline their hiring process into the conference setting... Phds seeking postdoc positions were therefore trying to talk up their work publicly and rushing around to interviews on the side. It sucks as a conference, though: you get lots of heat, and little light. I get the same feeling going to big ML conferences now. The incentives are all about job prospects and hype, rather than doing cool stuff. The sweet spot is the 200 person conferences, imo. You have a much better focus on the science, can literally meet everyone if you put your mind to it. And the spaces tend to be more about the community and the research directions, rather than job prospects.