I can’t speak for “most” of any audience, but I can speak for myself in that the #1 reason I would pay to attend a conference would be to seek knowledge. Of almost equal importance would be the face to face interaction and networking, but I’m certainly not there just to say “I was there.” Brian Chin who writes the Seattle PI Buzzworthy blog gives his perspective:

And let’s face it, most of us don’t go to conferences just to glean intelligence and info from the program. We go to network, to bounce ideas off of other people or to sit down and catch up with friends and colleagues we haven’t seen in ages.

I’m curious what others who attend conferences that they pay for (not ones where your company pays for you, or you get comped because you are a speaker or panelist) want/expect to get out of them? I’m looking for value for my time and the interaction/networking with others. One without the other would leave me feeling that the conference wasn’t adding value to my business. I gave an expected ROI figure in this post: Ringing ears over the AMA Hot Topics blog event today.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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