Are all conferences worth attending? I think the answer depends on the conference and what each individual wants to get out of attending the conference. If you are a company that is pitching products to people attending, it will depend on your product and the audience that will be attending the conference. If you are a participant, it will depend on how you plan on benefiting from the conference.
There is a large conference for personal finance bloggers (FINCON) that is happening in October. While many decide to attend without much hesitation, I have been on the fence about whether to attend or not. I think there are many reasons to not attend, but just as many (or more) for choosing to not attend.
1) Staying Home to Catch up on your “To Do” List
The biggest “cost” of going to a conference, in my opinion, is the time that you have to sacrifice to attend. FINCON runs from Thursday to Sunday and would be four days lost that I could spend at home writing content, planning future content, setting up a weekly newsletter (or other custom email options), plan/focus on affiliate and other advertising campaigns, and more. Since I only have nights and weekends to work on the site, I always have a never-ending to do list. While I’m certain that there will be many great speeches and panels at FINCON that will give me some great ideas for how to make this website better, I already do not have enough time to implement my current ideas. This makes me question whether staying home would be the best choice.
As I said at the beginning, it depends on each individual. For the FINCON example, if you have a lot of free time or blog full-time, attending could provide you a lot of value. If your employer wants you to go, you likely have little choice in the matter since attending is part of your job requirements. Perhaps you are looking for new clients or partners in your business; attending a conference makes a lot of sense for you.
2) Cost of Hotel, Flight, Tickets, etc.
There are plenty of expenses that come with attending a conference. The cost of booking a flight, hotel, and purchasing tickets can add up quickly. If you work for a company that is covering these costs, they don’t really come into play for you personally. If you are a small business owner these expenses will come right out of your pocket. While conference expenses are cost deductible, the money could be invested in other ways, or kept as profit.
I have a number of potential investments in the site that I’m considering making, such as having a professional do a site redesign and hiring staff writers.
3) The Content Provided at the Conference is available online
With the seemingly endless number of resources available online, there could be a very good chance that most of the information you would gain at the conference is already available on the internet. With FINCON, they have a virtual only pass that provides mp3s, powerpoint slides, etc. from the conference for only $79 (as of the time of this writing). Not only does this option save the expense of time and money that comes with physically attending, topics can be viewed at your leisure and as you have time. Sure, you miss out on the networking, but if this isn’t one of your goals of attending there really is no reason an online only pass (or simply searching for information in Google) won’t suffice.
4) Networking isn’t a top priority
While there are seemingly an endless number of benefits of networking and meeting people in person is ideal, it still might not be enough of a reason to attend a conference. When it comes to personal finance blogging, I don’t have nearly enough time to keep up with each person that I’ve networked with. If I already don’t have enough time to keep up my current network, what is the benefit of attending a conference and meeting a bunch of people who I will also not have time to keep up with? I have the same issue with potential advertising partners. There is quite a few “check out [insert company name]’s product” on my to-do list.
On the other hand, if you are someone who doesn’t have a wide network already or feel some compelling need to meet everyone in person, it might make sense for you to attend a conference for the networking aspect that comes with it. It’s important to keep in mind your purpose with gaining a network, though. Is it to gain insight from another person? Can you reach out to them online instead of tracking them down at a conference? Is there a particular company you would like to connect with? Again, can you reach out to them online or on the phone instead? A final point on networking – the value of networking really hinges on you following up with everyone after the conference.
5) You’re Just Too Busy
While I have basically already made this point, I think it’s important: If you are too busy and have no time, don’t attend a conference. Some people try to do it all and are on the cusp of burnout. If this describes you, it’s likely you would benefit more by not attending than by trying to fit a conference into your schedule.
It does depend on the length of the conference. I have attended one-day Saturday conferences that just about anyone could fit into their schedules.
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While I am still considering attending the personal finance blogger conference, I am leaning strongly towards not attending. There is a lot more value I can add to my website through staying home and putting in some long hours versus spending four days travelling and attending a conference. I’m not knocking FINCON or any other conference, just making the point that sometimes it makes sense to skip a conference for one reason or another.
If you have skipped a conference in the past, what were your reasons? Have you ever attended a conference and afterwards thought it might have made more sense to skip it?
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We haven’t decided whether or not we are going yet either. I think we are going to probably go for one night. Luckily it is close enough to us this year that we can drive. We’ll have to see.
@GregatClubThrifty It’s technically close enough for me to drive as well, but it would be a full day of driving (both there and back), so I probably wouldn’t go that route. I can only imagine that it’s even tougher to work out the logistics of going when you have kids, which is something I didn’t mention in this post though I probably should have.
Great points DC! It does take a lot of time and the cost is definitely an issue. We ended up deciding to go for a number of reasons and like you said, I do think a lot of it comes down to your own personal situation. We’re fairly close so we’ll just end up driving to it.
@FrugalRules That’s great that you are close, and since you guys are both full-time in the publishing industry it makes sense. When you have another 9-5 job I think it complicates things.
Interesting post DC. Many of my colleagues love going to conferences, but I myself prefer to stay at home working on other projects. The other major benefit is that I am not away from my family for any amount of time.
@MonsterPiggyBank
@MonsterPiggyBank I probably should have mentioned the whole family issue when it comes to conferences. It’s easier without kids, but even with a significant other it can be tough to spend that time away from them. You have to really have good reasons for going and goals that you hope to accomplish from going, otherwise it just ends up being an expensive weekend away.
I only think it makes sense to attend a conference if you have a clear list of things you want to get out of it. Last year at FINCON I had a great list and came home with so much good information that the conference made me far more money than I spent on it. I saw other people there who treated it as a big party with online friends….which is fine….just not the ROI I was looking for.
@AverageJoeMoney You hit the nail on the head. For me the conference would essentially be about ROI, unless YAM was going so well that I had the luxury of not worrying about that too much ;) For now I need to be careful how I invest my time and money, mainly because I have so many goals for the site. I would love to meet you and everyone else at FINCON, but it may have to wait until 2014…which sounds SO far off but time flies when you are busy.
Luckily FinCon is here in St. Louis, so I don’t have to leave in order to go. I really do want to meet all of my blogging friends though, so I think I would go regardless :)
@SenseofCents Sometimes I forget that you live in St. Louis! I would love to go and meet everyone else, but have had trouble justifying it when there is so much work to be done on YAM : /
I enjoy conferences just for the camaraderie and enthusiasm they generate, but the time and money cost can be prohibitive. If you were to set a specific goal for the conference – “I want to meet and have conversations with these three people because it could do x,y, and z for my business” – then it would be easier to justify the trip AND evaluate whether it was worth it after the fact.
@YNAB_Mark Great minds think alike. Right now, for me personally (and I’m sure many others) where they invest their time and money is important, especially if you are trying to build up revenue streams. I think the opportunity cost of going is too high for FINCON, though everyone has to evaluate each conference’s worth to them personally.
I haven’t been to any conferences yet, so I can’ t agree or disagree with your post. However, your points make sense and based on what “takeaways” my coworkers have had from conferences I tend to think most of them can be missed with very little loss.
@ayoungpro I think you can certainly agree or disagree even if you haven’t been at a conference, since I’m talking about evaluating a conference’s worth BEFORE attending. I think you and I are on the same page that the conference has to have true value to justify attending.
You make a lot of good points DC! And I agree that much of what is presented is either already available somewhere online or will be shortly after a conference is held. If I was working full-time as you are I most likely wouldn’t consider going either. Actually, I am not attending FinCon. I do know that last year some people found companies to sponsor them and their entire trip for the conference was paid for by the company. For example, (if memory serves me) Melissa at Mom’s Plans was sponsored by SwagBucks. I thought that was pretty cool.
@TacklingOurDebt I’ve heard about company sponsorships, and that’s definitely something I would consider if I was going to attend. I still hope to attend FINCON and other conferences someday, but only if the opportunity cost of going isn’t so high.
I’m not going to FinCon either. I would love to get meet people face-to-face, but there is always next year. I have too much on my plate (who doesn’t) and it just doesn’t make good business sense for me to go. Networking would be nice, but realistically, I can network online.
@TheHeavyPurse Great minds think alike ;)
I didn’t attend FINCON last year, but did two years ago. One thing that made the conference well worth it for me was being able to meet with several companies who I think worked with in the following months/years on some projects that lead directly to me making thousands in income for my site. So for the small investment I made ($500 or so) it was well worth it for me.
I honestly think this is one of the under-appreciated benefits of these conferences, being able to meet with sponsors and build a relationship with them that can lead to increased affiliate payouts, behind the scenes information and potentially lucrative advertising deals. Could you do it online as well? Maybe. But I think having that personal connection can definitely help.
I also love the networking aspects of the events, as it’s never quite the same meeting people online as it is meeting them in person.
I do understand, however, that going to a conference can be a big expense,and it can be tough to justify that expense for a lot of folks.
I didn’t attend FINCON last year, but did two years ago. One thing that made the conference well worth it for me was being able to meet with several companies who I then worked with in the following months on some projects that lead directly to me making thousands in income for my site. So for the small investment I made ($500 or so) it was well worth it for me.
I honestly think this is one of the under-appreciated benefits of these conferences, being able to meet with sponsors and build a relationship with them that can lead to increased affiliate payouts, behind the scenes information and potentially lucrative advertising deals. Could you do it online as well? Maybe. But I think having that personal connection can definitely help.
I also love the networking aspects of the events, as it’s never quite the same meeting people online as it is meeting them in person. Not only is it fun chatting with folks you’ve only known online, but a lot of them have a lot of valuable information to share that can help you out.
I do understand, however, that going to a conference can be a big expense,and it can be tough to justify that expense for a lot of folks when there is so much else going on at home.
@moneymatters I definitely hear you about the sponsors, and would like to pursue that more. It would just be a shame if i could power through my to do list instead of the conference and get things done that I’ve put off for months. There’s no telling whether I will get those things done, though, or not.
Also I’m not sure if you’ve met him, but there is some PF blogger in Minnesota who has years of experience and has done meetups here that have been incredibly valuable. He’s had a few years of success under his belt and has a lot of good info to share. Maybe you’ve met him? Haha ;)
@DC @ Young Adult Money He sounds iffy.. i’d be wary of that guy. ;)
I can see your point. This is actually the first conference I’ve ever attended that I paid for (and luckily the flight was free because I had points). For me it’s almost a vacation and something that gets me outside of my comfort zone (networking) so for that reason I think it’s a good thing for me. Plus I’m really looking forward to meeting so many people I’ve “met” through my blog.
@Beachbudget I wish I could meet you and everyone else as well! I hope that everyone is still blogging in 2014 (assuming I pass this year) since if I’m still blogging then I will definitely want to meet everyone and hopefully will be making more revenue and looking to get connected with more sponsors.
I like your points DC. Because we want the debt gone by August, we just can’t afford to attend this year. Plus, I’m not the best at in person meetings so maybe networking over the internet is the best method for me.
@JustinatTheFrugalPath I actually am in the same boat where I am much better at networking online than I am in person. Networking in person is tiring for me (even worse is the phone!) so I can definitely appreciate your viewpoint.
I have to attend at least one optometry conference every year to keep up with CE requirements. That is the only kind of conference I’ve ever really attended. Usually, it gets you pumped up again to do your job, which can get boring at times. I am going to try FINCON this year to see what direction I want to go with the blog. It will be right after the one year mark, which I think is make or break on whether I continue with it or not.
@Eyesonthedollar I think it’s great you are going to FINCON and I definitely think it’s always good to re-evaluate whether to continue a project or not. I’m not sure if you used to read Veronica at Blue Pelican loans, but it looks like she decided at the beginning of the new year that it just wasn’t worth the time investment. It’s always best to only continue a money-making venture if it’s a good use of your time.
Great points. I’m not planning on attending any blogging related conferences this year. Being new to the pf blogosphere I’d like to be up and running for at least a year before I invest significant money into conferences and such.