I find my best conference experiences aren&#x27;t the sessions themselves, but happen in the hallways or at optional side-events.  Two conferences I&#x27;ve been to had skydiving as an optional activity, and I&#x27;ve found that&#x27;s been a great way to make new friends &amp; long lasting connections.  Probably something about sharing a near-death experience together.<p>Most profitable experience was complaining in the hallway to another attendee about the previous speaker.  We bonded over our griping &amp; they became a client of mine a couple of years later (even though that wasn&#x27;t an intention I&#x27;d had at the time).<p>Worst experience was a conference whose topics changed after I bought the tickets, flying halfway around the world for it, then struggling to stay awake for the final sessions of the day.  I actually skipped the next conference day, but the attendees were great people &amp; became good friends, so I still got my money&#x27;s worth.<p>[Gratuitous plug: I maintain a list of conferences for indie developers, digital nomads and other bootstrapper&#x2F;DIY types at <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;indieconference.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;indieconference.com&#x2F;</a>  I mainly use it as a list of justifiable excuses for travel.]