Why haven't you gone to a development conference?

I've only gone to a couple. Reasons not to go:

• All the talks will be up on YouTube in a couple days, if the information isn't already available in another form
• As an introvert, I probably won't get much out of the networking aspect (usually touted as the the #1 reason to go)
• If I don't know anyone who's going, I'll just end up sitting by myself or awkwardly trying to break into conversations
• [edit: I forgot this one until I saw others' comments] They are expensive. How many conferences a year do employers typically pay for? And if I'm going on my employer's dime, I'd feel obligated to attend sessions that would specifically benefit them.

The main reasons I would consider going would be to talk with people I already knew (possibly who I'd only met on the Internet), or if I was speaking.

This may be a defeatist attitude toward networking, but it's where I'm at right now.

I went to my first conference this month, and it was great. Partly because it wasn't in my area of expertise, though I had a lot of general, "domainy" knowledge. I'd do it again.

I haven't been before because they're waaaay expensive and I'd need to take time off work. Get work to pay for it, you say? Well companies tend to only pay for me to go to a conference in my area of expertise, and since most of these will consist of people giving entry-level talks or completely off-topic stuff like "how to feel good in your office" I've always seen them as a bit of a waste of everybody's time.

There's no point in going if I'm taking up the space of someone who really wants to be there and might learn something that helps them out in their career.

I also have a deep-seated distaste for "swag" culture. Charging people extra to let them in so you can give them "free" goodies is nonsense.

Socialising with people? Probably not for me.

That sort of thing.

I had a few bad experiences, most of the talks were more like tutorials and how-tos.
Now I have switched to youtube, most talks are available without having devote a specific time, and I am easily able to focus on the talks that seem useful and weed out the tutorials.

Conferences I go to have talks by industry experts. I wouldn't just dismiss their expertise. Listen and so what you can apply to your work. There's always room for learning and improvement. Sure, some talks won't be new, but even then they may be confirming you're on the 'right' path.

Money. I would have to pay for it all out of pocket. That would come out to about $2500, probably more.

Secondly, I don't think that most of them provide a good ROI. They are mostly cleverly disguised sales pitches for products and services the sponsors and speakers are selling.

If someone has yet to go to a serious dev conference based in Europe, I'd suggest WeAreDevelopers. I've attended both this (as a speaker) and last year, and both were amazing!

As people have said they are expensive. Also taking time off work to go to a conference when stuff will be on YouTube or live streamed anyway just doesn't seem the right thing to do.

However if some people from my company would go and I had the chance to go with them I would certainly attend.

I didn't go to any until I started speaking and could get in for free :)

I think it's mostly the money and travel time, as well as me not being very good at networking events or just chit-chatting with people. I would love to be able to do that but it's just not something I'm good at yet.