Don't. You can get everything you need from a live stream. Those tickets cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. Unless you have a group of friends you are meeting with it really is not worth the effort of going. Those conferences end up being a place for social media influences to mingle more than anything.

I learned this lesson from the gaming industry and attending events for work. If you do go just skip on the conference. There is enough activity generated from the conference or convention that you will find like minded people all over the immediate area in bars and different hang out spots. That is where the real fun of going is. That and if you get invited to after parties. That is fun and usually you can find one to get into.

A Bitcoin conference is not different from any other tech or gaming convention so listen to your gut.

As someone who's been to many conferences, you know the main benefits are:

These also apply to bitcoin conferences. If the goal is camaraderie, then meetups are probably a more efficient route.

You shouldn't unless someone is paying you to or you think there is some intangible value beyond the opportunity cost of less sats or it is a tie in to a vacation you wanted to take. I have never been to Miami so I did consider going to BItcoin Miami as part of a vacation out there to check out the city but Bitcoin was too cheap so I stacked sats instead.

I've been to bitcoin miami the last 3 years. Progressively got worse. Actually this year was not too bad because low expectations. Ticket price is only reasonable if you buy the ticket a year in advance. Don't expect to learn anything at bitcoin magazines conference. only stage worth while is the open source stage. Bitcoin bazaar was fun. The ezpo hall is 95% trash booths trying to get your personal info. Wife asks me what I learn every time and I dig deep to find that I learned meetups are generally more fulfilling and educational. This year will be my first go at BitBlockBoom. I've heard great things about how interactive it is.

find a meetup somewhere close. buy more sats.

went to first conf last year, PB, dont think im going back

honestly, you shouldn't. a lot of these "Bitcoin" conferences are just enterprise conferences with company booths.

very little technical signal or learning at many of these things. keep your sats, go to a free local meetup and find like minded people and you'll get more value.

They are a bit safer nowadays

You don't go to conferences for the panels and keynotes (in this day and age you can find the recordings online). You go there for the networking. It's up to you to decide whether the ticket it worth the opportunity to make new connections that could become friends or business partners in the future.

Also, make sure you're up to the task of networking. I am a highly introverted person, unable to connect with people "organically". As soon as I understood that I stopped wasting money on conferences, but your case might be different.

To learn about the technology yes.

But if you do know about it already, its not very good opsec at all.

If you do understand it. Stack those sats instead. There is no second best

I too have never attended a bitcoin conference and never found the urge nor the interest to do so. Ticket plus flight plus accommodation plus food and commute adds up to be really really expensive. I much rather keep the sats.

Highly recommend on the local meetup idea. I started to attend my local BitDevs at the beginning of this year, and it’s awesome. It’s free to attend (although I donate some sats to my local BitDevs every time to help with the venue rental cost). I get to meet like minded people who share the same interest in bitcoin. Also, I see familiar faces each time, which help build relationship and friendship.