most tech related cons seem to only be worthwhile for industry types to network and do business. or rich bored people.

Lot's of answers in this thread asking the same question: #197797

to each their own. some people spend that much every day.

I think they can be worth attending - it just depends on what you want to get out of it. I've been to one conference (BBB) the last couple years and enjoyed meeting people outside the echo chambers of social media. Met up with friends, made new friends, had great conversations with some niche "celebs" in the space, and got plugged into some projects. Like @premitive1 said, "to each their own."

imo they are invaluable. You get to hang out with friends and talk with some the smartest people in bitcoin. The after parties are always a ton of fun as well.

If you're going for just the talks, that is a waste, you should go for the people.

Meetups are great, conferences not so much. With the latter, the scene away from the official event is better, where the networking and pleasure wait. The event itself is for photographs, social media, perhaps journalism. Signal? Roll the dice.

I've been to a couple BTC conferences. Shrug. Worth $350? No. I've got a few cool pictures though. Maybe the small ones are better? Doing it over I'd still go, but skip the event. This will be my MO at the Adobe MAX convention in LA this October: livestream the damn thing on my laptop, so when someone asks what I thought about such-n-such a presentation, I can nod and riff, then move a seat closer and drop an orange pill in their drink (kidding).

find something local to find friends maybe, something real.

I'm not into hero worship & I'm patient enough to wait for the videos to be released online. Plus when you attend in person you have the problems of:

have to go to the right ones imo i remember my first one being bitcoin 2021 something was just pulling me to go out there i finally met my people and so began my bitcoin journey. So far I have enjoyed BBB and also bitcoin++ very high signal I keep hearing how good tabconf is as well !

I have thought about going to one, or a meetup, just to try and find some people for the journey. My friends dabble, no one at the level of running a node, or interested in mining.

It's best to use the amount you pay to participate to buy Bitcoin. You can still watch most of the sessions afterwards on replay. There's still the networking argument at these conferences. This may be the only advantage if you're looking for a job in the Bitcoin ecosystem, for example.

Can be inspiring if you can afford it. If you'd rather stack sats maybe its better to go in the next cycle