I'm addressing you, the anonymous individual who paid the full conference fee. Stop this practice; it's not a worthwhile investment.
You're completely ignoring the networking aspect which makes me think you're the only one that's a loser here. It is what you make it, sounds like you aren't making anything out of them.
Thanks Tony for your reply. I did go to one of these conferences before but learned from that mistake. Understand the networking aspect. But they mostly occur outside the conference at a dinner or after party. Here's how I clarified my stance to Jimmy.
Winning strategy is to have a clear target person to meet, introduce yourself to, or talk to at the conference. Contact them via DMs to arrange a meetup or look for side meetups that you know other like-minded people will attend. or you get invited to speak at these conferences.
Losing strategy is thinking that you can wing it by meeting many speakers, celebrities, and hoping to land your dream job by paying for a full-price conference pass or a whale-pass.
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It's entirely proof of work. You're not going to strike gold by going to one conference to meet your dream celeb and win at life, whether you DM them first or not. You want to get invited to a private dinner? What makes you worthy or trusted for that? Because you showed up to one conference?
You talk to people, build up reputation, and repeat for years. Welcome to networking.
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