I've gone to a couple conferences. The first one was a bit overwhelming, as many people already knew each other and it seemed difficult to interject into conversations. The swag is a cool memory of the talks and connections I made at each. I learned very quickly that many of the prominent bitcoin twitter people are very approachable and actually prefer talking to other bitcoiners than listening to talks. One specific memory I have of this is from Pacific Bitcoin 22, where I found myself talking to Lina Seiche and Allen Farrington instead of watching Saylor's keynote fireside chat. Lina mentioned that 'this' conversation is worth more than listening to Saylor's talk. It hit pretty hard to me.

I think conferences are particularly important in general, but I think they are becoming very saturated. I now prefer smaller local bitcoin meet ups, especially meeting new bitcoiners and people who it is their first bitcoin meet up. There is nothing like seeing a person's face light up during these meet ups (like the 'Ah-Ha!' moment)