Companies Should Pay for Their Employees to Attend Conferences

Re:Companies Should Pay for Their Employees to Attend Confer... by mac01021 on Monday June 19, 2017 @10:01PM (#14591720)

I generally opt to abstain from conferences, even if my employer is willing to foot the bill.

I'm unlikely to learn anything from the conference that I couldn't learn on the web, and almost certainly not enough to justify the expenditure of time.

Plus, a round-trip flight crossing a couple of time zones would probably double my carbon footprint for the year.

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Re:Companies Should Pay for Their Employees to Attend Confer... by diiaann on Monday June 19, 2017 @10:23PM (#14591776)

I feel similarly. I find that conferences are kind of wasteful, from the signage, materials to the travel to get everyone into the same place. I can see greater value if a company is remote and you want to engage with a community that way. I feel like at least in the Bay Area there is a plethora of local events so no need to travel high and low for events.

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Re:Companies Should Pay for Their Employees to Attend Confer... by daveJSF on Monday June 19, 2017 @10:57PM (#14591899)

I can't speak to the carbon footprint, but there is so much value in attending conferences if you are connecting with new people.

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Re:Companies Should Pay for Their Employees to Attend Confer... by ams6110 on Monday June 19, 2017 @11:07PM (#14591929)

That's a big if. I don't go to a lot of conferences, but I've never been to one where I ever maintained contact with anyone I met there, after the conference was over.

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Re:Companies Should Pay for Their Employees to Attend Confer... by dkersten on Tuesday June 20, 2017 @09:01AM (#14594246)

As a counterpoint: I have. I've also used conferences as a means of getting face-time with people I otherwise only interact with online. There are also people I share information with, but only interact with once a year at a conference (that is, the conference is the means of staying in touch). Sometimes its also about meeting people who, while you might not stay in touch with them, if for some reason you end up interacting with them in the future, they remember you and you have a head start (last year I almost got a job (I turned it down only because it would have increased my commute beyond what I was willing and I wasn't prepared to relocate) because I met the CTO at a conference 5 years ago). The value of these things varies, of course, so I won't say that conferences are definitely and always worthwhile, but they definitely can be.

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Re:Companies Should Pay for Their Employees to Attend Confer... by caseydurfee on Tuesday June 20, 2017 @12:57PM (#14596262)

I've had similar experiences, but I also think your answer could be paraphrased as "conferences are good because extroverts like them." Some people who are otherwise really good developers aren't going to get much value from a bunch of forced socialization.

Also, in context of "companies should pay for their employees", none of the experiences you note benefitted the company. If you had left the company because you met a new connection at a conference, not only would the employer be out $3K to send you to the conference, they'd be out $50K or more to hire your replacement.

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Re:Companies Should Pay for Their Employees to Attend Confer... by dkersten on Wednesday June 21, 2017 @03:20AM (#14601604)

but I also think your answer could be paraphrased as "conferences are good because extroverts like them

Sure, except that I'm far from an extrovert and that's exactly why I like conferences: I find it incredibly difficult to network and a conference provides a nice, safe, closed environment for me to do so regardless.

Also, in context of "companies should pay for their employees", none of the experiences you note benefitted the company

Absolutely. I wasn't really relying in the context of the article but rather as a counterpoint to not finding personal value in conferences. I've went to almost all conferences I've been to on my own dime, so I obviously wasn't there to benefit my employers.

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Re:Companies Should Pay for Their Employees to Attend Confer... by daveJSF on Monday June 19, 2017 @11:32PM (#14592004)

That's the reason why I created an online course about this. I include lots of ways to follow up and stay connected after the conference. That's key.

The first thing in networking is showing up. The second is following up.

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