Things can be very different in tech.

When your job keeps you mentally and physically isolated from your coworkers, getting together with like minded people to talk shop is nice. Even more so because for some developers talking shop is one of the few conversation topics they feel comfortable with.

When your job is slugging away at decades old enterprise code, watching a talk about game development, fancy math, or improved development environments can be a breath of fresh air.

When your job has you at the bottom of ten layers of bureaucracy, telling people about something they should do, and having them listen and agree is wonderful.

Tech conferences are a joy.

Point taken; I was saying (unclearly, maybe) that not liking conferences/speaking/whatever is a pretty weak reason for avoiding them. Lots of people don't like them, but go because it's what the job requires (and, just to preempt replies, act pleasant and engaged while there).

Are you kidding? I love going to conferences and speaking at them! Especially if you do not work in an office, they are a great way to find who is doing what, what's new, where you are behind,nowhere you are in front.

If you aren't prepared to go to, ad get involved with, conferences, then all of the advice in this article is going to pass you by. Because it's all about establishing credibility and then leveraging it.

I've taken two vacations for conferences this year... Maybe I'm crazy. Clojure/West and Strange Loop. Maybe you just need to go to better conferences.