Conferences: something for everyone

It is no secret: I am a big fan of conferences. I attended my first professional technical communication conference over 25 years ago and have been happily participating in them ever since.

Text by Leah Guren

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Conferences: something for everyone

Image: © Roman Hermann

For the past 20 years, my role has mostly been that of a speaker, but I still find the conference experience to be overwhelmingly beneficial for professional development.

The tcworld conference in Stuttgart is one of my favorites. It is well organized, impressively large, and has a lot of variety. I was recently talking to a colleague (rather enthusiastically) about my experiences there. He shrugged and said, "Conferences are so expensive. I don't really see the point. I can read the articles in the journals or watch a YouTube video."

He is not the only one who feels this way. Over the years, I have met many people who fail to understand the value of professional conferences. Often, they have never actually attended a conference, or perhaps they went to one small local event. This is unfortunate, as such people are missing out on one of the most profitable ways of investing in their ...