Cal Evans, following some "unscientific research" he did on the subject, has posted some interesting findings about technology conferences and why people attend.

Those of you who follow me on twitter (@calevans) know that recently I asked for opinions on conference attendance. I’ve collected what I learned in this blog post.

He asked three groups of people - speakers, non-speakers and managers - for their opinions as to why they attend or send their developers to these events. his results were interesting, finding that slightly more people were looking for networking than just the training you get in the sessions. General community interaction also scored high. On the flip side, the things that mattered most to the managers were the training and a good price that seemed right for what was offered.

Both sides are reinforced by comments from people who submitted to the survey, both well-known PHPers and general community members alike.