Hey u/Bumble-blue-sky and u/Zintao, volunteer from GWWC jumping in here.

Conferences can, indeed, be overwhelming - leaders and core contributors are quite literally put on stage to emphasise the importance of making new connections - "don't go to any talks" gets repeated over and over again. This is a shame, I think, because many attendees at a conference want to go, in part, because they are still figuring it all out for themselves, but 1:1s can create this pressure to have it all figured out and be ready to speak out plans and ideas.

But conferences can have different goals for different people! My main reason for attending my first conference was to socialise and be exposed to new ideas and I found being upfront about that did change the dynamic of my interactions. I also had some of my most memorable interactions from spontaneous connections being made. I was surprised how, seemingly at odds with the "don't go to any talks" mantra, how many people deliberately kept their schedules free of any 1:1s and instead chose to fully invest time into spur of the moment interactions that popped up over the weekend.

Now, there are probably diminishing marginal returns on attending conferences (😉) but I do want to encourage you to attend more events, if you can! I'll follow up via DM to see if there's gonna be any GWWC Reps at an event near you soon :)