Extract ideas from a conference

I used to attend the GDC (Game Developers Conference) each year in San Jose and later San Francisco.

For the first two years I would attend lots of panel presentations and talks about subjects I already knew about.

“Oh yes, that AI talk sounds interesting, let’s go hear that.”

But I would only rarely learn something worthwhile or new.

Without fail I could get the same knowledge from a well-written book on the subject.

Later I would only attend talks and panel presentations on subjects I had no knowledge of, and that is where I learned the most.

Not because I learned things that I couldn’t get a from a decent book, but because I had an immediate exposure to ideas and models of thought I had never considered before… which would then lead me to good books on the subject.

The value for conferences (all conferences) when I attend them, and when I have time to attend a panel or talk, is now in hunting out talks on subjects that have nothing to do with my day-to-day work.