Meeting people is a big part of it. Even if you're not very social, I found attending conferences to be great for understanding what people are doing now, getting a feel for the personalities in my field, and making connections and just learning.
When I used to go to more academic conferences, I mostly went to smaller tight-knit ones where most people knew each other. I found that much more interesting than the big ones with thousands of people which definitely feel more anonymous and take way more work to meet people in, and end up being closer to what you'd get from attending something online.
Tldr, try going to a ~100 person niche conference in your specific field, or at least one that has tracks that emulate that
> Tldr, try going to a ~100 person niche conference in your specific field,
Where does one find conferences that small? Everything I've seen (is|seems to be) for large-ish conferences? Large-ish being defined as the ones with the "anonymous feel".
When I used to go to more academic conferences, I mostly went to smaller tight-knit ones where most people knew each other. I found that much more interesting than the big ones with thousands of people which definitely feel more anonymous and take way more work to meet people in, and end up being closer to what you'd get from attending something online.
Tldr, try going to a ~100 person niche conference in your specific field, or at least one that has tracks that emulate that