How to justify the cost of attending development conference?

Question

What is the training need and what is the business value to justify a developer's conference?

Hello Everyone, I have attended many conferences over the years. My first was VBITS in 1995. Wow did it help. My Boss saw the improvement right away. I like to go to one every other year or so. But the benefit is not as measurable as that first experience. I have attended DevConnections, VSLive, and TechEd. I have been blessed in the past in that, business was good, and my manager just always approved my requests. That is one of the reasons I have stayed here so long. I am a SENIOR developer. I know my stuff and my manager is very happy with my work now. It's not so much I NEED the conference, but I love attending. It is a nice perk. How do I justify the 3K cost (Conference, Travel, and Hotel)?

Answer 1

I think conferences are valuable to a certain extent - I think it's going to be difficult to convince your boss that it is worthwhile unless you are actually getting something out of it, like training, or meeting with customers, etc. My boss just sent me to RSNA in Chicago (I work as a software engineer for a medical imaging company) just for the experience of seeing the industry as a whole, and it was great. I hope I have the chance to go to as many conferences as you have.

I suppose this really isn't an answer ;-) you have far more experience than I do, so I think my reply just counts as a musing.

Answer 2

The more you can relate the conference topics to your job and employer, the better, Then you can angle your pitch towards the great opportunity to gain needed knowledge in areas you are going to be able to leverage in your work.

Answer 3

Some benefits I can think of:

1) Conferences for businesses give you the opportunity to "step back" from your current work, and think about it at a higher level in relation to technologies presented at the conference. For senior level developers, this can be a great opportunity to think technically on the direction your product might go long term.

2) Conferences for senior people should also be about networking, you never know how just knowing someone you can send a complex question to might help you later.

If you really value the conference and have trouble getting support, perhaps suggest that you yourself would be willing to pay for some or all of the conference. That shows that you personally value the conference above just being a free vacation.

Answer 4

I think it's subjective: the business value and the justification should be based on the benefits ... and, the benefits that I and my employer would get from my attending something are different from the benefits that you and your employer would get from attending something else.

Answer 5

Sometimes going to a conference is a great way to find new clients or business partners. Try selling intangible benefits like this to your boss. You'll might also get a glimpse of what your competitors are up to.

Answer 6

Conferences are a great method to learn new things and get in touch with other developers. But I don't think you should overdo it.

At my company everybody has a budget for courses. You can also chose to go to a conference. Which is a good substitute.

By the way, to calculate the full cost you should also count the days not spend on work.

Answer 7

Think training is expensive? So try with ignorance.

Answer 8

Offer to organize a session to the other developers in your company in which you will share the knowledge that you gained at the conference. That way the benefit is spread across multiple employees instead of just one. At one of my previous jobs, this was a requirement for all company-funded training or professional development.

Answer 9

Maybe the next one you go to, you can write a 2-3 page overview of all the new concepts & technologies you've learned, and how they may help your company now or in the future.

Also, keep track of any indirect benefits you've recieved for the next conference you want to go to, and casually mention them every time you encounter your manager leading up to asking him outright ... just to warm him up. This isn't as deceptive as it may sound since your manager will probably make the connection, and call you on it ... then you can just smile.

Answer 10

You really need to keep in mind that the tech industry and programming especially changes extremely fast. There are new concepts and patterns that people have discovered, new technology comes out, younger developers have input into the changes going on in the world.

The benefit of these conferences is that they tend to be at the beginning on the curve of change (while training courses tend to be at the end of that curve - they tend to react to the market, not lead it). Going to these conferences offers developers a lot of opportunity to see new trends and new ideas faster, which will lead you into being a better developer (Senior or not).

That is how I look at this topic.

Answer 11

Tell them Jon Skeet wants you to go :)

If that doesn't work I would try to bring up that IMHO conferences often inspire developers to build new things or try new things. R&D is often not planned, sometimes it happens by accident. Every professional conference or presentation I have gone to has always given me either some sort of new idea or new direction I can take with an existing idea.

Maybe you will learn something that saves you two hours a week... or you learn something that leads to a new successful product for the company.

But at the same time many companies are battening down the hatches, preparing to weather this economic storm and that means costs are being cut wherever they can be cut and less risks are being taken. I would not be surprised if your boss tells you know, no matter how good the reason :(

Answer 12

From the last conference I went to, I came away with one major thing which will be used to improve the performance and stability of our product line. From that alone, the conference costs paid for themselves. I left with more things as well, but this is certainly the capper.

Answer 13

I like to think of it as Stephen Covey says "Sharpening the sword". A lumberjack with a saw can cut wood for months but if he doesn't stop to sharpen the saw every now and then his productivity goes way down. It's the same way with programmers. We need to step back, take a deep breathe and sharpen our swords in order to be more productive.