design conferences

How do businesses decide which one of the three hundred Design/Innovation conferences held each year to send thier people to?

In my company’s case, alot of it has to do with an employee desire. There’s noone here requiring us to attend anything. If it’s something that interests you, you need to speak up and get the money to go.

ditto.

And typically the bigger (read more well known) the conference, the easier it is to get justify it and get the dollars out of the tight budgets…

Any ID/Innovation conference that I ask to go to is put under scrutiny. In my company, ID is under the engineering umbrella. I’m always asked “what value does attending the event add to the bottom line.” They all see it as a networking opportunity rather than a place to pick up tools that can apply to the business.

Isn’t there value in the networking? As far as learning about new tools and methods. Also, won’t networking also lead to new business opportunities?