The Toronto Webmaster Access East is going great.

I was watching two guys new to the online business. Their site is only a few months old and they didn't know anybody other than me and Dzinerbear, and they only knew us from this board. This was their first conference.
I made a few introductions for them to get them a running start. They went to the parties last night and tonight. During the parties and the cocktail parties, and going out to dinner with new contacts, they

1. Met with a very large website that wants to get their content on the big site
2. Found a source of seed money for their next project
3. Met with a billing company that will get them into their system and reduce processing costs
4. Met with reps from publications that want to run a story in their pubs
5. Met with a content producer that is interested in getting new content from them
6. Made contacts to trade traffic

I think they did great for newbies!!!! This is what conferences are all about. They do cost money to attend and there are parties going on almost non-stop, but an INCREDIBLE amount of business gets done if you have the right attitude, can meet people and talk business.

The value of going to conferences just cannot be measured. They will get name recognition at their next conference and make even more deals. This is not a business model that was intentionally created, but it seems to be the best way to do business in this business. If you never go to a conference, you are missing out on a LOT of opportuinty. There is no other way to do so much, meet so many people, build trust, do so much networking, and build a business than ante up and get to a show.