Unlike a lot of industries, conferences for developers are actually worth it. They aren’t just an excuse to spend your T&E budget, stay in a new hotel and see some bands that are over the hill.
Why? Between learning the actual skills of programming and the actual work of building, leading and creating teams of developers, there is a massive skills gap. Unless you’re lucky enough to have a mentor with all the answers you need to grow your career, the best way to learn what you don’t know is by tapping into the developer community.