>> While a virtual conference provides the formal content, it loses all the informal parts.
>
>That's simply not true. It means some changes, certainly. But it's not either/or. And I have many years of doing training and sessions via video-conference to know that things come out of that that are beyond the Xs and Os.
>
>It takes people with experience who have done it before - but it can be done and has been done.
>
>If you don't believe me, go express your views on this to the SQL Virtual PASS Chapter that has been running for years :)
>
>Or...go read Hamlet (1.5.167-8) :)

OK, Horatio, good points.

I get better golf tips on YouTube than I ever got from a live teacher - why? I can get tips from Lee Trevino and Ben Hogan on YouTube and I can repeat them as often as I like.

That said, belly-to-belly contact can be uniquely valuable.
I recall one conference in particular which, except for a chance encounter at a coffee break, would have been a complete dud, but it turned out to be one of the most valuable conferences I ever attended.