I like your list. Here is my conference advice, contradicting some of yours, based mostly on my experience with academic conferences:
1. Focus on making friends. Of course it would be good to have productive discussions and make useful connections, but it is most important to know some friendly faces and feel comfortable. For me it works best to talk about unrelated things like hobbies, not about work or EA or anything like that.
2. Listening to talks is exhausting, so don’t force yourself to attend too many of them. It is fine to pick just the 2-3 most interesting talks on a day and skip everything else.
3a. Attending a talk in person is widely preferable over watching the video.
3b. Ask questions at talks. If you ask less than one question over the course of a multi-day conference, you are doing something wrong.
Can you expand on 3a and 3b? I guess 3b justifies 3a, but is that all? Watching and discussing a video with your local group appears to me to be more valuable than asking one question at a talk, but I may be missing some important benefits that you are aware. I would also add that these are not mutually exclusive. I have heard that some people struggle to set time to watch talks on their own, that is also something to consider.
3b justifies 3a, as well as that I have a much easier time paying attention to the talk. In video, there is too much temptation to play at 1.5x speed and aim for an approximate understanding. Though I guess watching the video together with other people also helps.
As for 3b, in my experience asking questions adds a lot of value, both for yourself as well as for other audience members. The fact that you have a question is a strong indication that the question is good and that other people are wondering the same thing.
I like your list. Here is my conference advice, contradicting some of yours, based mostly on my experience with academic conferences:
1. Focus on making friends. Of course it would be good to have productive discussions and make useful connections, but it is most important to know some friendly faces and feel comfortable. For me it works best to talk about unrelated things like hobbies, not about work or EA or anything like that.
2. Listening to talks is exhausting, so don’t force yourself to attend too many of them. It is fine to pick just the 2-3 most interesting talks on a day and skip everything else.
3a. Attending a talk in person is widely preferable over watching the video.
3b. Ask questions at talks. If you ask less than one question over the course of a multi-day conference, you are doing something wrong.
Can you expand on 3a and 3b? I guess 3b justifies 3a, but is that all? Watching and discussing a video with your local group appears to me to be more valuable than asking one question at a talk, but I may be missing some important benefits that you are aware. I would also add that these are not mutually exclusive. I have heard that some people struggle to set time to watch talks on their own, that is also something to consider.
3b justifies 3a, as well as that I have a much easier time paying attention to the talk. In video, there is too much temptation to play at 1.5x speed and aim for an approximate understanding. Though I guess watching the video together with other people also helps.
As for 3b, in my experience asking questions adds a lot of value, both for yourself as well as for other audience members. The fact that you have a question is a strong indication that the question is good and that other people are wondering the same thing.