I too have never attended a bitcoin conference and never found the urge nor the interest to do so. Ticket plus flight plus accommodation plus food and commute adds up to be really really expensive. I much rather keep the sats.

Highly recommend on the local meetup idea. I started to attend my local BitDevs at the beginning of this year, and it’s awesome. It’s free to attend (although I donate some sats to my local BitDevs every time to help with the venue rental cost). I get to meet like minded people who share the same interest in bitcoin. Also, I see familiar faces each time, which help build relationship and friendship.