zlacker

>>Berisl+(OP)
Cynical voice:

Professional Development budgets can be hard to spend. Spluring everything on a conference gets you some half-decent benefits - something to put on your self-assessment for your review cycle; a couple of days out-of-the-office; some half-decent food, snacks, and corporate gifts; and finally the chance to travel to an interesting new city on your company's money.

>>NeoTar+wp
> gets you some half-decent benefits - something to put on your self-assessment for your review cycle

How you put going to a conference on your self assessment?

> Personal improvements this year

> Went to a conference, learned a bunch of stuff on company time

> Business value added this year

> Went to a conference and got better!

Or what?

>>capabl+Sr
Pretty much. From the non-cynical perspective it shows that you took some time to increase your knowledge and skills in the area of [conference topic] which is ultimately of advantage to the company. Especially so if you can tie it into the objective and key-results of your team/division/company.

>>NeoTar+Tv
Brb, gonna put all the conference talks I watched on YouTube, all the articles I read and all the projects I built down on my performance review self-assessment.

Usually "increasing your skills and knowledge" is not part of performance reviews. They are about your work performance (Duh). I.e. results, not learnings.

>>Zephyr+qy
It's been on a lot of mine. Typically at the beginning of the year when we set goals, I may have a goal to "learn more about X." Then at mid year/end of year review, I can say I read these books, took this online course, or attended a conference on X.

It just checks off that you did what you said you planned to do.