Whether you love your job or not, the day to day activities tend to get repetitive. Same people, same responsibilities, same environment. Having some variety mixed in can go a long way to preventing burn out. Having the opportunity to go to a work conference, while always a mixed bag of tricks, is usually a welcomed change to break up the monotony.

The knowledge of your peers
These types of things always seem to come at a bad time. You’ve got deadlines, and things to take care of. Why do you have to go away for a few days to hear boring speeches, and sit through training sessions? While these things may be true, you should also recognize it as an opportunity. It’s already happening, so if you just embrace it, you’ll get much more out of it.

People from many different locations, and job environments usually wind up at these things. Sometimes, it’s refreshing to see who they are, and how their situation relates to yours. That in itself can make you feel better, knowing that you’re not alone. Others share the same concerns, and problems. Often at these conferences, someone may have approached things from a different angle, and already come up with a solution that you can share with your coworkers. No matter the type of conference, or the industry involved, it can always help to absorb the shared knowledge of your peers.

Some downtime with coworkers
Besides the actual work related knowledge you may gain from these conferences, you will inevitably spend a lot of personal time with your coworkers. In your office, you may see each other from 9-5, but while traveling, you may find yourself with a room mate, or having a few beers after the educational portion of the day. Believe it or not, this can go a long way to improving your in-office situation. The more comfortable you are with someone, the easier it is to deal with a difficult situation. Being on your own is never fun, so sharing in an experience like this with a coworker will always make you feel more like a team. You might still be stuck working at the job, but at least you’ll gain another person to complain to!

Time to get away
Regardless of what you learn, or how much closer to your coworkers you may become, going to a conference usually means getting away! Even if you’re from a great city like Manhattan, going somewhere else is always refreshing. You get to see what the it’s like in another city, and hopefully see what the locals do for fun. Different sights, bars, restaurants, whatever. It’s different, so it’s more interesting than the stuff that you see every day going to and from your local office.

Act on that newfound info
One thing I’ve learned from going to a few of these types of conferences, is that if you get home and don’t take some sort of action on the new information you’ve attained, it tends to get lost. You have have learned about some new programs, or techniques. They made a lot of sense and were fresh in your mind at the time, but a month later, you’re not quite sure why it was so relevant. When you get back, just go through some notes, take another look at the slides/handouts/websites, and let it really sink in. Only then can you really put it to work.