Ask Slashdot: Who Should Pay Costs To Attend Conferences?

An anonymous reader writes I wanted to get your opinion on who should pay the costs associated with attending conferences. In the past, I've covered costs associated with attending some local (in town) conferences, but despite claims to be willing to cover some costs associated with conferences, training, and certifications, my requests have been denied. The short version is I would like to attend a national conference, hosted in Las Vegas, and that while specific to a technology, it is what 90% of my day is related to so its directly work related. My employer has declined to pay some of the costs associated with the conference, but has said if I pay my way, they will pay for the training associated with it. Since this is a pretty hot technology, I'm very interested in getting certified and appreciate their offer.

I should add that I work for a public entity and due to some fairly public issues, we have enjoyed record levels of funding the past couple of years. We know that they cannot afford to continue so we're about to start a multi-year decrease in our budget. My current thoughts are: First, I was working for a company where we faced potential layoffs, getting as close as to within 24 hours of one. Even just having some job security is extremely appreciated. Second, I work in a WONDERFUL environment. They aren't clock punchers, its about getting the job done. We're not micromanaged and have freedom to try new things. For the public sector, I know those are rare things and I appreciate them. Third, I work on a very talented team. I am probably the weakest member, so for me its a perfect learning/growth opportunity. Finally, its not my employer saying the conference isn't important, its looking at the bottom line and that we are a public entity so its not like we can easily raise more money. Tough decisions must be made.

For this particular conference, I decided to try and save up my own money. Unfortunately, my personal life has gotten in the way, so I've resorted to begging. My problem with this is I hate begging, but what am I going to do for future conferences? So should I re-think my acceptance of my employers policy and start looking for a new job? Obviously, it is a personal decision, but I don't have a mentor or close friends to act as sounding boards, so I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Comments

It's not a "should"

[plover]

It's very employer dependent. Some employers will want to train you on vendor products, others will want to hire someone with experience as an already established expert and expect you to bring that knowledge with you.

The real question is: do you want to work for someone who would not pay to train you on the product they're expecting you to use? That's something you have to decide for yourself.

You're likely not going to convince them

[jmauro]

Since it is a public entity you'll likely run into a roadblock of what the law lets them pay for. Honestly it isn't much and the rules are rather inflexible due to some abuses that regularly come up (a conference in Vegas is likely to be huge red flag after this).

It sucks, but it's one of the trade offs for working for a public entity.

Can you make the costs tax-deductible?

[Zarhan]

Since no one has mentioned this yet - I'm not sure if this applies in the U.S., but at least in Finland you can deduct profession-related (not necessarily work-related!) expenses from your income taxes.

This typically includes stuff like literature, computer equipment (if used for said income), and yes, even travel expenses. Of course the expenses have to be related to your profession - my education and entire professional history is from CS, so I cannot put e.g. gardening tools in there, but a trip to a conference related to your field can be easily put under training expenses.

Re:Don't bother

[Penguinisto]

Hate to say it, but parent is almost completely correct.

There are some bennies to being on-site (hands-on labs with an expert on hand), but otherwise most conferences are just a big marketing push with a lot of hanger-on companies and startups vying for your attention on the main floor.

It wouldn't be so bad if the exhibitors had actual experts on hand to answer the tough questions w/o resorting to market-speak, but most of them don't, and are too busy evangelizing. If I wanted to get pounded with marketing-speak, I'd invite VARs to stop by at my office for that. If I want swag or bennies, there are plenty of local ones that local VARs are happy to give/throw (e.g. watching a Trailblazers game from a box seat while the VAR spends halftime talking to you about his product lines).

The last conference I went to was VMWorld in 1999, which had the hands-on labs and an opportunity to speak with the actual VMWare developers in an intimate setting about upcoming bits and existing problems (albeit the latter was restricted to certain big buyers/partners), but otherwise it seemed to be nothing more than a means to work over VPN interspersed with advertisement on-site, and more marketing disguised as after-hours drinking parties.

Seriously... They were fun as hell, and you used to learn a lot in the process, but the days of COMDEX and NetWorld are dead; you can thank the Internet for that.

Now classes or boot-camps? Different story, and still well worth going to depending on the technology and the depth offered. Conferences? Not so much.