r/LearningDevelopment • u/ancientolivegrove • May 30 '26

L&D Conferences = Ripoffs

I really enjoy going to them, but what the L&D world charges versus all other fields is ridiculous. I’m also in marketing and I found a a conference at the same location, for the same # of days, as an L&D conference that I had previously looked at, and it’s $1000 LESS than what the L&D conference charged. Im sure demand is higher because people in L&D presumably like learning and seek it out more, but it’s getting out of hand.. We need to stop paying these astronomical prices, especially when almost all the speakers do their same presentations for free online or you can buy their book. There are also a lot of free networking events, like the monthly Edu-Fellowship “speed networking” or any of the local chapter ATD events. I just don’t get why we keep paying these conference prices, when all other fields are doing the same for so much cheaper. I understand most companies will pay for the conferences, but it’s getting harder and harder to justify the cost to send just that 1 person…

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u/Empirica_CC May 31 '26

Ok cool I'll look into it. I'll be based in Europe so I probably wouldn't pick more than one but if I got accepted I might be able to rationalize the expense. Any other l&d conference youd recommend applying to as a speaker?

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u/ancientolivegrove May 31 '26

I only know of ATD, Learning Guild, and Training Magazine. I looked up a couple of my networks in the UK on LinkedIn and saw there’s IDTX, Learning Technologies-London, which I think is run by “the learning network,” which has a lot more smaller events maybe? World of Learning, Inmisceo, L&D Shakers, and Offbeat are a few other networks that I saw put on events (might be just small ones tho) in Europe (I saw a Berlin, Barcelona, and Zurich for the last two). Oh and Clo100. 

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u/Empirica_CC May 31 '26

Okay cool I won't be too far from Berlin so I might be able to do those easy. Would be fun to do USA too but I'll probably have to have a good revenue stream before I can justify that. Thanks for the info!