Networking Across Vast Distance

[AngelCityOutlaw]

So I've been having this sort of internal debate the last few months. See, I've never attended any of the bigger sort of game dev conferences where both major and indie devs alike meet up and show off their newest stuff. I really want to though, as such things would be great networking opportunities.

or would they be?

See, the one I'm thinking of attending is OIGC, which is a newer conference that takes place in Ottawa in May. If I went, I feel that I could probably meet lots of cool people who could become potential clients down the road. I think that's the thinking most people have. The problem I run into though, is that it stands to reason that any major developer who would be in attendance are either local or come from big cities elsewhere in the world. I also think it stands to reason that the indie developers who would be there are probably from Toronto, Ottawa and surrounding area. I, however, would be halfway across the 2nd largest country in the world after the show. There are no such conferences in my local area.

For example, even if I were to make some good connections with an Ontario developer who liked my stuff and knew me on more of a personal level, does that really make me any more likely to get the job instead of some composer who lives in or around the big cities like Ottawa and Toronto? I'm sure there are plenty of composers there. I know that if I wanted someone to do a paid artistic service for me, my first choice would be to look in my local area - someone who I can meet up with in person and show them what I'm working on, what I want them to do and give real-time feedback.

That's how it worked on a couple of recent film projects I'm working on. The filmmakers are in the local area and I can invite them over or vice versa and we get face-to-face communication which I think is vital. The couple of indie games I did were done through the internet, but these were by less than professional companies whose teams consisted of little more than "artist and programmer". Most of the local game devs are not much more than simple hobbyists and most don't seem to have any professional aspirations.

TL;DR?

Is it worth it to go to a far-away game development conference for networking purposes if you're not an internationally recognized superstar already? Wouldn't any indie devs there be more likely to just work with someone in the local area? Is it worth spending the dough to travel to one of these things?