Who's talking to the users, writing the code, tweaking and retweaking the UI?

– from Caterina.net

I’m lucky if I can make it to one conference per year – not very different from most people I know. But it seems that for some, a big part of their business plan includes conference schmoozing. I wonder what the material impact on the business actually is. Do schmoozers get a substantial ROI from their constant attendance? Do the non-attenders have happier customers?

Could make for an interesting study.