If you need someone to sponsor your flights and hotels just to attend conferences, it probably means your capital is still relatively small, or you're still in the early stages of accumulation. At this stage, you need to calculate every expense carefully, ensuring a high input-output ratio without incurring losses. Right now, we're at the tail end of the bear market and the beginning of the bull market, a phase where the entire industry's narrative is being reshaped. The opportunities with certainty are naturally fewer than in the past couple of years, but the uncertainty also means that if a new direction emerges, the early-stage rewards could be massive. So, I actually think it's worth attending conferences during this phase—not necessarily to focus on a specific project, but to connect with independent thinkers in the industry who are still hustling, as well as some seasoned veterans, and hear their insights. There are many things you can only gain from small, private, in-person conversations that can't be replaced by scrolling through Twitter or chatting online. A while back, I went to Bhutan 不丹. It took nearly 20 hours of flying one way, including two layovers, and the hotels were even more expensive than those in Singapore during Token2049. Yzi Labs helped with the visa application, but they didn’t cover flights or hotels. I hesitated for two days but decided to go anyway because, at this point in time, it felt worth it to explore more, both in terms of big trends and potential projects. Later, I realized that an unintentional conversation with Barry ended up helping me make back the cost of the trip many times over with $ZEC. Of course, there were other gains too, but I won’t list them all here. As for events that cover flights and hotels, unless it’s something or someone you know and trust deeply, it’s not necessarily a good thing. After all, there will definitely be some strings attached. When you’re making a living in the content creation space, avoiding pitfalls and not endorsing the wrong things is far more important than a few days of free flights and hotels. Just think about those KOLs who got dragged down by Jubi because of a cheap island vacation ‍↕️