Never been to any real-world conferences...but, I do enjoy listening in on live telephone conference calls. Sometimes they're free, sometimes you have to pay like $20-$50, something like that. It's definitely worth it though, especially if you have the well-known people on there. A while back I listened in on a Mark Joyner conference call. They had Joe Vitale and a couple other marketing geniuses on there. I'm a huge fan of Joe Vitale.
The subject really stuck in my head, and I've found the concept very helpful...
Mark was explaining something called the TIO...The Irresistible Offer
When you're doing a product pitch, you have to sell the customer a glass, and then you sell them a second glass...something like that. Basically, you make your marketing pitch such that it's catchy enough to almost sound too good, and almost challenges yourself to deliver. But at the same time, you make sure you deliver enough that it naturally builds buzz about your product.
For example...Mark talked about how Dominos pizza used to have the "30 minute delivery or it's free" thing. It made Dominos pizza the #1 pizza chain in the world for a little while...just because of that irresistible offer. Some people would just get the pizza to see if they could get it for free. I remember it too.
But then I guess it was getting dangerous for the drivers to continue with it, so they stopped that marketing campaign. But the point is, it was an irresistible offer. I've learned a little to incorporate this on my ad copies / sales pitches for my ebooks online. For example, I do a "if you can show this doesn't work, I'll give you 200% of your money back" type deal.
Just some thoughts. Hope that helps. I'm still learning myself, so it's not like I got everything on lock...but I would definitely recommend Mark Joyner's material, Joe Vitale, and also Dan Kennedy...he has some good Internet marketing tips.
Good luck. Hopefully Analytic will pitch in with some tips too
He knows a lot more than me.