for corporate conferences.  This month I’m attending two client offsites, and our own internal company meeting, which is held in Atlanta every January.  These events are often perceived as expensive, time consuming, and perhaps even disposable.  However, I’ve found that the people who come ready to participate and drive value out of it are successful in doing so, and they walk away with connections they could not have gotten in any other forum. No matter how technologically adept we become, there is something valuable about putting a critical mass of humanity into a confined space for a few days that just can’t be replicated.