I disagree about the value of conferences, especially large ones, for actual discussion.
If you go to a large conference (e.g. the International Studies Association annual conference), you are almost guaranteed to be fielding questions from an audience that has not read your paper.
You would get more valuable feedback on your actual work (rather than your academic powerpoint/presentation notes) from a small colloquium than from a large academic conference. The only person is guaranteed to have read your work is the discussant, and if you're lucky the panel chair and other presenters.
Conferences are a good way to network and get a feel for the overall state of the field, but for having actual discussion of a problem or issue area they're pretty ineffectual.
I suppose I should have defined "conferences" more closely, which for me includes workshops, workgroups etc. Right now, my subject isn't the biggest, so people usually know each other, each other's interests and what most other people are currently working on.
So yes, different experiences with conferences here. However, you are obviously right that the bigger the conference, the less constructive the overall discussion. This in a way corresponds to the aforementioned amount of readers targeted. If you aim to reach a broader audience, discussion will be less in-depth, if you specialise and focus on a smaller amount, discussion is more likely to be more relevant.
If you go to a large conference (e.g. the International Studies Association annual conference), you are almost guaranteed to be fielding questions from an audience that has not read your paper.
You would get more valuable feedback on your actual work (rather than your academic powerpoint/presentation notes) from a small colloquium than from a large academic conference. The only person is guaranteed to have read your work is the discussant, and if you're lucky the panel chair and other presenters.
Conferences are a good way to network and get a feel for the overall state of the field, but for having actual discussion of a problem or issue area they're pretty ineffectual.