This year I was first time presenter on APEX Connect 2019 in Bonn. First time ever! This was a huge for me. Before this one I did some internal presentations and worked as APEX trainer from time to time, but this was a first one on international conference. The amount of stress was far above my normal limits! :) But. It's all worth it! The venue was great! The organization was great! The people were great! We all know that going to conferences take time and money, but going there will give you more. You can gain some knowledge from presentations. You can talk with others about same problems you had. And ask some valuable questions to Oracle developers who are responsible for things you work with (eg. APEX or SQL Developer). This is huge! Above that there is this nice community where you can feel like one of this big herd of nerds like you ;) You'll feel great as you can finally talk with someone that understands your "IT" talks and will actually response