if you invest the 40 dawg to me its sort of crucial that you attend the conferences, I missed one because of scheduling and it was really good conference, they cost extra, 100 to like 400 dollars to go to because you can pay for it broken out.....but I learned a whole lot more than I thought I knew from the panels because you get to hear exactly how the business aspects of the industry work, the top heads of any label you can think of come there and spill their guts on topics from sampling, to placements, to how splits and points work, etc and they also have had lawyers to give you the legal aspects too, I mean where else can you have entertainment lawyers answer your questions for free?, if you search thru some of my older posts over the last few years I have left a lot of what I learned on various subjects on there, it also pays to join a publishing company like BMI or ASCAP they have a wealth of resources on how things work, I would recommend that if you cant really afford to join or attend conferences because there is a lot you can find out in books and learning in addtion, they have local chapters too, which yes I had a hand in the very beginnings of the concept here at the local chapter in DC and was asked to be the president in the very beginning but I was way too busy to be involved with it, its a good way to network if you have absolutely no contacts, ways to get artists or dont know how to get out and start working with artists or you just want to meet other producers.