Once you attend, the next step is presenting. I'm presenting first thing on Friday on tinkering in education. Its fun to present and builds an excellent skill set. And don't worry if you don't know anything, it is all about the fun.
Conferences are fun events. The presentations are generally too short to teach anything in depth, but are long enough to peak interest.
SELF and POSSCON (Columbia, SC) are two impressive open source conferences that come out of South Carolina (SELF was in SC the prior three years). I've had the opportunity to attend conferences all over the country and these two are are impressive as any of them, and are an excellent value.
Go to sessions you aren't familiar with and talk to your peers. The speakers (even the renown ones) are just people like the audience.
Once you attend, the next step is presenting. I'm presenting first thing on Friday on tinkering in education. Its fun to present and builds an excellent skill set. And don't worry if you don't know anything, it is all about the fun.