I attended GOTO last year, and had a great time - nice venue, great speakers, great content - worth the time. I even met a cool developer there (shout out to Bill Brown at ColorfulSoftware.com - great guy). I hoped to make it again, this year, but things just didn't work out, so I'm glad to see the presentations online.
It's interesting to think about the future of conferences. Presenters and patrons want presentations posted online, but that pretty much defeats the purpose of attending. I know... I know... the networking - I'll get there. Lets just assume people quit attending. Revenue drops (ads, vendors, registration fees, etc.) - making it difficult to afford spacious venues and "flash." This, in turn, makes attending even less desirable. Makes me wonder...
As for the networking - it's way less effective than social media, or local meetups. For the time, effort, and energy you invest, I argue it's more useful to stay active on a popular social platform (Twitter, for example), and to maintain a blog. Meetups are more frequent, and attendees are typically there for networking, as well. They're more to-the-point, in my opinion.
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