I posted some thoughts over on MP after the FTU-DC earlier in the year.

Like Seth said, if you don't want to go then don't.

I also attended one of the Chicago Seminars a couple of years ago.

For me neither one really had all that much info I didn't learn online somewhere already. I also think that beyond your learning style, your personality will have a lot to do with whether you get much out of it. If you like meeting a lot of new people you would probably enjoy it. If you are very introverted and don't talk to strangers much then you will get a lot less out of it.

The only reason I went to the event in DC is that I live less than 10 miles away so it was easy to go to. And at that event the sessionsI enjoyed the most were Stefan's talk about the off the beaten track places he goes and Chris Gillebeau's talk about visiting every country.

But there certainly was a bit of cliquishness to the whole thing. There is the core group in-crowd that know each other well and go to a lot of these events. And then there are all of the newbies. And I think it also helps if you enjoy listening to Randy go on and on (which I don't).

I think it's worth going to one of these events once though to check it out if you're in the neighborhood to see for yourself if you get anything much out of it.