On recruiting at conferences

I always find it interesting, if a bit sad, that at every conference I attend, every talk has an obligatory "we're hiring" slide.  It's always delivered with such a lackluster, almost apologetic tone, that it probably only serves to turn people off of the option, honestly.  It feels like whoever is presenting was forced to include it by an overeager recruiting department.  The same thing goes for trying to recruit by having a booth or by networking at the conferences.  A girl came up to the table I was having lunch at recently, and very bluntly said she was looking for people to come work for her company.  My response was "so is everyone else".  The fact of the matter is that people who come to conferences are sent there by their employer, which means that a) they're employed and b) their employer thinks highly enough of them to pay a lot of money to send them to a conference.  It's just not a receptive audience.  The best thing you can expect out of conferences is to get your name out there so when people are looking, they're aware of you, and all the awesome stuff you're doing, and how happy all your employees seem, and the fact that you didn't force your presenter to post a "we're hiring" slide in their talk. You're better off investing that effort and money in getting involved in the community by hosting local user groups, contributing back to open source projects, and building a good, developer-friendly reputation.