This past Vegas show I left after two days because the layout was so incredibly poor and there was no attempt to move people through the badge process in a timely fashion.
Still I did make a some new contacts in those few days I've consulted with a couple of sponsors here in the U.S. and One sponsor from the U.K. all their programs are/were good they were trying to tweak them even better.
I told myself when I left the last show in January that it was indeed my last show. And it is. As more and more of us experienced webmasters start dropping out of attending who will these sponsors turn to? I don't know that answer. As a businesses owner I do know that want the broadest input possible before arriving at a decision.
I believe the regional gathering will grow to be more effective. And so will the alternative gatherings, someone I know (lol) is planing a gathering in Virgin Islands on the same date as the Vegas show for webmasters who want to network
Sorry about the long post but I can see the hand writing on the wall and if you can't...well you can't.