Attending conferences is something to always look forward too at the Championship (my favorites being Karthik's on strategy, electrical, leadership, and the Chairman's ones)! It's even more fun to host one of your own
Myself, and another student hosted one in 2010 on Press Releases and interacting with News Media.
Glad to hear that they're free now.
I remember there being a lot of pressure on teams to make students absolutely try to attend conferences to get their money's worth in registration fees.
Hopefully this alleviates some!