So you’ve decided to attend a conference. You put aside funds, saved up days off, and ordered a fresh pack of business cards. You’re ready to book your trip, but first you must face one of the most vexing questions for an aspiring screenwriting conference attendee: Which one?

We can’t tell you which conference is right for you but we can help you narrow the field by breaking down the difference between two common types: Large megaconferences and intimate, “Let’s go around the brunch table and introduce ourselves” types. Below are five questions to help you make a decision.

(For this discussion, we’re going to focus on screenwriting-specific conferences. Whether you should consider attending a general writing conference or a film festival are questions for another article.)

How specific are your questions?

Are you new to the world of screenwriting? Still looking to find your voice? If so, large conferences will likely offer more bang for your buck (and your time). Conferences like the Austin Film Festival offer dozens of classes to satisfy a variety of interests. Thinking about switching to comedy? Taking up playwriting or podcasting? Still unclear on how to craft dialogue as well as you design plotlines? No matter how wide-ranging your questions, odds are the panels and lectures offered at a large-scale conference like the Austin Film Festival will have something that speaks to your needs.

If you’re not relatively new to screenwriting, odds are your questions will be far more specific (for example, “Are three high-placing competition placements enough to query with?” Or, “What are the advantages to narrowing my personal logline to emphasize my sci-fi background?”) and specific questions require specific answers, which take time. 

While large-scale conferences often brag about the industry pros you can speak with, bear in mind the hundreds of other writers angling for the same personal attention and the difficulty of finding the one person you need to speak to in a jam-packed crowd (assuming they even have time in their hectic schedules to address your case in detail). 

This is where smaller screenwriting conferences, like the one run by the CineStory Foundation, come in handy. In these intimate environments, you often get far more one-on-one time with the industry professionals in attendance. Whether it’s having both your first question and your follow-up answered in a panel on market trends or chatting with a manager over lunch, intimate conferences offer opportunities for personalized discussions, which can be thin on the ground in large-scale events.

How are you with crowds? 

Are you the sort of outgoing writer who leaves a 50-person meetup with at least 60 cards? Does the sight of a gathering crowded so deep with writers it takes five minutes just to get to the bar lift your heart with joy? If so, you probably have the physical and social stamina needed to make the most of three days spent in the kind of conference that has seating for hundreds and still winds up with lines of standees in the back.  

But let’s be honest: Writers are famously introverted. For some screenwriters, crowds leech energy and yelling to be heard in a crowded bar doesn’t even make for a good Friday night, much less a productive networking experience. Small conferences can be a great alternative to the cattle-call experience often found at large events. Remember that the chance to form 20 strong bonds rather than 80 weak ones is not a lesser experience. As Michele Jennae, author of The Connectworker, puts it, “Networking is not about just connecting people. It's about connecting people with people, people with ideas, and people with opportunities.” If you don’t think you can nurture the connections necessary to do this in a noisy crowd, intimate conferences may be just the place for you.

What can you afford to spend? 

Make no mistake, conferences are expensive and if your most pressing concern is financial, this is one place where large conferences tend to be the best fit. Because they often take place in big cities, there are usually a variety of ways to answer questions like, “Where will I sleep?” Between cheap hostels or shared Airbnb lodgings and meals consisting of protein bars and burgers from the nearest Wendy’s, prices for incidentals at large-scale conferences can often be made to fit a variety of budgets. 

Intimate conferences, on the other hand, often offer more one-on-one time with industry professionals precisely because everyone is limited to the same lodgings or other small environment. And with fewer attendees to cover the costs, the price of admission often increases. Thankfully, there can be a financial upside to these events and it’s that other than travel, many of these high admission prices reflect all-in totals that cover food and sometimes even lodging. If you have to fly out of town to go to Austin but can ride with a friend to Idyllwild, it may be worth looking past the sticker shock of a smaller conference to run the numbers.

How’s your pitch game? 

As a skill, pitching is useful – even necessary – enough to have its own specialty conferences. But as a task, it’s so onerous that many writers rank it up there with death and taxes as things you can’t avoid (but really wish you could). While the topic of specialty pitch festivals is one for another day, even more generalized conferences are probably going to devote some time to hearing and honing your pitch. 

Larger conferences can help you face the demon of pitching in front of large crowds of people. If you wonder how you’ll ever get over “pitch itch” (the desire to hop around nervously and fiddle with your tiny water bottle), this sort of baptism by fire can serve as valuable exposure therapy. After facing a crowd of 60, a room of six may seem far less formidable.

However, not everyone gets a chance to pitch at large conferences. Often, the moderators will choose a few writers to serve as examples and everyone else has to draw conclusions from there. If you’re looking for specific feedback on your pitch, a small conference is likely the way to go. Some even go so far as to insist everyone pitch at least once — a bonus for writers worried they’ll back out at the last minute.

Know where your friends are going? Great! Go somewhere else.

While the lure of going with friends may be intense, choosing the conference that best suits your needs and skills can pay even greater dividends. More importantly, if you’ve already developed the kind of writer friendships that result in note-swapping sessions over $4 menu items at Denny’s, this can be an invaluable way to widen your collective net. 

Almost every dedicated screenwriting conference with a quality reputation will probably offer experiences that can help you up your writing game. With these questions in mind, we hope you’re already feeling more prepared to pack your bags and post a ‘gram of you and your new writer buddies holding up those super sweet name badges!

Happy travels!