The customer experience of business conferences

The gauntlet of working your way around a business conference is far from an epic customer experience. But are corporate attendees at these events viewed as customers or are they purely valuable assets to land businesses paying a fee for their stand?  As you dodge your way around the numerous sales pitches hoping to make some useful connections and attend insightful presentations the customer experience is strained as you feel the full force of hard selling. As a customer of the conference is this my desired experience?  Is this a fair reflection on the brand that has organised the event?  To move to a more epic experience the hard selling needs to be tuned down and the recognition that if we make one or two connections at the stands that is enough. More focus on the value of the presentations and the networking would result in a far greater experience for the attendees with better discipline of the stand holders. Lets make the business experience a more epic experience for the customer.