Attending meetups and conferences – does it help with sales?

I’ve attended a few conferences and meetups over the past two years – always for a different purpose. Sometimes it was just 1. to socialise 😅, other times 2. to interview guests, 3. find PR or 4. sell products. I have to say that the last item on this list was the least fulfilling – we recruited a few trial users, but there were minimal paying customers. How do you approach similar events? What positive results have you seen from it? [If you have any recommendations for meetups or conferences where people are more open to buying a product, I’d be grateful if you could share them.]