A let down at the end

I'm not sure if anyyone else feels this way but I've found, after attending many professional conferences, that the last day is usually made up of sessions that I just don't feel much connection to. Do organizers know that many attendees leave early or aren't as engaged on the final day? Do presenters know the audience would rather be at the bar or getting ready for their flight home (or at the pool is you're in sunny Orlando like me!)than attending sessions through the afternoon on the last day?

For whatever reason I didn't feel that spark today like I did the previous days, and I didn't find any sessions that spoke out to me. While I'm so happy that I'm going home with tangible plans for enhancing my work output I wish I'd have been able to carry that through the fourth day. Maybe that's the issue right there... ASTD made the decision, who knows how long ago, to spread their conference out over 4 days - with huge blocks of time throughout each day without any learning sessions going on. Every other conference I've been to has had at least 4 sessions per day. Perhaps the feedback they got was that 4 sessions was overload and their solution was to space out the learning by adding an additional day. Well, now that this experiment has run its course for a few years (I had the same reaction after lat year's conference) I'd highly recommend cutting out one day, getting rid of hours and hours of wasted time each day, and keep us charged by offering heavy hitting sessions through the end of the conference. We pay too much, and invest too much time, for there not to be critical learning offered all the way through to the end.