In CACM, Moshe Vardi opines that conference talks must be improved by force, in order to justify even having a physical conference. I have long shared this opinion, although the CS talks I have heard seem better overall than the ones I recall hearing in mathematics conferences. Lance Fortnow thinks conferences as a means of scoring publication credit must give way to their core function of promoting discussion and dissemination, while journals assume the other function. I definitely agree with this.