My friend flew to Chicago for a big barber convention last year. He said the demonstration he saw was literally just a guy trimming a mannequin head slower than YouTube tutorials. The only thing he learned was that convention center coffee costs about as much as a good haircut.
Honestly that convention center coffee price is actually insane. Flying all the way to Chicago just to watch a slow mannequin cut and then pay like twenty bucks for a burnt latte. Your friend basically paid for a haircut and got a terrible drink instead. Sounds like the whole trip was a total scam compared to just watching a video at home. Makes you wonder why anyone even goes to those things if that's the best they can show. Tbh I'd be more mad about the coffee than the boring demo, at least the demo was free to watch.
Ugh, you just unlocked my memory of paying NINE dollars for lukewarm dishwater at a tech conference. @derekm16 is totally right, the pricing feels like its own separate scam. I started sneaking hotel lobby coffee into my bag just to survive.