There is an extremely big difference between conferences and similar such events sponsored by the private sector and meetings sponsored by the government sector.
The private sector pays for their meetings out of their initial profit. This serves as a check on the number of conferences, their duration, and to a lesser degree their location.
The government has no such check on their conferences because the bills for these meetings come from our taxes.
If I was “king for a day” I would let every government agency hold as many meetings as they wanted because, after the first one, every meeting would be held in GP Tents provided by the DOD. Attendees would live in field conditions and they would eat either in field kitchens or MREs. Plus, the conference would be located in either very hot locations (summer) or very cold locations (winter). If it is good enough for the troops serving the Republic why shouldn't it be good enough for their bureaucratic masters?
While I was working overseas, I got called back annually for a Detachment Commanders conference (all civilians). Where possible, we were billeted in government quarters and occasionally government mess was provided. We were also given per diem for hotel and expenses when the government billets weren’t available. These conferences actually had operational purposes. If there was any hi-jinks going on, we paid for it ourselves. As any normal person would be, I was appalled by the GSA conference in Vegas. Our conferences were held in the DC area.