The annual AGU meeting is the biggest geoscience conference of the year, featuring more than 22,000 scientists from all over the world, and USGS has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to send roughly 450 researchers for the past several years. Attendees say the conference gives them an opportunity to share their research, meet with far-flung collaborators, find out about funding opportunities and keep up to date with the most advanced science and technologies in their fields.