Are workshops contributing to our development or just a waste of resources?

I have attended numerous workshops during my professional career, most of them initiated by government agencies. Especially when I was still employed in the education sector and extremely active in the fight against HIV and AIDS, I regularly participated and was often asked to be a resource person in this particular field.

Workshops can be extremely useful and productive. But are most of them just that? In my experience, I'm afraid that many workshops, often derogatively referred to as 'talkshops', constitute a serious waste of time, money and other resources. I have no idea how much money is spent on these gatherings on a yearly basis but it must be quite substantial. After all, there are the travelling expenses, the accommodation expenses, the catering expenses and the tonnes upon tonnes of photocopied materials to be taken home by the participants.