Well, I just came back from my first presentation in an international conference (well, my first presentation in any conference!!)!
I am very excited!!!!!! It was fantastic!!! My presentation was fine, people found it very interesting and it raised quite a few questions.
But, the best outcome was the connections! I met wonderful people from all over the world, top scientists in various fields. I even found a PhD opportunity in the US (but I have already started mine in the UK), a research assistantship, several proposals for co-authorship and (something that was quite funny but made my boyfriend really mad) a MAN (a professor from Taiwan told me that he liked me a lot and thought that I could be the perfect woman for his son. He even proposed to cover my travel expenses so that I could go to Taiwan and meet his son!!!! Of course I refused!).
Just to cut a long story short, this conference gave a huge boost to my confidence, as I thought that I (being just a student) didn't know a lot of things and wasn't able to start a decent conversation with academics. I proved myself wrong

That sounds absolutely amazing - well done!! It sounds as if you got the most out of it that you could and have some lasting contacts now, what is your subject?

That's great news. I think a large part of wanting to stay in a particular research field is the people you meet. It's a form of positive reinforcement for your work, it makes you want to do more. One thing that motivates me to stay in my field is the prospect of meeting up with friends i have made at conferences etc.