Going to conferences: all the research team members together or everyone alone? I have been discussing with friends and colleagues about the strategy to use to decide, in a research group, who has to go to a conference and with who. 
The issue is: if someone in the research group submitted a scientific paper to a conference, and it was accepted, should he/she go all alone to the conference, or with other group members?

Basically, I found two different way of thoughts:

1) since money is always lacking, and it is important to broaden the scientific discoveries and to have new professional relationships, only the main author of the paper should go to the conference, all alone. If everyone goes to a different conference, the team works will better scatter, and they will get more visibility.

2) since to work as a group, it is important to think as a group and, above all, to team up (if there is enough money), all the paper authors or all the research group should go to the conference. This way the group will team up and personal relationships between the research group members will strengthen.

What do you think?
Which school of thoughts do you stand for?
If I 


had the time, and 
had the money,


I would go to every conference directly related to my field that I could.  They are a fantastic way to find out where the tip of the spear is in your field, to network and meet new people, and to see parts of the world you might not be able to see otherwise.  Additionally, many conferences have workshops, expos, and special speakers that all add to one's professional development.

Why do I bring all that up?  Most, if not all of the time, it is professionally advantageous for everyone involved with a paper to attend conferences.  Practically, this rarely happens (at least in my field), simply because funds can't support it, and time commitments make it difficult to travel to various parts of the world.

So, my answer is, send as many people as can practically afford to go, because they will almost certainly gain from the experience.