We absolutely do have those conferences! I've been to dozens.
Lots of idealists and evangelicals in the woodworking world as well, probably more so than any other world I've been in. Makes technology look fairly tame.
A conference about hammers is closer to a conference on arrays. But a conference on carpentry is closer to a conference on novel algorithms and memory structures.
There are many which are less modernly advertised (usually paper/newsgroup/email) that will draw 100+ people easily.
Including planned events with participants in the dozens, Id say you could count at least 100 a year. I'd consider that since that's the population of smaller tech conferences.
Something like 'The 393rd International Conference on Hammers'? With people presenting about the latest developments in hammers and how they're using hammers in new ways? You've been to dozens of those?
The OP said saws and hammers, and there are conferences on hand tools which largely focus on saws, hammers and hand planes.
If we want to be literal then I don't know of anything on _just_ saws and hammers, but in the quite adjacent space (one or two hand carpentry tools also a focus) - yes.
Well yeah we do have general conferences on programming languages. But the point is we don't have a specific conference on C, like you wouldn't have a specific conference on a simple hammer.
But that's the insight people are bringing up in this thread - nobody specialises in C.
Lots of people learn and use C as an every day tool. I'm a Java and Ruby programmer - but I have to work with C as an ABI and an extension language. Python programmers have to work with C as an extension language. There are DB developers who use C.
I don't know anyone who describes themselves as a 'C programmer' like you would 'Ruby programmer'.
But tech also has conferences on specific languages. Seems like a JS, C#, C++, Java, python, etc. conference could be analogous to hand tools for carpentry.
Lots of idealists and evangelicals in the woodworking world as well, probably more so than any other world I've been in. Makes technology look fairly tame.