Democratic and Republican Conventions

As anyone noticed that the Democratic and Republic conventions are a complete waste of time? I have been watching some of the speeches, and although some of them are interesting, couldn't their time be better spent? Imagine if every Democrat and Republican that attended the convention instead sat down together and had two weeks on conferences to actually solve problems. What does a week of speeches that are all talk really do for either party? And why does everyone make such a big deal about it. They could at least have some debates or something. Just seems like a bunch of hoopla to me. Oh and here is a funny video.