tldr: yes and yes ;)
Longer version is that I would distinguish conferences from meetups as they are a bit different.
Conferences being usually-annual, large whole-day or multi-day events; usually cost a bit (from hundreds to a couple of thousand dollars) often with a mix of local and international speakers. These events are valuable for bigger ideas and deeper-dive topics, plus cross-pollination of ideas between nations via the international speakers. They are more of an "occasion" and social events are often very well-attended and people generally make a bigger deal of them. There are good networking opportunities but you may also find with people travelling to the event that you maintain contact only online between yearly events.
Meetups being usually monthly (or at least several times a year), for a couple of hours; usually free or cheap (a few bucks for the beer and pizza kind of thing); with a focus on local speakers and practical knowledge sharing. You are likely to see early iterations of talks that end up at conferences. These events have a more casual tone and successful meetups tend to grow to be communities with a meetup rather than simply events. They are great for discussing what you've been working on, sharing tips and tricks, talking about industry-level issues, plus they tend to be open to recruiting within reasonable boundaries (most will have a specified time during the evening where people can stand up and say they are hiring; but aggressive recruiters are likely to get the Quiet Word to tone it down or leave).
Basically the benefits of these things include:
Networking is not just for recruiting, by the way - particularly if you are on a small team, or a sole-trading contractor, these events often build those contacts you can reach out to when you are really stuck on something technical. Or you might see someone talking about solving a problem you are about to face, or facing right now.