On the value of attending a conference... Microsoft Conferences for 2007
If you search around you might encounter different opinions on the value of attending a conference.
In this day and age of fast communications and the ubiquitous internet, you might think that you can get all the information in electronic form without going trough the hassle of travel, lodging and local transportation.
But I think you might be missing the element of peer networking which I think has the highest value in terms of sharing experiences, new ways of looking at old problems, and proven shortcuts for daunting problems.
There are some interesting conferences coming up this year:
MIX07
http://www.visitmix.com
MEDC 07
https://www.medc2007.com/public/home.aspx
TECHED 07
http://www.microsoft.com/events/teched2006/default.mspx
PDC 07
http://msdn.microsoft.com/events/pdc/
MEDC is a mobile oriented conference and it is happening at the same time as MIX07 (a web oriented entanglement)
TechEd has something for everyone, and PDC07 shows some highlights of the future in programming in the MS platform
Blog on!