1) I sholudn't be free, but it should have a human price
tag
2) Becuase this *is* Microsoft, this is a special case.
I'm not saying this applies to *any* company.
As for TechEd - I can see a real added value here, its
mainly about teaching some stuff. This conference(just
look at scobles post on the subject) is mostly
networking and cool stuff.
I'm also curious to know if you have ever been to a PDC,
Roy?
Ok, so what would the human price tag be? How would you
calculate that?
No, it's not just networking and cool stuff. While that
is certainly a value add to the conference it is not
just that (IMHO, Scoble's response appears to be more of
an informative response to let everyone know it's not
*just* a Microsoft marketing blitz - just my
interpretation though). Read the agenda - it is very
technical and covers a great deal of the concepts in the
"cool stuff".
No. I've never been to the PDC, not does it look like I
will get to attend it anytime soon. The price tag drives
away most companies who are small.
Human price tag? 500$ max.
Sure it's not *just* marketing, but its a confernece of
which its main marketing angle(which I can see) is
longhorn and future products. I'll check out the
schedule more closely though.
Looking more into the agenda, all I can see is sessions
for the future versions of products,longhorn and
whidbey. Yeah, its cool to see how one can develop for
these, but the information there is of no real value to
products being built and deployed today.
Less added value IMHO (not that I wouldn't like to be
there and learn, but I don't think it's worth 2k$).
My last comment on the subject is that I agree that it
would be great if the conference was much cheaper
(although it would cost even more to put on then because
the venue would have to be absolutely gigantic to
accomodate the number of attendees - which would be a
reason not to attend IMHO). I think that the PDC and
some of the other conferences are things that every
developer should get to do at least once in their
career.
I do think that everyone is missing the financial boat
here though - again, the local sales (that's account
managers, evangelist, MCS architects) are a better
investment because they can reach a much larger audience
and in fact can provide many of these same presentations
on a smaller (think user group) scale for a fraction of
the cost.
I think Alex hit on an excellent point. If you lower the
price and get three times as many attendees you need a
venue three times as big, three times as many demo
booths, three times as much food and swag. The cost goes
up quite a bit, with economies of scale does it balance
out? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. For $500 bucks I
may consider going but even then its a tough call
because I, despite my desire to be, can't be an early
adopter of everything. I'm also an independent
contractor, so I have little enough time as it is
staying on top of the current and next 6 months
technologies let alone something two years down the
line. The PDC isn't for me, I'll catch the cool stuff on
blogs and power point presentations. To be perfectly
honest I'd feel like I was in a geek's Disney Land but
really I'd probably just be taking up space.
No. What I want to see is the price dropped to 500$ but
the amount of people staying the same. Yeah, I think
Microsoft can afford it. They are doing it no less for
themselves as they are for us. Well, again, its all
about making developers want to use the technology at
the end of the day. How much is that worth to Microsoft?
How do you calculate money loss on something as
intangible as this? It only happens once a year, so make
it big and loud as possible, and let people pay low
prices to get in. Microsoft will only benefit from this.
Let's see. 5,000 people , each paying 2000$ - that
amounts to 10,000,000$. How crazy is that? Now, if
everyone pays only 500$, MS only racks in 2,500,000$.
You think that will *just* cover the conference? and
what if it isn't? We are still dealing with the biggest
richest company in the world.
Interesting opinions Roy. Unfortunately, how do you
decide which 5000 developers are the right ones? We
chose the capitalistic system instead of just inviting
our friends. That way you vote with your dollars.
Make no mistake about it, the PDC is highly technical.
If you're just learning to program, it will be over your
head.
You don't. The first 5000 win. It's that simple and
that's how it usually works.
Once its full, no one else can join.
Plus, It's not like your friends don't have 2k$ to pay
up. Usually, they'll be the first to pay to get in.
Having a lower price tag won't change that.
I wonder how MS consider also the media too. It's good
value to have a press pass those days, to attend any
kind of conferences ! It's like be a VIP.