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.