What workshops / user groups / conventions do you attend?

Question

I haven't been to enough of these "live" events to really determine which, if any, are worth the time / money. Which ones do you attend and why?

Answer 1

I used to belong to my local Linux User Group which I co-founded but I treated it more as a social event than anything else but obviously a social event full of geeks is still a great way to get a great debate going :)

Conventions and the like I've not got much out of other than being pestered by businesses who can offer me nothing that is apart from a bunch of Linux and Hacker ones where I've met loads of people who I consider friends offline, again great for the social aspect but pretty worthless to me in other respects.

That's not to say I never got any business out of attending various events it's just that treating them as social occasions meant any business that did come my way was a bonus so I never left an event feeling like it was a waste of time.

Answer 2

For conventions, if you're still in university, and can make it to Montreal, Canada, the Canadian Undergraduate Software Engineering Conference (CUSEC) has been extremely enjoyable. See the 2009 site for the next event, and for a take on what previous years have been like, take a look at the 2008 speakers (note: it included Jeff Atwood).

I attend CUSEC primarily because our software engineering society on campus makes a point of organizing a trip to it, but also because of the speakers that present there, and the career fair.

Answer 3

I liked these threads elsewhere on Stack Overflow:

Best technical learning conference for developers?

and

Where can I find a list of upcoming software development conferences?

Answer 4

Guys, I am in the process of building a workshop, and would appreciate some feedback on what you guys are looking for.

See thread:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1562029/help-with-starting-development-programming-workshop-feedback-needed

Thanks.