What conferences do any of you attend? I'm personally interested in both Linux/System Administration and Java conferences, but experiences about any conference are welcome as well.
If you have been to any to any, what was your opinion, and were they worth the money?
Been to JavaOne - it's fabulous - lots of good information - and fairly entertaining. :) Just make sure you have your propaganda filters firmly in place - they do like to spin things in whatever direction Sun happens to be going at the time - though that's common across most conferences (the spin that is).
JAOO in Denmark... a small conference with a lot of prominent speakers (Fowler, Heilsberg, Evans etc.)... good for achitecture (not about new MS Beta products or the like). Both .NET, JAVA, Ruby etc.
Starting in 2 weeks :-)
DevLink! http://www.devlink.net/ It is a small two day developers conference in Middle Tennessee. It has a ton of sessions, good speakers, lots of goodies, and is cheap (< $100). For the price you can't beat it. It is Microsoft centric though.
I've been to WCC 2008, last week. It was a conference not just about developing, but about research in the field. There was a bit for everyone, i've seen a lot of interesting talks. For anyone in research or a broad interest in this field, definately worth the EUR 210.
If you are using the SpringFramework for Java, SpringOne (was The Spring Experience) is a really good one. It's not a cheap one but the speakers is really good.
Java conference: Devoxx (previously known as Javoxx, previously known as JavaPolis) in Antwerp, Belgium each December.
The Embedded Systems Conference has great classes on all areas of development, languages, systems, and management.
OOPSLA is fantastic for programming in any language, and software design and architecture in general. Much of it is at the leading edge of OO theory.
http://www.nofluffjuststuff.com
Best. Java. Conference. Ever.
There are so many things to like about this one:
I attended the first seven JavaOne conferences and it leaned more and more to marketing, and the tech content got weaker and weaker.
Then I went to the Colorado Software Summit. After a few, it really turned me off how biased the speakers were (I'd call them "linux bigots")
The Java Posse has an OpenSpace Conference each year called the Java Posse Roundup. I have never been, but a friend of mine that went said it was great. Maybe next year.
Of course, it goes without saying that JavaOne is by far the premier Java conference. By premier, I mean most hyped, most attendees and biggest show floor. Because there are so many, the quality of talks at JavaOne is highly variable. In my personal experience going to JavaOne, I came back very energized and with lots of new ideas.
If you can't justify a full-blown conference or feel like you'd be in over your head at one, check your area and see if you have any user groups geared towards your technology of interest. It can be hit or miss, but you never know until you look.
The Linux usergroup in my area struggles to get people to show up, but the .NET usergroup I attend has a pretty strong following. We have a speaker every month and the less formal environment means you can ask questions or even have an open discussion of the concepts with the speaker afterwards.
The speakers may not always be of the same caliber that you would get at a real conference, but it can still be a good way to expose yourself to new technologies and ways of approaching your code.
Øredev - one of the largest developer conferences in northern Europe and probably one of the nicest around. The whole idea is based on "Sharing Knowledge" and there is a wide array of tracks such as Java, .NET, Mobile, UX and Agile.
I've been attending the past two years and it's been awesome.
According to Java Specialist Heinz Kabutz, his favorite conference is JavaZone in Oslo.
I have attended a few times, but in my opinion, it is not as good as Devoxx.