but I always felt that the attendees were there strictly because they were "into" this stuff more than me. Now I find out that they probably wouldn't go if it cost them personally. We're not so different after all... <g>

Maybe you and Craig are not that different <s>. However, I paid my own way to several conferences even when I was a wage slave working for a wholly owned subsidiary of BF Goodrich. As a matter of fact, I paid my own way to the German DevCon in Frankfurt in 1998 where I have the distinction of being the first American to go to that conference as an attendee ( and not a speaker).