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>>>Advisor was happy with 750. Attendance at all conferences has been down this year. TechEd was down 3000 and an IBM conference was down 10,000. I also think last year's fiasco in Miami helped drop the attendance.
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>>Hi Craig, what was the fiasco in Miami?
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>Bad hotel, a day and a half of .Net indoctrination, and a poor session topics.

My wife and I were there and we and others were pissed off with the .NET thing being so long and surely some sessions were not as good as Maria and I expected.

The hotel although old was acceptable, my wife and I were not so happy to pay $10 for a Piña Colada at the poolside but to be honest, it was good, really good...

Swimming in the ocean at night in warm waters and then playing in the pool was splendid, additionally we have pictures/videos with Chaim Charon, Rick Strahl, Calvin, Ricardo and others, a very nice dinner with Alex Weider and Alejandro Sosa, another one in a wonderful (and cheaper) Cuban Restaurant featuring the oldest active maitre in Florida and maybe in the US, we got a book dedicated and signed by Tamar, the oportunity so listen to Jim B. singing and met briefly with John Koziol, David Stevenson, Erik Moore, etc...

To make this short, we had a blast, everything depends on what are you looking for, who is with you and how you play in life... I go to conferences to enjoy a short vacation in a different city, to have contact with old friends, to meet people, to learn about actual trends and to gather as much information as I can to digest it in the following months... In that order.

As for reasons for declining attendance to the Advisor conference I think the economic slowdown is the culprit (we wanted to go but this year...but, no $ = no conference) along with all the new conferences offering the same -and maybe superior- content with better deals.

Just my .01 USD and surely I may be wrong.. :)

Agustin.