>>I'm not trying undermine Advisor here by telling you not to go, but... if its hard to get money, do not go to this conference. Typically (and please feel free to correct me if this is wrong), the hotel, the food, the drinks, are all unnecessarily expensive. Perhaps your money would be better spent on a conference like GLGDW? Or possibly an international one.
>
>You don't have to stay at the hotel where the conference is, people can stay anywhere they want. Much of the food is provided by the conference so it is free to attendees, and overall the value of the DevCon conferences are equivilant to the added registration costs. The conference last longer, many more sessions, detailed interaction with many members of the Microsoft Fox team, at least three times as many attendees to network wtih, etc.

Hmmmmm Lets see....

Conference lasts longer ??

Advisor Devcon Sun thru Wed Whilfest Sun thru Wed. Advisor Devcon uses Sunday for addon extra sessions, Keynote at night. Whilfest has Keynote early afternoon and regular sessions Sun afternoon. Advisor Devcon runs till 6pm on Wednesday.. you probably have to stay over. Whilfest done early Wed afternoon I'm on my plane at 4pm and home for a late dinner with family.

Score ?? Whilfest 1 Advisor Devcon 0

Many More Sessions ???

I counted 37 to choose from at Advisor Devcon Whilfest had 39 last year
Advisor Devcon has 14?? chances at those sessions, Whilfest schedules 18 opportunities.

Score ?? Whilfest 2 Advisor Devcon 0

Value ???

Advisor Devcon $1100 plus expensive hotel. Whilfest $400 and Hilton at $100/night.

Score ??? Whilfest 3 Advisor Devcon 0

More people?? Perhaps Advisor Devcon gets this but only because they inherited the 'THIS IS THE ONE' from Microsoft. Ditto on the MS staff attendance... they seem to favor the Advisor Devcon.

Take a look at the speaker lists (same folks including you). Consider the above issues and you still think the value is equal??

Now I understand why we need to sell more VFP to pay for VFP marketing.

Ken