my 2 cents on this pdc thing
now i'm not going to try to attempt a flame war like this one. i do, on a few points, agree with Phil. Phil, i'm also an MCSD.NET and an MCT. and, well, all i do is train, just like you. granted, i'm in a slightly larger market than you (Phoenix, AZ), so we're not doing bad at all. in fact, we're totally rockin'. That's beside the point, which is, quite frankly, that I, like many others, are too busy doing something a little more, well (IMHO) important than attending a conference about what will be one day.
for me (and i guess you, too), i'm teaching people how to program with what's here right now. All the info I obtain, hear about, read on line, or whatever, goes into my considerations for future projects and architectures. Which leads me to the next point...
I also consult, do freelance work, whatever, in my own time. I love this crap so much I'll sit up late every night coding, then get up early every morning to prepare my courseware and code samples for that particular day's class. Not to mention all the courses that we're writing to satisfy some of our more eager students, for whom MOC is simply not enough. I work on large-scale applications (like this one) that run on the internet. I build applications that help other developers build applications, so that life as we know it continues to prod along in the business marketplace.
The very marketplace that, unlike certain developers, will continue to need my/your attention the week of the PDC. Sure, I'd love to be there to find out all the newest, coolest stuff before everyone else.
But hey - you guys will all be blogging about it that week, so it'll be just like being there. If I know one thing about a developer, its that none of us can keep our mouths shut about cool stuff. Especially when you're one of 2,000 who just learned about it.
So from my point of view, I'm not going to miss anything, aside from actually being there. Personally, I'd prefer to use those days to do what matters more to me (from both an evangelical perspective, out of professional courtesy, and due to the general addiction to my craft) - coding or teaching those who can't how to.
The world doesn't stop for PDC, so I guess that kinda means I can't either. I'm totally, completely cool with that.