I started thinking about putting a plan together for attending conferences.  I started doing some research about the different conferences that were geared towards the Microsoft Technology stack, or that were of interest to me.

As the information I gathered started to grow, I decided it might warrant a blog post.  Some of the events noted have already passed, as the collection of the information has been a bit of work in progress during spots of free time.

 

Conference Name

Cost Audience Description Duration When Cost per Day Web Location
TechDays $349CDN early-bird, $700CDN Developers Various sessions grouped by 5 tracks, including a local flavours track that highlights local speakers from each major city. 2 days Sept - Dec 2010
(Oct 27-28 Toronto)
$175 EB, $350 www.techdays.ca 8 Canadian cities
WPC Worldwide Partner Conference $1,795USD Business Types Focuses on delivering the MS roadmap for the upcoming year to MS Partners. 5 days July 11-15, 2010 $359 http://digitalwpc.com/ Washington, D.C.
PDC $1,000USD Developers / Architects Renouned for its size, with past events held in Los Angeles, this year scales things back with a shorter duration and a smaller, more intimate venue. Seats are reported to be limited. 2 Days Oct 28 - 29, 2010 $500 www.microsoftpdc.com Redmond, WA
MIX n/a Web Developers / Designers Sessions focus on web development and design, together with the MS technologies that support the development of same. 3 Days Apr 12-14, 2011 n/a http://live.visitmix.com/ Las Vegas, NV
TechEd $1,895US early-bird, $2,195 IT Pros and Developers Technical education on MS technology, tools, platforms and services 4 Days May 16-19, 2011 $474 EB, $549 http://northamerica.msteched.com/default.aspx Atlanta, GA
ALM Summit
(Application Lifecycle Management)
$1095US early-bird, $1495US ALM practitioners, managers Focus is on the application lifecycle and the management of same.  Sessions explore best practices of the application lifecycle for building software. 3 Days Nov 16-18, 2010 $365 EB, $498 http://alm-summit.com/home.aspx Redmond, WA
UX Week $2,295 early-bird, $2,495US Designers Premier conference for User eXperience types. 4 Days Aug 24-27, 2010 $574 EB, $624 http://www.uxweek.com/ San Fransisco, CA
Udi Dahan - Advanced Distributed Systems $1,800CDN Architects Advanced distributed systems architecture techniques.  Excellent course. 5 Days Aug 9-13, 2010 $360 http://www.eventbee.com/view/udidahan-toronto Toronto, ON
Agile $1,999US Developers / Architects Tracks include Technical, Business and Leadership & Organization focused areas, dealing with how to make software better, through agile methodologies.  5 days Aug 9-13, 2010 $400 http://agile2010.agilealliance.org/index.html Orlando, FL