Since this is a public forum and I'm building the groundwork for a .NET blog based on positive personal experiences in .NET, I wanted to mention the DevTeach Conference held in Montreal for 3 days in May of 2003. I was fortunate enough to go and even more fortunate to hitch a ride with Julie in her beloved, butt-kicking Isuzu Trooper.
I've been to TechEd in the past and loved it, of course, but the DevTeach Conference was a similarly valuable learning experience for me. I will be mentioning lessons gained from it in future blogs, most certainly. This was the first year for DevTeach and I want it to be a success because I personally got so much out of it. It was a very smart conference in a number of ways: it started on a Saturday and finished on a Tuesday afternoon, so people didn't have to take off more workdays than necessary. It was also packed with great material and focused on development. It was very reasonably priced, particularly when considering the Canadian-US exchange rate. Montreal is also very geographically convenient for a lot of New England developer types.
Please check it out and plan to be there next year.