Brendan Tompkins [MVP]

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Tech Ed on $200 A Day - Is It Possible?

Being self-employed definitely has it benefits, but one of the drawbacks is you really don't get to go on those all-expense-paid vacations we call conferences... You know, where you can win lots of stuff, eat lots of free food, go to a theme park, gamble, see a band... all that stuff you do when the rest of your office thinks you're hard at work learning stuff.

Of course, I'm only half-kidding about it being a total vacation. Going to an event like Tech Ed will charge up your dev juices for long time after you get back to work. It's a great experience for any coder.

Now, I'm dying to go to a conference, but honestly, I don't see myself forking out the thousands I think it'd end up ultimately costing me to go to one. Conference ticket + airfare + hotel, + lost billable hours for a week = a lot of $$$! There are some free events, like Code Camps, and the MSDN events, these are great things, gifts from above you may even say, but nothing beats a good old technology conference (vacation).

My goal is for the next year is to go to Tech Ed in Orlando, and do it on a budget. What I really need is a “Rough Guide” to tech conferences. You know, like Conferences on $50 a Day or something like that. Okay, well, we're not students here (most of us anyhow), so let's pick some realistic price. How about Tech Ed on $200 a Day? Think it's possible? Well, I'm going to try it. I'm going to give myself a budget of $1000. If I can do it, I promise to blog about the process as I do it. I have some ideas for recouping some of the various costs here and there, but one of the biggest hurdles I'm going to have to overcome is the attendance fee.

There's got to be a way to get in on the cheap. Perhaps I could dress all in denim and sneak onto the pavilion floor? Maybe I could get a job on the sly with foodservice and work the lunches? I wonder if I link to Scoble, if he'll get me a free ticket? There has to be a way.

-B

Published Dec 28 2004, 12:03 PM by Brendan Tompkins

Comments

Dave said:

I feel your pain. TechEd and PDC are the two I want to attend (PDC the most). These can be expensive and now that I'm independent, I have to make that hard choice to fork out the money or not. Although, there is one sure way of attending for free: be a presenter. I submitted an abstract to present at TechEd and with any luck, it will be accepted. You could always try that :-)

# December 28, 2004 7:48 AM

Brendan Tompkins said:

Dave,

Yes... I agree, this is one way to get in the doors for free. I've actually given talks at some conferences, and had to pay to get in too!

Do you know what you get as a Tech Ed Preseneter? This may be a good option for some.

I get way too nervous to actually enjoy myself if I have to present, so I generally don't do it anymore.

-Brendan

# December 28, 2004 7:54 AM

Steve Hall said:

I feel your pain too, since I almost always pay my own way. (Most companies in Silicon Valley where I am are loath to paying for anything approximating training or education.) But then again, I firmly believe that to have complete control over one's career a good developer should go to every PDC, buy several dozen books a year, and personally pay for their own MSDN Universal for home use. (Yeah, it gets expensive, but I view it as a serious career investment; much like good MDs routinely taking continuing education throughout their careers.)

One $$$-saving tip for a conference being held at the Orlando Convention Center is to stay at a cheaper hotel further north on "I. Drive" (International Drive). I did this for the PDC a few years ago, and cut my hotel bill in half ($60/night instead of $130-180/night for the hotels within walking distance). I even put up without a rental car and just walked to northern-most hotel (about 2/3 mile south of the hotel in which I was staying) for a shuttle bus ride of the remaining mile or so to the convention center. These cheaper hotels are certainly NOT going to be on the "conference hotels" list, so you need to place your own reservation. Additionally, I got my airfare 6 months ahead of time and got a ticket from San Jose, CA to Orlando for only $150. (Again, NOT one of the "preferred airlines" of the convention planners...)

The one bad thing about staying 2 miles north of the convention center is that the visitors bureau provides a cutsie little tourist bus (made up to look like a cable car) that goes up and down along I. Drive, and its cheap at only $1 each way. But, each time I tried to take that, it was always overcrowded by tourista. That's why I resorted to walking to the nearest "conference hotel" and got on the official shuttle bus.

An additional advantage of staying further north on I. Drive is that are many good restaurants and stores within walking distance. The closer to the convention center, the fewer restaurants or stores outside of hotels there are...

My airfare, hotel, and extra meals (I came a day early for the pre-conference tutorials and left a day late) came to under $1000.

Of course, I also registered for the conference far enough in advance to get the early-bird discount. (And I was lucky that year and they rewarded 3-timers with an additional discount...)

Now if Tech Ed is giong to be held inside the DisneyWorld Resort (at the Dolphin or Swan hotels), then you pretty much HAVE to rent a car if you're not going to stay at the Dolphin or Swan (which have gotten expensive), since its impossible to walk from any of the hotels outside the resort to inside the resort.

You should probably call someone at Microsoft to determine if it's being held at the convention center (probably) or inside the Disney resort (unlikely since the hotels can't hold a Tech Ed size crowd). That way you can better figure out hotel logistics.

Basically, figure a minimum budget of $2700 ($1700 for the conference pass and $1000 for travel expenses). The conference pass fee is tough: there's no way around it unless you've ALREADY published several books at MS Press, APress, Addison-Wesley, etc. and are "on the conference speaking circuit".

Good luck at your alchemy!

# December 28, 2004 4:37 PM

Brendan Tompkins said:

Steve..

Great ideas! Thanks for the reply!

# December 29, 2004 2:03 AM

Grant said:

Brendan -- we should talk about this offline. I may know of an opportunity worth exploring.

# December 29, 2004 5:13 AM

Jason Haley said:

I think the amount of $$ in loss of billable hours will be your biggest challenge to offset...but that is just a guess. Even if you get free airfare, free hotel, free ticket in - or complete free ride as they say, you will probably still be in the red ($1000+) just due to not being able to bill that week...

Free ride (or close) + being paid to be there... that is the ultimate!

# January 2, 2005 3:15 AM

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About Brendan Tompkins

Brendan has been programming with .NET since the first public beta and is owner and operator of Port Technology Services, a consultancy company providing .NET application development services to the Maritime industry. In July, 2007, he was awarded the Microsoft MVP award for ASP.NET. He's also a proud co-founder of failed .COM startup Intrinsigo, and has had a hand in the failure of numerous other businesses. He currently runs CodeBetter.Com and Devlicio.us, and lives in Norfolk, Virgina with his wife Tiara and son Ian.