I'm at the Borland Conference, in San Francisco (a city I really like a lot). The trip was long but smooth (also thanks to Jeroen and his hospitality). Yesterday I met some Italian friends who live here, but that's another story.
The conference this year is going to be different (and I can do some comparisons because this is my 13th one, I think). It is certainly smaller, it is in a hotel, but walking aroud it will prove exhausting anyway (the conference rooms are quite far away from the food area and keynote sessions room). And with a lively town out of the windows the attraction to go out is higher than in San Jose or other locations).
Anyway, today and tomorrow there are only pre-conference tutorials. I was in Ray Konopka's one on components development with Delphi, this morning. Very interesting, even if not particularly new. Tomorrow I'll go for a SOA talk and Danny Thorpe's presentation on debugging. I don't think it is really worth reporting about these technical sessions, not specifically related with Delphi 2006.
On the other side, meeting with people, the conference has already proved itself worth. I've already had a chance to speak, even if briefly, with David I, Charlie Calvert, John Kaster, Ray Konopka, Cary Jensen, Lino Tadros, Nick Hodges (who is blogging), Robert Love (another conference blogger), Allen Bauer, Anders Ohlsson, and many many other developers I know (and few others who know me because of my books, even if I don't know them). This is what I like best of this conference, and something the Internet won't be able to match for some time: meeting face to face with the people which are part of the Delphi community.
I'll keep you posted on the conference... (BTW, this year I won't probably post pictures "live" like I did in the past, because my camera-to-computer cable is still Italy).