Prompted by David I letter to past conference attendes and by Nick's post in his blog, I've decided to write a little about the coming Delphi conference season. Of course, I'll blog my reports from all of this conferences (and possibly publish a few photos as well).
BorCon2005
The beginning of November will see another Borland Conference (or BorCon), even if the name this year was slightly modified to Developer Conference and Borland is not expecting the crowds common a few years back. Still, this is the only relevant Delphi conference in the US and possibly the largest overall. This year at borcon I'll cover VCL.NET development and design patterns in Delphi. If you plan attending (it is in San Francisco November 8-10), feel free to stop by. I might set up a meet-up even in the evening after the conference... but plans are still undecided.
There was a lot of discussion this year regarding the Borland Conference. Being on a tight budget, speakers were not univerally promised all the goodies of the past (conference plus hotel plus travel plus a small payment) but had to find a deal with Borland on an individual base. This is true for the invited featured speakers, including myself and many other Delphi gurus from Borland and from the community (see the agenda preview with the features speakers on this site). Because of the discussion some European spekaers (with higher travel costs) bailed out. This is sad, but I'm sure the conference will be worth attending anyway, with lots of good speakers and the usual R&D team presentations.
After a couple of years of a "marketing-driven" conference, last year borcon got back to a more technical-oriented conference, and it seems this year will be so as well (with managers invited to a different conference and ... out of our way). Being a veteran of this conference, I have to admin it has lost soem of its original flavor, but it is still a very nice gathering. It is the only event that makes me fly 12 hours, every year, since 1991 I believe. I'm probably one of the five non-Borland employees with more Borland conferences on my shoulders, and I'm looking forward for another one!
I'm also looking forward to spend some time in SF, probably the city in the US I like most (and the only one where I lived, even for a few months only).