Advantages of the Webcasts over attending in-person
There are actually several advantages of watching the Webcasts as opposed to attending a session in-person. Here they are:

• You're able to browse through all the presentation slides and relevant links while you're watching the presentation. It's a great way to decide whether or not viewing the session will benefit you or not. There's no stumbling over people on your way out, either; just click on something new.

• You can take more extensive and detailed notes, since you're sitting at your computer rather than in an uncomfortable convention room chair. You can even just print out the presentation and takes notes directly on it, if you wish.

• You can put what you're learning into immediate practice in the applications you're currently working on. This is perhaps one of the coolest features.

Justifying the cost
Webcasts are available in 30, 60, and 90-day subscriptions at a cost of $300, $400, and $450 respectively. I have personally chosen the 90-day subscription and had no regrets putting down $450 for the privilege. I knew that I'd get back every penny and then some in terms of my increased worth. A few people I told about the Webcasts did balk at the high cost, though.

For those of you who are still not convinced that it's worth the cost, let me take you through part of the process I went through to justify the expenditure. First of all, the full conference fee is $1,395. Add to that the cost of the hotel ($189 plus tax, per night, for a room at the Marriott), plane fare and other incidentals, and you're easily spending $2,500 to $3,000 to attend the conference. And you're not even able to see it all.

For $450, on the other hand, you get 90 days to learn all you can. It's Lotus' intellectual equivalent of the buffet dinner. Divide $450 by 90, and you're only talking about $5 a day to feed your mind. I don't mean for this to sound like one of those late-night, guilt-inducing commercials about third-world children, but for just $5 a day, you can sponsor a Lotus professional (namely, yourself) and help keep her up-to-date on the latest tools and techniques. Without your help, she might end up sleeping in a dumpster in Redmond. A CLP is a terrible thing to waste.

Being able to view the content from the comfort of your own home is great as well. For me, one of the biggest things that changed my attitude about the Webcasts is the fact that I now have DSL at home and can view the Webcasts at the highest bandwidth possible (200K) from the comfort of my own home office. I've even begun some mornings by watching a Webcast at home first thing after I wake up, so I can show up at work prepared to use what I've just learned.

But wait, there's more! I'll admit that I did waver just a little when subscribing to the Webcasts. What finally convinced me to go ahead and make the leap was the fact that Lotus announced on their Webcast home page that people who subscribed to the Lotus DevCon Webcasts would also have access to the Lotusphere 2000 Webcasts from Orlando as well. This made my decision a no-brainer. That's an even better deal than throwing in a free Ginsu knife.