Smaller, more relaxed feel
Lotus Advisor DevCon has a smaller, more relaxed feel to it than other conferences do. Besides the obvious difference of there being less people (about 350 people at the opening session by my unofficial count), it's easier to approach and talk to people as well. Everyone I talked to at the conference was interesting and engaging, which probably shouldn't be a huge surprise given that they were at a conference in Palm Springs during tough economic times.

Conference materials
When you get to Lotus Advisor DevCon, they give you a huge binder, pictured in Figure B, with slides for almost all the presentations in them.

FIGURE B

Is it me or does the cactus look like I just cut it off in traffic? Click picture for a larger image.

This is invaluable for both following along with the presentations and helping you to choose between two sessions that are scheduled at the same time. It's also extremely useful when you get back to the office and need to review something that you learned at the seminar. I always mean to print out the slides from the sessions I attend at other conferences, but I don't always get around to it. It's nice to have them ready when I need them.

Sample applications
The sample applications from the presentations are included as part of the conference materials, but I want to make sure I emphasize their value. Each of these databases represents many hours of hard work by some of the top Lotus and IBM Developers in the world. Just one of these sample applications alone might be worth the cost of the trip to you. At the very least, they can save you a lot of time when developing similar applications of your own.

Tables
One of the things I absolutely loved about this conference, as well as one other Lotus Advisor DevCon I attended, is that the presentations were given in rooms with conference tables for the attendees. I can't tell you what an enormous difference this makes. It's a vast improvement over the discomfort experienced at most conferences. Don't you just hate sitting on a chair and trying to perch your notebook, laptop, or PDA just right in order to use it?

Having a table in front of you makes a huge difference. I took plenty of notes on my HP Jornada 568 using both my stylus and my keyboard and found it very comfortable. I would have found it difficult to sit through five to six sessions a day without the tables.

I asked a representative from Advisor about this, though, and I was told that having the tables was based on space, so it wasn't a sure thing for future conferences. Let me just put my vote in for including them if at all possible, since it's something that makes a huge difference in terms of comfort and learning. It also differentiates this conference from others.

Relaxing resort environment
The facilities were beautiful and the weather was great during the conference. It was warm without being too warm, provided you weren't out in the heat of the day carrying a lot of stuff around. I would definitely like to see the conference held in Palm Springs again someday, at the same hotel.