I honestly have no idea what to expect from this conference. I presume it's going to be a fairly small affair, but it does look like they have quite a few sponsors and a couple of good speakers.
In the past I've tried to be one of those good reporters who takes all his conference notes in longhand so as not to pester everyone around him, but laptops have become so ubiquitous nowadays that I'll probably just drag along the laptop and take notes during the seminars.
Oh and don't let me forget to install Bulldozer and Duck Tiles on my laptop. Looks like they're having a "show off your kewl game, kiddies" event, so I might have a chance to show off my little games to a. . .[guffaw]. . .potential publisher. . .BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Eh, who am I kidding? Apart from consoles and DVD-size games that are (currently) impractical to download, shelf-publishing for software is dying, doubly so for casual games. A year ago I would've said that shelf-publishing for casual games would stay alive just to service people who can't grok the pay-n-download model. And by that I mean "old people who want to play Deluxo-Bejeweled will likely buy it on a CD at a discount retailer rather than pay for a download", but I routinely sell downloadable Bulldozer and Duck Tiles games to people over 60 years old, including one fan who's 88 years old. So I don't even believe that shelf-publishing for casual games can serve that market anymore.
I'll make this simpler. Remember in the early heyday of the internet (circa 1995-1997) when bookstore shelves were littered with phonebook-sized books containing lists of great internet sites for you to visit?
Know where those books are now?
They're in the same place that boxed casual game titles will be in ten years.
. . .but I digress. Anyway, check out the seminar list on the site and lemme know if there's something you think I should cover.
Hope you have a good time there!