I've been given approval by my manager to attend one conference of my
chosing. I don't really want to attend any free or low-cost conferences if
that means being forced to listen to drivel from various vendors while they
wallow in their own percieved greatness. I of course expect some vendor
show-casing, but I would really enjoy interacting with end-users, of which I
am not one. I belong to the channel/VAR crowd, but I work closely with
end-users as a consultant.
At the moment I'm primarily interested in software, in-band virtualization
solutions, management, policy-driven storage administration. Not so much in
big boxes from big companies, I can read the datasheets in my own time.

I have my eye on http://www.storageworldconference.com/ , it seems to fit my
bill and is in a favourable time frame, whilst reasonably priced at $995.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome.
/charles