I'd like to express I wholeheartly support JUGs
The best quote from today's Expert Panel session at NFJS (No Fluff, Just Stuff java programming conference.) The speaker was refering to Java User Groups, but my fellow co-workers heard that statement a little differently. We were all lamenting the fact that there aren't many to be seen (at least of the female variety) at a programming conference.
I am managing to get my learn on though... Dave Thomas's session on Ruby was surprisingly good. I wasn't surprised to see that Mr. Thomas was a good speaker, but that I found Ruby to be so interesting. It's yet another programming langauage, but something about it just seemed right.
So far all the sessions I've attended have been very good. A top quality conference for sure. Now I need to get to work researching DC area Sushi bars, so we can get to work on blowing our $50/day food budgets.