Last year one of the Fall CS682 events was a field trip to this conference. You can get a free pass for the keynote addresses, and the exhibit floor: Register online at www.sdexpo.com by 9/15/04, 4:00pm for your complimentary Expo Pass. A fee of $50 will be charged after this date.
If you've never been to one of these conferences you may find it an interesting experience. At the expo exhibit floor vendors will try to sell you (your company) their software development tools. To attract you they will give away tote bags and t-shirts and various gadgets, some cool, some useless, some silly. The exhibit floor is open Tuesday evening September 21 (after our class) and all day Wednesday.
Plan to hear Kent Beck, author of our Extreme Programming text, who will be speaking Tuesday, September 21, 12:30pm - 1:30pm. That talk ends in time for you to get to class by 2:30. Please go unless your other scheduled work at UMass makes that impossible.
If you can, you should hear Tom DeMarco's talk on risk management, Monday, September 20, 12:30pm - 1:30pm.