Thank you so much for this post, BPN, and for the link! I am a rank beginner with GIS, and I am actively scouting places from which to soak up more info.
I am hoping to take an ESRI class soon, and as soon as I've got some basic skills, I will actively seek out a user conference!
If you haven't checked out this program, you should.
http://www.ecai.org/ A lot of groups are collaborating using google maps, which has not so steep a learning curve as ESRI.