Michael, I Googled your conference and with all due respect, I did not see anything in the schedule that jumped out at me as fresh or new. It might be worth it to meet some new people, but the schedule only lists a small group of speakers (though I understand it has to start somewhere). As a grad student in psychology studying distributed teams, I interact with people who work in DTs all the time -- hearing somebody talk about their experience on a DT does not add enough value to justify a trip to the conference. The conference is also pitched at the IT crowd, most of whom have either worked on a DT already, know somebody who does, or have a decent understanding of some of the obstacles (vs. the luddite-on-the-street). On paper, the speakers all seem to have IT expertise but you're marketing soft skills for IT professionals. They are by no means mutually exclusive (and this reflects my own bias), but to give an example I'd rather listen to a leadership expert with IT knowledge than an IT expert with some leadership knowledge when the subject is leading DTs. Conversely, I don't want the leadership expert teaching me about SQL.
I am not saying the conference lacks any utility, it just doesn't appear to have enough to get me to show up. I am just one person. I hope this helps and best of luck to you!
Nothing is finished until the paperwork is done.
